Author's Note: So, who's ready for a climax? I sure am!! I worked very hard to make sure this chapter lived up to what I've been promising throughout the story. So sorry for not updating in FOREVERRRRRR... Life is really something sometimes. I'm sure you guys are not here to see me ramble, so we're going to get right to it. Enjoy the new chapter, everyone!

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Traveling to the past through a time portal created via chaos energy is nothing like the rainbow teleportation vortex. It's cold, and it feels like forcing yourself to crush through the stone of time. Maybe that's what was actually happening. There was a caveat to time travel that Shadow forgot to explain. In order to prevent a paradox from occurring and tearing apart the universe, the chaos emeralds send you back to the version of yourself already at that moment in the past. This resulted in three things. One, Shadow was unconscious and trapped inside a hibernation capsule. Two, Gilbert and Barrett were being confronted by G.U.N. agents. Three, you were all alone on the Space Colony Ark during the invasion.

Like before, you found yourself in your room with ghostly white skin and scribbled pictures of Shadow on the walls. Scientists were scurrying through the hallways like startled mice with research papers flying out of their hands. In all of the hustle and bustle, you suddenly remembered what you were there to do. Snagging a picture of Shadow from the wall for luck, you took off in the same direction you did last time.

Hallways upon hallways flooded past your vision and they all seemed longer than you remembered them to be. A red glimmer caught your eye and you turned to face it: the Phantom Ruby. It was lying abandoned on a lab desk within a password-protected capsule. As you slowly recall the Phantom Ruby's importance in the future, you realize that you had a power never before given to anyone in the past. If you could destroy the ruby, then Shadow would never get tortured! He wouldn't need to search an active volcano for some trace of the Ark. It would change something.

There wasn't much time to think about it. In fact, you didn't think. You latched yourself to the sealed capsule and began frantically typing in the password. Every password on the Ark was the same. M-A-R-I-A. Thankfully, that made it very easy for you to snatch the Ruby. The capsule whooshed open and revealed the Phantom Ruby completely and utterly defenseless. Now came the hard part: smashing it.

Unlike Gilbert, you wouldn't be able to smash the ruby with just your fists. Instead, you would have to find something stronger than that to deal the devastating blow. Frantically, your eyes darted around the room looking for something heavy enough to smash it. That's when you saw the meowing lizard.

It was still small and in its early stages of development, but it was given enough black blood to be able to smash the ruby. Mouth lasers, jaw crushing, or pink balls of goo, it didn't matter to you as long as the Phantom Ruby was left out of commission. You snatched up the ruby and flung it with as much force as you could muster toward the meowing lizard's containment capsule. According to plan, the glass cracked, shook for a moment, and then collapsed onto the floor. Black alien blood spewed out of the container and the Biolizard lept happily into its newly found freedom. In its mighty leap, it happened to come crashing down onto the Phantom Ruby. That did the trick.

It was barely two seconds into its new life in freedom when the Biolizard started convulsing violently on the floor and gasping for some sort of life force to sustain it. It yowled in desperation when its heart gave way and clawed at the floor in a terrified cry for help. You watched the spectacle with pity in your eyes, but you could still remember what it would do to Shadow if you let it live. The lizard belted out a final wail before flopping over onto the floor to rest for eternity.

"One prototype down...," you mumbled to yourself as you glanced at the long line of containment capsules after the Biolizard. "Plenty more to go."

On most days, the scientists would likely have tossed you out into the vacuum of space for destroying their life's work; but today, they had bigger things to worry about. If they did happen to catch you shattering the containers and letting the Ultimate Creature prototypes die, they didn't bother to stop you. For all they knew, you were helping GUN. In a strange way, you were.

It only took five minutes to shatter all the glass, and you figured that being exposed to air prematurely would be enough to destroy the prototypes. Now that all of the science projects were destroyed, you knew that the future would be a lot safer. There was just one thing left to do before your plan could completely succeed.

While on your way to finding Shadow's pod to wake him up, you noticed an odd commotion being made in another room. GUN agents were flocking in and out, and there were men shouting. You were able to make out Barrett's shrill, obnoxious voice from inside. Barrett and Gilbert were in danger... Distracted from your previous mission, you shoved your way into the room to figure out what was going on. Shadow could wait for another minute.

You saw Barrett and Gilbert backed into a corner at gunpoint. They seemed terrified; but despite that, Barrett continued babbling to their attackers like the fool he was. His blonde hair was falling into his eyes like normal, but he was so determined to persuade his attackers to lower their weapons that he hardly noticed the inconvenience.

"My sisters are in danger! I need to find (Y/N) and Maria before they get themselves killed by one of you! Please! We don't want to hurt anyone! I just need to make sure that they are safe!" Barrett begged. He took a daring step forward, but more guns just turned to face him.

Gilbert tugged Barrett back harshly by the collar and whispered something in his ear that you couldn't quite make out. It seemed to be a warning because Barrett reluctantly held his tongue and cooperated from that point forward. You had to wonder if they remembered the events from before... Did they know they time traveled...? They weren't acting as if they time traveled..., but who's to say for sure?

You wanted to tell them that you were okay and that you were on your way to fixing things. Sadly, it then occurred to you that taking another step forward and directing their attention away from the agents could cost them their lives. It was best to let them continue paying attention to the tense situation at hand and continue going along with the agents for the sake of staying alive. You would have to go on without them.

That left one task left: finding Shadow and Maria. Having lived out all of these events before, you knew that wouldn't be a challenge. The challenge would be changing the past, and it had to be done correctly. You only had one shot to get things right. You only had one shot to save the future from being devoured by the Dark Arms. You made a plan before you left of all the things that would need to change to save the future. There was just one more thing that needed to be done.

Fully aware of what you had to do, you hurtled down the hallways in search of someone you hadn't seen in months... According to your plan, the only way to stop the alien war was to ensure that Maria would escape the ARK today completely unharmed. Her life is what will decide the world's fate.

History repeated itself as you threw yourself into the room Maria was in. You blurted out, "MARIA!!"

"S-Sister...?"

At first, your eyes refused to believe what they saw. Dazzling blue eyes were stretched in fear at the situation..., but not dead and glazed over. Her vibrant golden hair was glistening brightly in the light of the room. Golden and not stained red in her own blood. The sound coming from her lungs was little more than a whisper rather than her deafening screams that continue to haunt your nightmares. When you flew across the room and brought her into your tight embrace..., it was real and not a dream.

Maria sniffled in your arms. "Th-They're going to--!"

"Shhh!" you quickly shushed.

The GUN commanding officer entered the room and began hand-cuffing several scientists. Some men resisted. Others resigned themselves to a new life behind bars for tampering with alien genetics. You squished Maria into a dark corner and struggled to open the mechanical door to the corridor leading to the escape pods and Shadow's containment unit. Cautiously, you punched in the letters... You only had one shot to get this right. If you failed, then it would be over for all of humanity. Not just your beloved sister Maria. You sucked in a tight breath when your finger found the last digit... and mashed the button with as much confidence as you could force out of your tiny finger. The corridor's metal doors swung open and you dragged Maria inside before the GUN officer could notice what was happening. You closed the metal doors just as soon as you opened them, but it wasn't fast enough to not attract the GUN officer's attention. He pounded on the door with his fist.

"HEY!! YOU TWO! Get out here and explain what you're doing! Come willingly, and we won't hurt you!" the officer screamed in vain. He groaned when you didn't open the doors, and he started blasting the control panel with his gun. The very same one that killed Maria the first time...

You didn't dare stop to think about what the guard was doing. This time, you made sure to stay well ahead of Maria to make sure that she didn't pull her self-sacrificing maneuver again. You stayed well away from the inside of the escape capsule and started firing up Shadow's wakeup sequence. When the metal doors finally opened, Maria was with you and waiting anxiously for Shadow to wake up.

Maria got to work on shutting the door to Shadow's containment unit while you fired up the escape pod. Interestingly, your confidence seemed to be wearing off on Maria as she did not seem to be as discombobulated and puzzled as she was the first time around. She understood the plan and knew there would be time to talk later. You worked in a busied silence as the GUN officer found himself frustratingly pounding on yet another metal door in his way. Shadow's awakening sequence was fired up, and the escape pod was ready... All that was left to be done was get into the capsule, pull the lever, and--!

The metal doors started to open.

You panicked and shoved Maria into the escape pod without thinking and forced the door closed. The officer was getting inside--! Maria's eyes were terrified--! She screamed your name desperately, and you reached for the ejection lever. You saw Shadow's eyes open a crack. The gun was pointed at your head. Your fingers reached the lever. Maria screamed louder and pounded on the escape pod's window. Shadow saw you, and his face became an expression of horror. He tried to shout through the sound-proof glass, but you couldn't hear his cries. The man's finger found the trigger. You pulled your arms back as hard as you could--! There was a loud WHOOSH!!

A scream.

Then the deadly BANG!! from your nightmares.

The world faded to black...

--

You could see, yet you could not see. There were no eyes for you to see with, but you still could. Despite not having a physical form, you found you could still think and drift from place to place. You figured that you became a ghost when you died. It was a bizarre feeling...

"Ugh... What is this place...?," you groaned from the void. Your surroundings started becoming a bit clearer as you continued to look around.

It was Earth. Right where you had crash-landed in the pod the first time. But this time, your role with Maria switched. The lush green trees surrounded Shadow's hibernation capsule and Maria's escape pod. Each of the leaves were gently rustling in the breeze, and some would get caught in the wind and drift toward the endless horizon. Trying not to be distracted by the beautiful scenery, you tried to remember what happened in the previous timeline when you were the one who escaped.

There was one major difference that immediately stood out to you: Shadow. When he forced the glass capsule around him to shatter with a mighty kick, he looked out and blinked in wonderment. It was all like nothing he had ever seen before. The sky was above his head rather than below his feet. Animals scurried along the ground in fluid motions rather than in the jerky, black and white videos and dim photos he was used to seeing. For the first time, he heard birdsong from the branch of a nearby tree. There was no anger present in his heart. Nor was there sadness. Just... amazement.

He shook himself out of his astonished trance and jumped away from the rubble. In an instant, he ran over to where Maria's pod was sitting. Shadow wasn't angry like last time... He wasn't upset. He had his beloved Maria this time. It was difficult for you to not get jealous when you saw him force open the door to the escape pod and lovingly hug the weeping Maria. Over and over you heard him whisper light words of comfort that he had probably told her hundreds of times on the ARK.

"I'm here, Maria... It's okay... I know it's hard. We'll get through this together."

None of that "your sister's death was all your fault" crap that he gave you.

You learned another thing about time travel. History is very flexible. When something in the past changes, the future is immediately able to predict the changes that follow. For all you knew, the world had seen hundreds or thousands of different endings, but someone rewrote history to get a new result. The future had compensated for the changes so fast that Shadow didn't remember anything from the previous timeline. None of the love. None of the warmth. To him, you were dead and would stay dead. He'd be perfectly content with that. No complaints. He has his Maria...

"Shadow, you IDIOT! Don't you understand?!" Maria's voice shrieked in his face. She sent a curled fist crashing into his chest with frustration. He didn't seem bothered by the half-hearted punch so much as he was by her words.

"What do you mean? You're safe! What happened to your sister was a shame, but at least it wasn't you who died--!" Shadow objected. His objection was quickly overruled.

Maria's blue eyes became icy with anger, something you had never seen before. She fiercely stood to her feet and hissed at him. "Heartless. Don't you understand anything, Shadow?! How important my twin is to me?!"

Shadow stopped and knew he wasn't going to be winning this fight any time soon. He gladly shut his trap and listened to her berate him for all the world to hear. While he was all too happy to be lectured by Maria..., there was a hint of hurt in his eyes the entire time she was shouting at him. Idiot... He had never been called that before.

Maria crossed her arms scoldingly at him. "She saved both of us! Without her, we would ALL have been KILLED! And all you say is good riddance?! Heartless!!" she screamed. With a full-force slap, she knocked Shadow off-balance as tears came to her enormous, distraught eyes.

"Maria, please...!" Shadow squeaked at her in protest. He was rubbing his cheek and was hardly surprised when she shot him down again.

"How could you possibly say my life is worth more than hers?! She's a hero! She saved us! (Y/N) sacrificed EVERYTHING to keep us safe and to fulfill our dreams of seeing the planet! And you just...! Just...! H-How...?" Maria sobs as she chokes on the words lodged in her throat. Crystal teardrops fell to the soft, lush grass. It took a few minutes before Maria could continue. "She loved you, Shadow... Ever since we were little kids... How would this make her feel, Shadow...?"

Shadow blinked in surprise at hearing about your childish crush on him on the ARK. He then shrugged like there was nothing he could say. The simple truth was this: he didn't care.

Maria's face became stony and hard when she saw Shadow's careless response. How could he not understand her point of view? Was he really engineered to only care about her? It was so cruel for him to be unable to feel for anyone else... Especially for the people she herself cared about.

They stood in silence for hours. Shadow knew there was plenty more Maria wanted to tell him, so he waited for her to say it. The sun started to set over the horizon turning the sky a striking orange-red color. Maria refused to look up from the ground. She refused to unball her tiny fists. She refused to look at Shadow. Stars were beginning to appear in the sky, and the colors began to shift to dark purples and blues. Shadow knew they couldn't stay there all night. Gently, he stepped forward and broke the silence.

"We can't stay out here... It's dangerous." He offered her his hand which was ultimately ignored. He tried again, more firmly this time. "Maria, we need to move. I'll carry you if I have to."

Maria finally lifted her gaze to meet his. But the expression her face held was something so unlike anything Shadow had ever seen from her. Her face was blank. Glazed over. So lost in the sea of emotions that she couldn't even cry. Maria's eyes were like glass and her frail body was limp like a doll. He saw every weakness she bore in that one stance. He saw the deepest pit of despair in her face. After her earlier hours of uninterrupted silence, she mumbled, "I'm going to die anyway, Shadow... Why didn't she just let me die...?"

Shadow felt his whole body freeze in horror and guilt. In all of the excitement, he had forgotten the simple truth: Maria was still on the verge of death. His alarm only grew when he realized that she was on Earth. Exposed to all of these foreign elements that would only worsen her condition...! And she didn't care in the slightest. All that mattered to her was her sister. The sister she never spent longer than a few hours with years ago. He fiercely gripped her shoulders and gave her a frustrated shake.

"How could you say that?! You're not going to die under my watch! I'll get you to a hospital! You're going to be okay!" He scooped her up into his arms and this time, she didn't complain. Her anger left her a long time ago. All she could feel was resignation and emptiness. She was going to die. Her dear sister's sacrifice was in vain. Then Shadow would be all alone...

Maria huddled closer to his chest as if that might somehow shield her from the vast world around her that was slowly corrupting her body on a microscopic level. How ironic... The world she loves most will be what kills her. She laughed meekly from his arms. "I'm going to die..."

Shadow couldn't move. He could only think about the dreaded truth Maria continued to mumble over and over again. And she was correct. And there was nothing he could do about it. He felt uncertainty deep in his chest and finally stopped to think about your sacrifice. You died so that Maria could live... Could live a few more months on a planet she loved before being ripped away from existence forever. He clenched his fists tightly, making sure not to clasp Maria too aggressively.

Why couldn't GUN have given them more time...? Why couldn't (y/n) escape too...? Why was the universe sucking away the life of the person who loves it the most...? Why was he never good enough to stop any of this from happening...?!

"We're... going to a hospital, Maria. Maybe they'll know how to prolong your life--"

"No," she murmured. Her beautiful eyes lifted to meet his worried gaze. In a gentle, fluid motion, she shook her head. "I'm going to live on this planet with the little time I have left. This was my dream. My wish. (Y/N) is offering me this... So I won't waste it lying motionless in a hospital bed waiting for death." Maria's blank, stone-like gaze shifted to one of hope and desire. "It's time for me to stop waiting. This is my opportunity... Too many people have died to get me here, Shadow. I'm going to live whether you want me to or not."

Shadow trembled a little. Her days were limited. So limited that he knew she wouldn't last longer than a month outside a hospital. His grip on her intensified. "Don't do this... What about me...? What will I become when you--?"

Maria shushed him lightly. There was a bittersweet smile on her face. As if the answer were simple and obvious, she gave him the clear and obvious solution.

"You'll find someone else to save."