It was a night I could never forget… The anger and pain in his eyes was so overwhelming and his fur burned black. Not like my own. It burned with much more evil then I have even seen before in on the flesh of the enemies I have fought in the past.

Why was he so mad? What was eating him alive deep down in his heart? It could have been the fact that we were losing the war at the time… I remember him telling me that he needed to be stronger to protect the one he loved so dearly close to his heart. I told him that power didn't matter. He never listens to me…

I never really understood that hedgehog… he would always be so happy and good-lucky. It just… it never made any since to me at all. The destructive power of that black and evil form of his killed so many and stained his hands with the blood of the innocent people who were in the wrong place… at the wrong time… So many times I would shout his name; shout for him to stop. Just to tell him that we were alright. That no one was hurt. He would just look at me with such sad and painful eyes to the point where I could not bear to gaze in them any longer. Then he would leave again.

It's strange; those eyes of his. They were like chained up book that only I had the key for.

It would seem that he would never let me fight along with him. "Get back Shadow!" he would shout to me as I watched his fur grow that terrible color. That was one of the things that made me mad the most.

Why?

Why wouldn't he have let me help him? Why did he have to be so thick-headed that he couldn't see the odds of the battle?

Instead of helping him in the field, a lot of times I would be the one dressing his wounds. There had to be… so many of them… I was getting sick of it. But every time I brought it up, he would just look the other way.

He wouldn't eat much during those cold and bloody nights. He would just sit on that rock that would over look a large valley. I guess though… that those nights weren't the worse nights of my life… That was the only time I got to see him smile. The only time his emerald green eyes would light up with happiness. The only time he would tell me his secrets, his dreams. His fears… his nightmares…

His secrets were deep and could write the most heart moving story that would ever set foot on paper. His dreams were vivid and would paint a picture so beautiful and breath taking, that it would take the place of the skies.

His fears were dark and would rip apart even the strongest willed man ever to breathe. His nightmares were cryptic and would send shivers down your spine then sending the most uneasy feeling I have ever felt through your heart.

I wonder why it was only me he would talk to. I thought that Tails and Knuckles would be the ones he who talk to twice before me. We try to kill each other a couple times before the war. I always thought I was an enemy of his, but now I think that I'm the only closest person he has.

Why he was this way, I still cannot figure out. The answer is staring me in the face when he looks at me, but I cannot seem to reach out and touch it.

He knows. He knows it drives me completely insane when he does that, but he was no fool. He knew not to get close to anyone anymore until the fight was long gone.

I think that's what his source of sadness came from. It made him sad that he couldn't tell me what he wanted to tell me for a long… long time. That's why he was happy when he could tell me those deep things that no one else knew.

I wish I figured that out a couple minutes before I did. I could have changed everything.

The night of the blood fountain, I found a small box under my pillow. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Curiosity gave me a nick and it opened the box. What was inside puzzled me for the longest of moments.

But then it hit me.

It was a small piece of cloth with a heart drawn in the center. It was his own blood that had painted the picture. Right then and there… I knew who the person he wanted to protect to dearly was.

That hedgehog was no fool. He knew when his hour glass would run out of sand to spill.

Regret fills my soul when I recall of those moments. The thought of saving him… I just… It's such a painful thought. But I supposed that the way that he pasted was only the past way possible…

Wounded in combat and dying in the arms of that person you wanted to protect to very dearly.