Devastated

                                    

                                          
At Shadow's hip, modern tree house, Rouge and Sonic ponder. The three kitties are skittish, hiding under a bench.

                          
"It doesn't make sense," says Rouge. "Shadow wouldn't leave behind his three pet kitties. I wish they were anthropomorphic so they could tell us what really happened. They seem distressed. They don't even wanna come out from under this bench."
                          
"I'm telling you, Rouge, it's gotta be a ruse set up by Eggman!" Sonic insists. "Ya gotta believe me!"
                          
"I do believe that something definitely isn't right but..."
                          
"But what?" Sonic scoffs.
                          
"But Shadow did tell me once that he wasn't sure he wanted to go on and..."
                          
"Rouge, come on!"
                          
"Sorry Sonic, I'm just not sure how this could be an Eggman thing. What does he have to gain by playing a trick like this?"
                          
"I don't know, I'm not an evil master mind!"
                          
Rouge stares out the window somberly.  
                          
"You do know that Shadow had a lot of nightmares and maybe... maybe he just wanted them to stop once and for all."
                          
Sonic is so frustrated, he is nearly fuming.
                          
"I can't believe you would all actually think that Shadow would..." he stops. It hits him that it might be true. He gasps. Rouge turns to face him, in time to see him zoom out the door. She flies after him. 
                          
"Sonic, wait!"

                          
They reach Sonic's shack. Team Sonic is already there, waiting for him. Everyone is quite serious.  
                          
"Oh look, it's all of my so-called friends!" Sonic yells with misdirected anger at all of them.  
                          
They're all quiet.  
                          
"You guys think you're so smart, that you know more about Shadow than I do! Well you don't know all the things we went through together. Like how we went to two different dystopias! How he sacrificed himself to save Princess Sally. Or how all of you turned on me in another dystopia and he saved me while I was drowning. Or how we fought a killer robot on the ARK, and I went down hard but he caught me when that thing shot me in the back. You don't know about how we slept in a hammock together in the canyon, under the stars, or about how he made me chili dogs that were light years better than the ones at Meh Burger. You don't know about how... we..."
                          
He runs out of steam and turns away from them. Rouge lands in the doorway.  
                          
"Get out of my way, Rouge," he commands.
                          
With a heavy heart, Rouge asks him...
                          
"Where you gonna go?" She closes her misty eyes, tears drip down her cheeks. "I love him too, it hurts so much. But it's over, Sonic. Shadow is gone."
                          
She holds herself longingly. He clinches his teeth and fists, as though ready to fight with her. Then he turns around for another way to leave but everyone seems to be surrounding him, worrisomely.
                          
"What are all of you looking at, huh?!" he screams.
                          
Tails desperately reminds him, "Sonic, your my best friend."
                          
"I know that!" Sonic shouts.
                          
He frantically turns around and around, doing a full 360. Even though the room is filled with all his favorite people, the fact that Shadow's not there, hurts so much, he can hardly stand it. Feeling deeply alone and misunderstood, he wants nothing more than to run away but it seems there's no place left to run. Still, maybe he can try? He zooms to his right but finds himself inches from Amy.  
                          
"Don't look at me like that, Amy!"
                          
"Like how?" she asks, wanting only to comfort him.
                          
He zooms to his left but finds himself inches from Knuckles. And Knuckles, in his knuckle-headedness, says something that everyone finds strangely profound. 
                          
"I don't know a lot about a lot or have smart words to say... cause the more words I say, the more it feels like I'm just punching things, but... I'm not gonna punch you, Sonic."
                          
He invites Sonic to be held by widely stretching his big, strong arms.
                          
"No," Sonic gasps, covers his face and falls to the floor. Knuckles catches him as he begins weeping intensely. Huddled closely together, he hugs his friend tightly and tells him...  
                          
"There there, buddy, I gotcha."