Wow. I've been dragging my butt on this story. Seriously, it took me like a year to finish O.O So I'm thinking I'll write all the chapters in advance for the next one (Sonic '06) and update once a week, so you don't have indefinitely long periods of NO SHOW. What do you think? Anyway, BACK TO THIS FIC!! It's been so long, I can't believe this is finally over. I really hated this fic and I think my attempt at giving Keiko a softer side the whole time epically failed. Enjoy the end… I hope…

XX

I couldn't believe this was over. I couldn't believe I blew my chance to save Maria… Now that I think back on it, I guess I wasn't trying to save her for Shadow… In the end, I wanted to save her for me. I felt like I wasted a whole month on the ARK when I could have been helping Shadow instead… since this might be the last game I ever get sucked into. I knew I was going to miss everyone, but come on. These are video game characters we're talking about! They're part of Sega's imagination… not real people. But they seemed real… They were real… because I knew my encounters with each of the characters weren't just some crazy dream. Shadow, Maria, Rouge, Omega, Sonic, Amy, Knuckles, Tails, Eggman, and even Black Doom: technically virtual friends I made through playing a video game I once hated. It was times like these when I wished I could talk to someone about all of this. I wanted to tell someone everything that happened… someone from my world… but they'd never believe me. Not even my brother, who I trusted more than anyone in both Shadow's and my world.

I walked around the ARK like a zombie, not really feeling or thinking anything. I was snapped out of this when I stubbed my toe on something… a video cassette… with my name written neatly on it. I picked it up and carefully examined it. It was old and dusty, so maybe someone left it behind when the ARK was shut down fifty years ago. Only one way to find out. I walked into a random lab and placed the cassette in the video player. The screen kept flickering, but I could clearly make out the black and white figure of someone… a new friend I had made when I got sucked into this video game: Maria. She smiled and waved awkwardly. "Hi, Keiko…" I couldn't believe I was doing this, but I waved back. "I bet you're wondering why Black Doom sent you back before… before it happened. Well… I just wanted to say… I know why. It was me. I asked him to send you back a little early because I knew you wouldn't just let me die, even though that's what's supposed to happen." She smiled gently. "I know you too well. Now you probably think you just wasted your time up here, but… that may not be true. If…" She paused, as if struggling to put her thoughts into words. "If something happened in your time… something really absurd that you couldn't explain… maybe it relates to your experience here on the ARK. And well… that's all I have to say. Bye Keiko." The screen went black and she was gone. I sighed and tried following her advice. What happened that could have been justified by things that happened on the ARK? The Biolizard was the first thing that came to my mind. At the time, I thought it had mistaken me for Maria, when it still recognized me from fifty years ago. Then there was Ivo… er… Dr. Eggman… why he spared my life when he had at least a hundred chances to kill me. But I was forgetting the most important one: Shadow. Shadow had saved my life countless number of times for supposedly unknown reasons. Had he remembered me too? I didn't have time to answer my own question, because…

"Keiko?" I whirled around, only to see Shadow standing at the door. "What are you doing here? Where the hell were you?" I stared at the floor.

"Um…" I mumbled. "Right… here?" He tapped his foot.

"I came here enough number times, and I never saw you."

"Well… actually… Black Doom sent me fifty years into the past… he sent me here." Shadow frowned, but not at me. After a few minutes, he finally responded.

"Oh… I remember… I think…" I couldn't help smiling at that.

"Shadow… I'm sorry… I tried to save Maria to make things easier for you, but—"

"It's fine…" The two of us sat in silence. I was the one to break it.

"So how was it?" He looked up at me.

"How was what?"

"Everything. Listening to everyone and trying to solve everyone's problems.

"It was… frustrating…" I scoffed.

"That's got to be the understatement of the century."

"Yeah…" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a strange, yet familiar green light. "You have to go now." I stared at the floor.

"Um… Shadow… I'm not sure if I'm coming back…" Surprisingly, he took it quite well.

"Oh… well… it's been nice knowing you." I laughed.

"Thanks… you too…" Then I hugged him. I really don't know why, but I did. When I released him, I started walking towards the green light. "Bye Shadow." I gave an awkward wave as I stepped into the green light. Within a few seconds, I fell back in Haru's room. The thing was… the tape Maria recorded of herself was still in my hand. I wanted to take it with me. I knew there was no way I was ever going to forget this, but I still wanted a keepsake of it, and this video was perfect. I walked over to my room and placed it at the bottom of my sock drawer. Maybe someday, when I'm older, I'll find it again, and remember everything… well, at least I wasn't suffering from amnesia like Shadow…

XX

Ok that last chapter was REALLY short… I know it's usually a lot longer, but there wasn't much to say in this. Soooo… ya. Next time, there's Sonic Next Gen! And a new character will be introduced!

THANKS FOR READING!!