Shadow's Sad Past/Crossing the Chasm

*(Clara’s group, having themselves and Sonic's group already introducing each other and learning of their dreams already, continued to trek along down the Yellow Brick Road through the forest, but then they noticed a huge trench in the way with the other side very far away)*

Baloo: How are we gonna cross this?

Peach: Maybe if me and Daisy can fly us across?

*(Silver sensed the trench with his psychokinesis and then explained)*

Silver: It prevents magic and flying, so we can't. And there's no bridge either.

*(The group got annoyed)*

Clara: Great!

Phillip: And just to think we were gonna reach Emerald City and see Marie again!

*(Suddenly, Shadow calmly reacted to what Phillip said, much to the others’ notice)*

Shadow: What did you say her name was?

Phillip: Marie. Why?

*(Shadow instead felt calmly glum and seated himself on a nearby huge tree trunk. Then suddenly, in calm sadness, he sheds a couple of tears. The group noticed and then Vector and Rockruff spoke up)*

Vector: Are you crying crocodile tears just now?

Rockruff: What's the matter?

*(Realizing he is, Shadow just wiped them away calmly)*

Shadow: No. Nothing's wrong.

*(The team looked at him flatly and calmly, knowing that’s not true. Recognizing the looks, Shadow sighed sadly and calmly)*

Rouge: Shadow?

*(He turned to her silently)*

Rouge: Just tell them.

Omega: Get it off your chest.

Sonic's group: (Agreeing) Yeah.

*(Softening a bit, Shadow calmly gave in and explained)*

Shadow: Me, Rouge, and Omega had a friend named Maria Robotnik before.

Phillip: Well, I said "Marie," not "Maria." Big difference.

*(Shadow didn’t answer. He just went calmly glum. Noticing it, the group, except Sonic's group, got confused)*

Fritz: Did something happen to her?

Luigi: Was she kidnapped?

*(Shadow tensed calmly, much to Sonic's group’s calm concern and Clara group’s confusion)*

Louise: Was she banished from Oz?

*(No answer still as Shadow started to tense calmly even more)*

Metalhead: Did she break your heart?

*(Shadow finally snapped calmly)*

Shadow: No, she died! There, I said it!

*(Shocked by Shadow’s snapping, Clara's group got confused while Sonic's group got concerned. Then realizing his temper, Shadow melted his anger away calmly)*

Shadow: Sorry. But she did die.

Crash: How?

Shadow: Murder.

Clara: By who? Who’s the killer?

*(A short pause while Shadow puts himself in a calm upright fetal position and buried his head calmly with his arms around his legs)*

Shadow: (In calm sadness) Princess Shroob the Wicked Witch of the East.

*(Clara's group got surprised)*

Fritz: No way!

Rouge: That’s true.

Omega: Maria and us were best friends since my creation and when Shadow and Rouge were younger.

*(Shadow rose his head slowly and nods grimly in agreement and then explained away)*

Shadow: We were even inseparable.

*(Then, as a woman’s voice began singing a melancholy song in the background, we fade to a flashback to Shadow’s past when he and Rouge first met Maria Robotnik at her parents' funeral)*

Woman: (Voice-over) **When somebody loved me**

**Everything was beautiful**

**Every hour we spent together lives**

**Within my heart**

*(Shadow and Rouge then comforted Maria, who was crying to her parents’ death during their funeral, even to the extent of Shadow using his thumb to wipe Maria’s tears away and speaking inaudibly, as she smiled softly upon being cheered up)*

Woman: (Voice-over) **And when she was sad**

**My friends and I were there to dry her tears**

*(Then we fade to when Maria, Shadow, and Rouge hanging around together, watching the beautiful starry night in the Castle Town garden with soft smiles while building Omega)*

Woman: (Voice-over) **And when she was happy**

**So were me and my friends**

**When she loved me**

*(Then we fade to a beautiful morning when Shadow gently pushed Maria on a swing as Rouge and Omega, seated nearby, watched with soft smiles)*

Woman: (Voice-over) **Through the summer and the fall**

**We had each other, that was all**

**Just she and us together**

**Like it was meant to be**

*(Then we fade to when Shadow, Rouge, and Omega are going out for a while, bidding a happy Maria goodbye, as if telling her they’ll come right back for her)*

Woman: (Voice-over) **And when she was lonely**

**My friends and I were there to comfort her**

**And we knew that she loved me**

*(Then later, Shadow, Rouge, and Omega returned to find Maria’s house partially damaged and ran to it concern. They see a shadowy figure of Shroob briefly noticing them and then left. After Shroob was gone, the three goes inside the house and found some blood specks on the wall and on the floor, Maria, dead from a covered stab wound. They went up to her and checked for her pulse on her neck. Then, becoming calmly sad, Shadow, Rouge, and Omega lowered their heads sadly and Shadow calmly held Maria’s lifeless head close to his. For she is dead)*

Woman: (Voice-over) **Soon, the years went by**

**My friends and I stayed the same**

**But she was gone forever**

**I was left alone**

**Still I remembered to that day**

**When she’d say "I will always love you"**

*(Then later, at Maria’s gravestone with an image of her on it, Shadow, Rouge, and Omega gave calm sad smiles as they looked at it. Even Shadow calmly caressed the top of the stone tenderly. Then Rouge and Omega calmly placed their hands on each of Shadow’s shoulders, giving him reassuring smiles, letting him know they’re there for him, making Shadow calmly give a soft smirk)*

Woman: (Voice-over) **Lonely and sentiment**

**I’d never thought I’d had my other friends**

**And they smiled at me and held me**

**Just like she used to do**

**Like she loved me**

**When she loved me**

*(Then they walked away slowly from the gravestone. They stopped for a second and looked back. Then they smiled softly and then walked way again)*

Woman: (Voice-over) **When somebody loved me**

**Everything was beautiful**

**Every hour we spent together lives**

**Within my heart**

**When she loved me**

*(Then, as the song ended and the gravestone was slowly zoomed away, we slowly fade back to the present as Clara's group, all calmly sad and sympathetic and Shadow now solemnly laying on his back on the truck like he's in therapy, being shrinked)*

Aku-Aku: We had no idea....

*(Shadow sighed quietly and in calm sadness)*

Shadow: I never got the chance to take her to Emerald City for a little visit to one Lantern Festival to commemorate the lost princesses, because she's never been to Emerald City before.

*(He lets out a quiet calm sob as tears filled his eyes)*

Shadow: (Voice breaking) I even promised her.

*(He quietly cried softly, turning his back to his friends, as Clara's group looked on in sympathy along with Sonic's group. Then Clara went up to Shadow and calmly got his attention, making him stop calmly and quietly crying and turning to her)*

Clara: Shadow....

*(Shadow listened calmly as he blinked his tears away)*

Clara: If this would cheer you up.... Princess Shroob died today.

*(Crash, Aku-Aku, Metalhead, Baloo, Kit, Peach, Daisy, Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Sonic's group got surprised while Shadow calmly reacted in surprise to what Clara said)*

Shadow: She is?

*(Clara nods)*

Clara: The house belonging to me, Phillip, my siblings, and Rockruff crushed her from a tornado that swept us away from Topeka.

*(Shadow then got calmly happy with a light smile)*

Shadow: Thank you, for telling me. Now I am in gratitude to you, Phillip, Fritz, Louise, and Rockruff for unknowingly avenging Maria for me.

Clara: No problem whatsoever.

*(Then Shadow got up and stood up)*

Shadow: Shall we find a way to cross the trench now?

Clara: Yes.

*(Then the group went over to the trench. Sonic's group turned to Clara in calm surprise)*

Charmy: Wow.

Rouge: One minute Shadow was sad and crying over Maria, and the next thing we know, he's happy upon hearing Shroob's death. How?

Clara: Reassurance. I did that with Phillip when his grandmother died, reassuring that she'll always be with us.

Phillip: It's true.

*(The group got impressed)*

Group: Huh.

*(Then Silver sensed something and explained upon realizing)*

Silver: What if Shadow uses Chaos Control to get us to the other side?

Louise: But I thought the trench....

Silver: It won't let you fly or use magic while over it.

*(The group immediately got what Silver is saying)*

Fritz: Oh, we get it!

Crash: We could cross with magic when we're *not* over the trench!

Tails: So basically, Silver can use his powers to hold us together, and then we hold onto Shadow and Silver, light as feathers, and then we cross!

Crash: Exactly!

*(Then the group got together by Shadow)*

Silver: Ready?

Group, except Silver: Ready!

*(Then Silver used his psychokinesis to lift the group into the air and, as Tails and Crash explained, they were easily held by Shadow and Silver together)*

Shadow: Chaos Control!

*(Then, a miracle; Shadow teleported the group and himself to the other side of the trench. Upon landing there, Silver released his psychokinetic hold on the group after he and Shadow placed everyone down)*

Baloo: (Impressed) Gee, that wasn't so scary.

Kit: See, Papa Bear? That was fun.

*(Then the group resumed their trek)*

***Coming up: The group discover that the forest they're now in inhabits a certain giant Heartless monster that kills anybody in his path. Then when the said creature appears and attacks, they fight back and then go into shelter in an empty cavern. Then upon seeing the other trench, they decide to lure the Behemoth into a trap that'll lead to it falling to its death.***