Hello everyone! Thank you for reading my story(the first thing that I've written in quite awhile!).

This is the last installment in the Fan Fiction Christmas Countdown(FFCC). If you're interested in perusing the project, please check out the first installment: LadyLindariel's Silmarillion story called "A Magical Moment."

Please forgive any errors in this story; it's my first Sonic story ever, although I've been a fan of the franchise since childhood, and I didn't have much time to write it, due to exams at university. Feel free to let me know how to improve, however.

Anyway, enjoy!

Characters:

Shadow the Hedgehog: The Ultimate Lifeform, a miracle of science. Dark and brooding, he strives to save the world, but constantly deals with grief from his past.

Amy Rose: A twelve-year-old hedgehog infatuated with Sonic. One of the few people that Shadow doesn't react to with immediate disdain.

Maria: Shadow's childhood friend, a kind and gentle girl who lived on the Space Colony ARK with him. Died in an unfortunate "accident" fifty years ago.

Sonic the Hedgehog: Shadow's perfect foil. Faster than the speed of sound, cool as a breath of wind, with an attitude to match.

"Shadow, come here! It's time to start decorating."

Maria's pale face was lit with a deep red glow, her thin frame standing tall, filled with some kind of energy that Shadow wished that it could possess all of the time.

The blonde-haired girl, giggling, dropped a wreath on top of Shadow's head. The hedgehog chuckled, pulling the wreath off and handing it back to Maria. If an employee on the ARK had done such a thing, Shadow would have been annoyed, to say the least, but, somehow, he never had the heart to be angry with Maria.

"What exactly are we doing?" he asked as he followed her down the hall.

"Decorating the ARK for Christmas, silly," she said, hanging wreaths on every protruding point on the wall. She handed him a box of ribbons. "Hang these wherever there's room."

Shadow did as he was told, draping the ribbons unceremoniously wherever he could find a place that would support one. "What exactly is 'Christmas?'"

Maria glanced back towards the black hedgehog. "It's a holiday," she began, "where we think of others. We give presents to others, decorate, but above all, we celebrate when a baby was born who would save the entire earth."

Shadow blinked. The entire earth. The earth. That surface below the space station, blue and green and white, and a multitude of other colours.

As he and Maria strolled down the hall, Shadow paused by the glass wall, looking out into space. All he had ever known was in this space station, but as he looked out of the window, he took in the vastness of space. The silence of it, and the special quality to each star.

"Did he save us too, out here in space?"

Maria stared upwards for a few seconds, then nodded. "Yes, I think so. I should have said all people, not just the earth."

"Shadow, come here! It's time to start decorating!"

Shadow blinked. He had been lost in thought, it seemed. Shaking his head at his own carelessness, he turned towards Amy Rose, who was attempting to hang a snowflake garland along the fireplace ledge. Unfortunately for her, she was too short to hang it up without the aid of a ladder. Shadow had no idea how she could continue such a pointless exercise- continuing the same action over and over, expecting different results, but twelve-year-olds could be irrational, he supposed. Rolling his eyes, Shadow brought a step-stool over towards her.

"Oh, thanks," said Amy, barely noticing. "Go and put some cookies on a plate, would you? They're in the red tin on the top shelf of the pantry."

Shadow, I made these for you! Don't you want to try them?

They have a high fat content, don't they, Maria? I feel as though the Professor wouldn't entirely approve.

Oh Shadow, don't be so pedantic. It's fine once a year to eat something less than healthy.

Very well. Since you made them for me, I'll try them.

Amy's self-proclaimed "pantry" was no more than a cupboard, just as her kitchen was no more than a single countertop in her dining room, complete with a single-element stove and mini-fridge. The tiny Station Square apartment that she lived in was a far cry from the mansions that the romantic-minded girl dreamed of, but Shadow could see that she tried to make the place as comfortable as possible.

Shadow clumsily set the cookies on the plate- he had no idea how to arrange them, but they didn't look the way they should. It would have been nice to have someone else more more gifted in artistic design to carry out this particular job, but, as Shadow had been the first to arrive to Amy's Christmas party, he was the only person available.

He wasn't even supposed to be here yet; that's why Amy was still decorating. He had made a mistake with the time, and the pink hedgehog had kindly let him stay even though she was hardly prepared to entertain guests yet.

He'd been making numerous mistakes, lately, and he didn't know why. The world was saved, Black Doom had been defeated. He had faced his fears, leaving his past behind him. And yet he still felt hollow inside, no more than a science experiment gone horribly wrong.

"AHH! The fruitcake!"

Amy dashed into the kitchen, throwing open the oven, which was beginning to smoke. "Why didn't you notice the smoke?" she shrieked in Shadow's direction.

He hadn't noticed, but he couldn't very well say that, as the smoke should have been obvious.

Grandfather likes fruitcake, but it's kind of funny that he does. Only old people like fruitcake.

Well, the Professor isn't young, by any means.

Don't say things like that, Shadow. He's not that old. But, I guess you're right.

Muttering under her breath, Amy placed the cake onto a rack on the counter. "Well, it's not too burnt, at least," she said, scowling. "It would be horrible if the fruitcake were ruined."

"That's good, I suppose," mumbled Shadow, sitting down on Amy's beat-up couch. He glanced up at the ceiling. Little decorations, mostly poorly-constructed homemade creations, hung from every available surface. It reminded him of the ARK.

Maria was- had been, that is- a Christmas spirit, through and through. She had decorated fastidiously, obsessively, even, but it had never annoyed him. He didn't get annoyed back then, in those innocent days, full of learning, research, and joy.

He had left his anger behind him now, as he had vowed after defeating Black Doom, but the grief at Maria's loss was stronger than ever, without the shield of revenge to hide behind.

Amy was talking to him, and he wasn't paying attention.

"...sorry, I'm just stressed out, I guess. I've never hosted a Christmas party before. Some host I must be, yelling at my guest, huh? But I just wanted to say, thanks for coming and he! I've actually didn't expect you to come, really. You don't strike me as the type to go to parties, really."

Did he have to respond to this one-sided conversation? Well, it would be rude if he didn't- and he strangely felt as though he couldn't be rude to Amy, of all people.

"Erm, well," he said, choking back a nervous cough. "I'm working on some self-improvement. Maria…" he trailed off, then, taking a shaky breath, continued. "Maria wanted me to show kindness to people, and I can't do that if I hide from them constantly. And…"

This was embarrassing, but honesty was the best policy after all.

"...I do find you a little easier to talk with than others, if that makes any sense at all."

I don't know why it's so easy to talk to you, Maria. I mean, I can't share things with the other people here the way that I can with you.

We were made to be friends, Shadow. That's why.

Amy looked uncomfortable, but, eager as ever to play hostess, she radiated a thin, plastered smile towards Shadow. "Is that so?"

It seemed that he couldn't be honest with Amy the way that he had been with Maria. This had been a bad idea. "Yes…" he said, letting his head sink into his hand. "You know, never mind."

There was an awkward silence.

"Hey Amy, sorry I got here early, but you know me, it's hard to wait for something to start!"

Shadow scowled, refusing to turn his head and greet the familiar voice. Amy's face lit up. "Oh, Sonic!" She ran over to the blue hedgehog. "I love your hat," she giggled.

"Aw, thanks," said Sonic, running his hand over his Santa hat. "Thought you'd like it." Then he saw Shadow. "Oh, hey Shadow! I didn't think you'd come!"

"Apparently that's a common expectation," Shadow said, keeping his eyes on the fruitcake. It was quite burnt, now that he noticed it, and delightfully distracting from the topic at hand. He could think for hours about it. For example, only the oldest of old people would eat something like that.

Sonic only chuckled at Shadow's well-thought-out barb. "Well, yeah. But it's cool. We wanted you to come anyway, right Amy?"

Amy blinked. "Oh, yeah, yeah!" she exclaimed, wringing her hands. "Sure… I want all my friends to come, of course."

She was only saying that to be nice. But it did make Shadow feel a tiny bit better.

"...and Christmas is just the most wonderful holiday. I mean, who doesn't like a little Christmas spirit? I mean, it's just…"

Amy was rambling, but this time, Shadow cracked the smallest of smiles. He thought for awhile, about how this was his first Christmas on Earth, on how he had to accept friends for who they were, and keep from comparing them to phantoms of the past.

He snapped out his trance in an instant, upon realizing that Team Chaotix was forcing themselves through the door, Sonic was saying something to him, and Amy was shoving a glass of eggnog in his face.

"Ever had eggnog Shadow? It's really… goodness, the Chaotix!" Amy dashed away, and Shadow just barely caught the glass before it spilled all over her burnt-orange couch.

Sonic made himself comfortable on the couch- a little too close to Shadow, for his liking, but that was just Sonic's style. "Glad you came, Shadow," he said again. "We all are."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "No, you're not."

"Are too," Sonic insisted. "I mean, after the Black Comet and all that, we thought you were going to die. And here you are, at a Christmas party, of all things. You've changed, Shadow."

Perhaps he had. He looked out for ways to self-improve now; he had given up on revenge. But, yes, perhaps the greatest change was his new willingness to give up his selfish pride and visit others, whereas before he had thought himself too good to work with others. After all, he couldn't save the world if he didn't care about it.

"Shadow I beg of you, please do it for me... for a better future! For all the people who live on that planet... give them a chance to be happy... Let them live for their dreams. Shadow, I know you can do it. That's the reason why you were brought into this world. Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog."