Meanwhile, that night, Shadow teleported himself and unconscious Gwen to the field of flowers. He carefully placed her down on the grass next to the flowers, lying her down. Shadow gaze down at her face for a moment before looking at her ruby necklace. He gently touches it and inspects it.

"Somehow I know that necklace from somewhere... But what?"

Before he could even take closer look, the ruby somehow gave him flashes before his eyes, which caused him to pull away with a yell. He had a sudden headache as he gripped his sides of his head, trying to ease the sudden pain.

"What's... going on?!"

At the same time, Gwen wakes up as she slowly sits up to rub her neck from the hit Shadow gave her. She finds herself sitting in the field of flowers.

"Where am I?"

But as she turned, she saw Shadow standing next her, who's still holding his head from the pain. Gwen immediately jumped up, backing away. And when she tried to get away from him, only to trip and fall down the hill as she roll around.

"Whoa, whoa! Oof!!" she yelped, while rolling.

After managing to get rid of the headache, Shadow saw her falling down the hill and went to help her as he slid down the hill.

https://youtu.be/bYxJoI_PEOU

When Gwen landed from the hill with petals of flowers all around her, she saw Shadow and quickly try to give him a flip back kick only for him to quickly dodge that. Gwen got up and get into her fighting stance.

"First Knuckles, and now you?! What's next? A crazy robot?"

"If you just stop fighting me and let me explain." Shadow stated.

"And why should I after you kidnapped me?"

Before he could even respond, Gwen jumped towards him with her ruby knife in her hand. No choice but to fight back, Shadow blocked her arm. He goes to throw a punch at her when she dodged it and spun herself around to get a far distance from him. She summoned her ruby bladed fan and tossed it towards him, which he dodged that as well as the fan flew away. Getting into her fighting stance, the two had a stare off as the wind blew around them for a dramatic effect. Gwen start using Baguazhang as she swing her arms around with a flow, using wind as if she's airbending. Shadow watches her silently, wondering what she's doing while in trance at her movement. She then stopped and faced him with her palms out in her battle stance. Not bothering questioning it, he jumped towards her with his fists raised and went to strike her down when she blocked his arm and started spinning him around as if she's making him dance. She then released him for him to face her before he tried to swing punches at her when she blocked every hit he tried to make while holding her fighting postures. Shadow tried to trip her by kicking her legs when she backed away from him. He jumped towards her again with his fist out when she ducked while moving away with a graceful slide before coming up behind him and summoned her ruby whip from her necklace. She tried to hit him as she swung her whip around when Shadow backflipped away from every swing she throws at him. Gwen managed to wrap her whip around his wrist and was about to throw him off when Shadow grabbed a hold of her whip and pulled it back towards him, making her fly towards him.

But in slow motion, she quickly spun herself around as she moved past him, looking into his eyes as he stared back at her in amazement. Then she made her whip disappear. The two clashed onto each other's arms, creating a lightning blast before Gwen grabbed his arm and wrapped herself around him from behind and made herself and Shadow spin around as if they're doing a tango as she grabbed his limiter that's attached to his wrist. Shadow was about to spin around and attack her when she ducked under his arm she's holding and twisted his arm behind his back. Gwen then spun herself and Shadow around while holding his arm behind his back. In slow motion, Shadow glances impressively at her and Gwen gives him a small smile as she gazes back at him, having fun with this.

As soon as she stopped spinning, Shadow tried to kick her only for her to lift her leg back. He quickly got out of her grasp and tried to grab her face, only for her to move her face to the side to dodge his hand and then pushed him back by smacking his stomach. Shadow staggered back which gave Gwen the chance to strike him down when he blocked her arm again and twisted her arm while moving around her, which she twisted him back as they spun around until he went behind her while holding her arm and blocked her other arm and grabbed it before she could hit him.

Shadow stared at her for a moment. Gwen stared back and then swiftly moved her hand to get out of his grasp and did the same with her other hand and then managed to give him a flip back kick in the chest, sending him flying. Shadow landed safely by dragging his gloved fingers against the grass as petals flies out from the grassy area into the night sky. He gives her an impressed smirk, which she smirked back. With her glowing red eyes along with her ruby necklace, Gwen fires out Chaos Spears. Shadow dodges every attack she brings as he jumped and backflipped. He then teleports himself in the air and catches the Chaos Spears without a problem, which shocked Gwen. Spinning himself around, he throws her Chaos Spears back at her. She quickly summon her ruby shield to protect herself. When it hit her shield, it created a massive impact as it created a small lightning explosion. This send her flying as her shield died down. Shadow teleported again and caught Gwen before she could fall and dipped her down while gripping her wrists to prevent her from hitting him. The two stare at each other once again for a moment before he spoke.

"You know, it's useless to start a fight when you can't beat me. I'm stronger than you."

"Tch!" Gwen scoffed, blushing a bit at how close they are. "Can't blame me for someone that just kidnapped me and hurt my family."

"You didn't give me a choice."

"So what?"

"Look, I know you're upset with me, but now I need you to trust me." he said, releasing her.

She crossed her arms while glaring at him suspiciously.

"How?"

With a softened look, Shadow saw Gwen to the little blonde girl who gives him a smile before it faded back to reality to show Gwen, who's still suspicious with him. He gently grabbed her hand, removing her crossed arms and slowly put his hand against hers and spread his and her fingers apart. Gwen looked at him, curious and surprised at his sudden gesture, but didn't move her hand away from his. She noticed the look he gave her; the look was as if he found hope in life with a hint of recognition. As they stared for a while, Shadow looked down at Gwen's ruby necklace.

"Where did you get that necklace?"

Seeing that made her look down at her jewelry and slowly removed her hand from his and touched the gem.

"I... actually don't know. I found it when that meteor crashed into Earth where it held the ruby. Then... I felt connected somehow, but that's all I know."

Shadow hummed thoughtfully before nodding.

"I see."

He then looked up to see it's still night time. Shadow looked at his surroundings as they're still in the field full of white flowers with the wind blowing gently against them.

"We should rest till morning arrives."

She had to admit, she does feel a little tired from all the fight they had. Gwen lies down on the grass and turns to her side to get a better side for her to sleep not before mumbling out to Shadow.

"Good night..."

Shadow stares silently and nods to her as she falls asleep. He sits down next to her and looks up at the night sky which is full of stars. Seeing that made him look down sadly and silently lie down, slowly closing his eyes as he listened to the sound of the wind blowing against the flowers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, they're now in the abandoned GUN base as Shadow and Gwen looks around. Gwen was about to ask him where they are until Shadow finds a roller skate on the ground and picks it up. Seeing this reminds him of an old friend. Gwen wonders whose roller skate is that, not noticing her ruby necklace is glowing until she finds herself in the same base she's in only it's 1974.

"What?... Where am I?"

She sees the scientist walking towards her and before she could ask, they walked through her as if she's a ghost. This shocked her a little as she looked around. Then she realized she's... sort of in... a memory.

https://youtu.be/zwv3mnLwW3M

Someone skates past her and Gwen looks down to see... those same roller skates Shadow was looking at. She quickly followed while looking up to find out it's a little blonde girl named Maria Robotnik as she's roller-skating down the hall while holding a box of her stuff with the name "Maria's Stuff" on it. Gwen rolls skates besides her, liking her style and her outfit. She and Gwen comes across a restricted area when a military man stops her.

"Hey! This is a restricted area."

A young man quickly calm the military man down.

"It's okay. She's the professor's granddaughter. He takes her everywhere."he said before turning to Maria. "Welcome to the lab, Maria. I'm Captain Walters."

Gwen was shocked to see it's Commander Walters, only he's more younger.

"Oh, do you know where my room is?" Maria asked.

"Yeah. Down the hall to the right. Make yourself at home, but, uh... let's lose the skates, okay, kiddo?"

"Okay." she nodded before heading into the restricted area.

Gwen eyed Captain Walters for a moment before following after Maria. Maria walks with her rollerskates off and was about to head to her room when she stops by the area that's glowing green. She and Gwen turned to the area and headed inside. Maria finds a comatose Shadow floating inside a containment tank. Gwen was shocked to see him as she realized she's in Shadow's memory. Maria sets down her box and walks toward the tank. 

Curious, she was about to place her hand on the tank when Shadow wakes up and turns to face. She jumps back a little and smiles. Gwen watches with wonder and worry. Maria stares at Shadow, who's glaring at her with a frown, and makes a funny face at him to mimic his serious face. She then gets out a black marker from her bag and draws something on the tank. Shadow watches her curiously with Gwen wondering what could Maria be drawing. When she's done, she made a rabbit drawing over Shadow, making him look like a rabbit. His frown contrasts with the drawing's smile. Gwen giggles at the sight of that, wishing she had a camera to take a pic. Maria giggles at her own drawing on Shadow. Shadow moves away from the glass to look at the drawing before looking at her now calm. Maria then places her hand on the glass. Shadow stares at her for a moment before placing his hand on the glass where her hand is. Gwen felt her heart touched as the two smile at each other. A friendship is born.

A montage commences as "End of the Line" by The Traveling Wilburys plays. First, Maria starts playing music on a record player and dances along as Shadow watches curiously, Gwen stands by and smiles when Maria shows Shadow to dance. Then, as scientists get ready to test on Shadow, Maria pops up near him with an idea. When the scientists turn around, they find a teddy bear in his place. In the hallway, Shadow gets ready to run as Maria holds on with a rope attached to him while wearing roller skates. He starts running, dragging Maria along for the ride. Maria teaching Shadow how to dance by holding his hands. Back to them riding down the hall. Them dancing by waving. Back to the ride, Maria spots some scientists wheeling in food.

"Look out!"

They crash into them, creating a mess all over the floor. Maria and Shadow proceed to make angels in the food pile, causing Gwen to laugh at the site. Under a pillow fort with Maria throwing popcorn at Shadow playfully, who gives her a look to which she gives him an innocent smile. They are watching an old kaiju film, with the kaiju being the Biolizard from Sonic Adventure 2. Text appears, reading "BEWARE THE ALIEN FREAK!!" Shadow sees this and frowns in sadness. Maria and Gwen notices his weary look. Then, Maria steals a keycard from a sleeping scientist and uses it to activate the lift. The lift takes her, Gwen, and Shadow up to the top of the base, where they appear under a night sky. They lay down to watch the stars together. Gwen lay down with them.

"Wow. Look at all those stars." Maria gasped in awe. "They're like diamonds. My grandfather says they can take hundreds of years for the light of a star to reach Earth. And by the time we see it, the star might not even exist anymore. Isn't that crazy?"

"Huh..." Gwen said in awe.

"The light shines even though the star's gone." Shadow said, making Gwen even more in awe at his words.

"Yeah. It does." Maria agreed. "I wonder which one you came from, Shadow."

"I don't know. I don't know anything about my home." Shadow said, looking a little lost at not knowing about his planet.

"This is your home, Shadow. Earth." Maria convinced him.

Shadow gazes at her for a moment and sits up with sadness in his eyes.

"Maria... Do you think I'm... dangerous?"

This made Gwen sit up.

"I... don't think you're dangerous. Not anymore." she said, knowing he can't hear or see her.

"What are you talking about?" Maria asked, sitting up.

"The way the scientists looked at me. I can tell they're afraid. Like I'm the horrible thing from that movie we watched. I don't know what I am." Shadow explained, looking down.

"You're my friend, and you can do or be anything you want. Not because of your powers, but because of who you are in here." Maria pointed to Shadow's heart.

Gwen's eyes widen at those same words Tom said to her and Sonic along with the heart. This made her tear up a bit as she realized Shadow is just like her and her brother.

Shadow smiles softly at Maria.

"I don't know what I'd do without you."

They hold hands together as they watch the stars. They look at each other before facing back the stars. Suddenly, the record player was off and Gwen find herself back to the present day to see Shadow turn off the record player. She stared at him with empathy then she saw a photo of Shadow and Maria and pick it up as Gwen felt bad for them and hold the photo close to her heart.

"I'm sorry, Shadow... about Maria," Gwen said softly.

Shadow says nothing and then walks over to the broken containment tank where he used to be when he first met Maria. He looks sadly at his reflection in the glass and places his hand against the broken glass where Maria used to place it on, closing his eyes. Frowning, Gwen slowly reaches out and places a hand against his shoulder. Shadow opens his eyes and looks at her to see her comforting him. He smiles a bit and places a hand against hers. Just then, he hears someone approaching and he moves Gwen to get her behind him and turns around, sparking his fist in chaos energy. However, he recognizes the figure in surprise.

"Professor?"

"It's good to see you, Shadow. I knew you would come home." Professor greeted. "And I see you've brought a guest of yours."

Gwen looks over Shadow's shoulder in shock to see the figure.

"I can't get her out of her head. The pain. It's too much." Shadow said in sorrow.

"Then that is why we have to punish them." Professor said with a sneer.

Gwen gets a bad feeling about this...