50 years ago in the Space Colony ARK, Maria, who is grasping Shadow's hand, can be seen running through the ARK.

"Shadow! Hurry!" urged Maria, who's panting while excited. "Hurry! You have to see this!"

A door opens and they're engulfed in a bright light. Soon, the light died down to reveal Shadow standing in the main part of the ARK, with Maria standing behind him as he looked up to her.

"What's wrong?" he asked with worry.

"Nothing! Look!"

Maria gestures for Shadow to look at the scenery right in front of them.

"It's... lights?" he questioned.

"It's the aurora borealis!" she told him. "You can only see them from certain latitudes down there,"

She runs up to the window, admiring the scenery below.

"But up here we can see the whole... the whole..."

Just as Maria is about to collapse, out of breath, Shadow, realizing what's wrong, quickly rushes over to her and catches her in his arms.

"Maria!"

Maria opens her eyes and looks at Shadow with a smile, breathless.

"Thank you. I just pushed it a little, that's all."

"The low gravity here only keeps your condition in remission. You should know better than to exert yourself." he scolded.

Shadow carries Maria and gently places her down. Maria and Shadow sit down on the ARK's floor.

"I know, you're right. But when it comes to the beauty of the Earth, I can't help myself. I can't wait for the day when we can finally return."

Shadow appears unhappy as he look at himself.

"I was created here. I don't know if there's a place for me on Earth. Professor Gerald made me the ultimate life-form. I should be the key to all manner of medicines."

Frustrated, Shadow clenches his fists together and bangs them on the ARK's floor.

"To curing you."

Maria runs up to Shadow and gently hugs him. Caressing him, Shadow slowly opens his eyes and looks up at Maria.

"You and Grandfather are doing your best. I'm just as happy to spend time with you here while you both research--"

Suddenly, an explosion is heard. Maria looks in the direction of where the explosion came from, as Shadow stands up in front of Maria to protect her. Emerl emerges from the flames caused by the explosion, soon halting to a stop. The robot looks around at its surroundings. PA System sounded an alarm through the ARK.

"Alert! Alert! Hull breath in the experimental weapons wing! Multiple subjects are free of containment! Lock down all--"

As the robot flies through the ARK, causing more explosions, Maria screams in fear.

"That robot was heading towards Grandfather's lab! Shadow, you have to save him!"

Maria grabs Shadow's hand. As the hedgehog begins to have premonitions of the future G.U.N. raid, he gasps. A door opens up behind Maria and Shadow. Looking down at Maria, Shadow becomes determined to save the professor. He kneels down in front of Maria, gently holding her hand.

"I'll handle this. Just wait here. I'll be back. I promise."

Maria smiles at Shadow. Soon, the hedgehog gets up and speeds off to the professor's lab, as Maria watches. With Shadow approaching the lab, multiple pillars begin to light up.

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

In the lab, Emerl is gripping Professor Gerald by his lab coat. Shadow arrives and charges straight at the robot, as the robot charges straight at Shadow as well, causing Gerald to fall to the floor. They begin to get into an intense fight, which causes the pillars to shatter. They exchange rapid punches and kicks, as well as Spin Attacks. Finally, Shadow delivers a powerful punch to the robot, which causes reality itself around Shadow to shatter like glass. He looks around in shock.

"What? No. This isn't right..."

A bright light emerges from beneath Shadow. He looks down at the sight and notices that G.U.N have arrived to raid the ARK.

"This is the Guardian Units of Nations! Prepare to be boarded!" GUN Soldier warned.

"The soldiers... they storm the ARK... destroy all evidence... But it's too soon! It's happening too quickly!" Shadow voiced.

Suddenly, a rumble is heard and the ARK begins to tilt. As Shadow slides down the floor of the tilting ARK, reality itself shatters underneath Shadow, which causes him to fall into Professor Gerald's prison cell. Shadow comes to a safe landing, and stands up, staring right at the professor. He sits silently at its center, with Shadow beginning to have various premonitions of the GUN Soldiers, as well as Gerald. Shadow holds his head in pain and closes his eyes, until he opens one eye for a moment, and finally opens his eyes fully as he looks back up at the professor.

"Professor! We must--"

Just as Shadow begins to approach the professor, he ends up moving further back into the prison cell, which causes it to warp into a long hallway. Determined, Shadow chases after him, but the hedgehog finds himself in a black void. Crimson lightning and floating debris begins to appear as Shadow floats in the air, looking around in confusion. Suddenly, Shadow begins to have visions of G.U.N and Maria. Shadow can hear Maria frantically breathing, until finally, the visions conclude with a vision of Maria reaching her hand out in despair as reality shatters itself once more.

"Shadow! Remember!" Maria cried out.

"Maria!" he cried back, reading his hand out.

Shadow begins to fall, until a mysterious creature appears and reaches its hands out towards Shadow.

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

"SHADOW!!"

A hand gripped onto Shadow's arm and in a flash, Shadow awakens, clutching the yellow Chaos Emerald, and fires a blast at a nearby tree, knocking it down. As he gasps for breath, he realizes that he ended up having a nightmare. Though he looks up and his eyes widens to see Gwen, whose eyes also widens, holding onto his arm. He noticed that she had managed to dodge his attack on time where the tree behind her is destroyed. Gwen calms down and notices his expression.

"Shadow, are you alright? I saw what happened in my vision and ran all the way to find you." she asked with worry.

Shadow's expression softens and his body relaxes, reaching his hand out to stroke her cheek. Gwen blinks in surprise and blushes.

"Shadow?"

Shadow looks down at the yellow Chaos Emerald he was holding and frowns.

"That was no mere nightmare. And it all began in view of the ARK." he thought.

Shadow gazes up at the shattered Moon in the sky, until the Space Colony ARK shows up on the screen. He then clenches his fists together. Gwen looks up as well and has a sudden bad feeling about this.

"Could he have survived? No. That can't be. I need answers."

Shadow was about to leave when Gwen stopped him.

"Wait! Let me come with you. I can help."

"I'm sorry, but I can't risk your life. You should go back to your brother and your friends." he shook his head.

"I don't care. You forget that I've been through far worse things that you can't even imagine. Let me help." she said, looking determined. "I want to be there for you."

Shadow's eyes widens for a bit before huffing with a soft smile.

"Alright. Follow me."

Shadow's eyes glow red and Gwen readies her rocket roller skates and both of them speeds off with the shattered Moon in the sky above them.