Once again, as a reminder, do not make any editing or corrections to this, do not point to me of any mistakes. I will not make corrections. I`m leaving this mostly as is of what it was when Tojo and I rped this out. We both have different rp styles so expect there to be some inconsistencies in things such as apostrophes and tenses.
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Suddenly, they were warped to the place they had previously been standing before walking back; Shadow stumbled once, the sudden drain of power taking its toll, but he shrugged it off and straightened, leading Maria towards Tails' workship; it was a bit of a walk up the two flights of stone-stairs, Maria could see the long air-strip that stretched across the slender rock-path to their right. The workshop was built of stripped metal, with a few gears and gizmos working. Giving Maria a look, he slowly knocked on the door.

"Sonic?"

What sounded like a child inside, followed by a series of objects dropping to the floor, the heavy-looking door slowly opening. Tails' eyes widened slightly, seeing Shadow,"..S-Shadow, w-w-what're you doing here?"

Tails was thrown off as Sonic wasn't around to put his fears at ease; slowly, he looked over towards Maria,"Ah?"

"..Hello to you, too."

Maria smiles to Tails and kneels over a bit. She gives him a wave,"Hello."

Tails gulped once, put slightly at ease by Marias presence,"H-hey."

Smiling lightly; Tails looked like a child-fox with orange fur, two tails, and red sneakers. He was covered in patches of grease, a tool belt on his waist and a wrench in his paw.

Shadow speaks up,"..Won't you ask us in?"

Tails scratched the back of his head,"Oh! Yeah, please, come in."

Stepping out of the way, allowing both of them to walk inside. Shadow let Maria walk in first, following suit afterwards.

Once Tails is joined with them, Maria turns to Tails wanting to verify his identity,"It`s Tails, right?"

"Oh, yeah. How did you know?" Scratching the back of his head, smiling nervously.

Shadow stood to the side in the middle,"..Tails, this is Maria. Maria, this is Tails."

Tails looked back to Maria, offering a paw,"Nice to meet you, Maria."

Maria takes Tails`s hand and her delicate touch is obvious, especially how she takes his hand so differently from other people, like in an old-fashion, lady-like manner,"Nice to meet you, Tails."

Tails noticed this, just scratching the back of his head; he wasn't used to having company these days. Nodding to her, he looked towards Shadow and then back to Maria,"So why'd you come here?"

Shadow looked to Maria, then back to Tails,"I felt it would be..a good time to visit an old friend, and to introduce you to..someone very close to me." Gesturing towards Maria.

Maria clasps her hands together,"Shadow was telling me about your world and I wanted to meet his friends."

"Ohhh, well..yeah, we used to..hang out?" Scratching the back of his head, Tails turned around and pointed his wrench at his work shop; there were a lot of miss-matched parts and a wide assortment of doo-hickies here and there, machine-mechanics. A plane could be seen hidden under a tarp; Shadow just looked around in silence.

"I was just working on things, time really flies by." He chimed in, walking towards the work-desk. Shadow walked about the room at slow-well calculated steps.

Maria looks around at all the tools and mechanics that Tails has around his workshop,"So then, you work with machines and computers, Tails?"

"A lot, yeah. I'm trying to get bigger and better things to work. It takes a long time, though.."

It was a confusing array of wiring and parts, and a lot of heavy-looking machinery. It would be easy for her to trip, if she weren't careful.

Maria begins to step backwards to get a better look at the items that are high on the ceiling. Be caught up in looking at the intriguing items, she does indeed trip over something on the floor and falls backwards.

The chain-she tripped on triggered an object on high to fall down, being flim-sily held up; a very large and heavy motor suddenly falls, crashing into the floor just inches away from her head. A few inches here or there, and she would have easily been crushed. Tails suddenly rushed over, but was shoved-aside by Shadow, who knelt beside Maria,"..Are you alright!?"

Tails scratching his head, looking sadly at the terrible-accident that could have been.

Maria has a hand over her heart as though it would calm her fast-beating heart. She takes a deep breath before finally answering,"Yes, I`m fine."

Shadow didn't actually see what happened, and a rogue thought in his mind linked Tails being involved in this. He suddenly got up and rushed at Tails, catching him in a choke-hold. Tails had no chance, having been dazed and confused by what had happened.

"You had something to do with this, didn't you.." *The similar look from before settling over Shadow`s face.

Tails looked so very innocent, his eyes widening as he helplessly grasped at Shadows wrists,"..S-Shadow..you're hurting me..please, lemme go.."

Shadows teeth grit, he shook Tails up once. "Answer me!" He barked.

Maria becomes very worried for Tails` safety as she knows full well that Tails was innocent of the whole matter,"No, Shadow, don`t hurt him!"

Eventually, Shadow had that same surprised, bemused look from before, and released Tails. Tails fell on his butt and panted for breath, looking sadly towards Maria. Eventually, he spoke quietly,"I..I'm sorry.." Looking towards the floor slowly.

Shadow looked ashamed as he walked towards Maria, looking off towards a window,"..."

Maria looks at Shadow for a moment and then walks over to Tails and does an apologetic bow to him,"I`m sorry this happened, Tails."

She looks over to the mess resulted form the engine falling,"I`m also sorry that I ruined your creations..."

"It..it wasn't anything, I'm just happy you're alright."

Although his nervous-smile was short lived, as he looked towards Shadow, looking away from her. Shadow slowly walked forwards, and as if to "make right", offered Tails a hand,"Here.."

Tails hesitantly took it, getting up. Although, his gaze didn't stir from the floor.

Maria doesn`t want to leave Tails in such an obvious state of uneasiness, much less unhappiness. One of the things about her sweet personality that was obvious to everyone she has met was that she wants everyone to be happy. She walks over to the fallen motor and leans down, picks up a stray, small item that has fallen off the motor and says,"Would it help if we put it back, Tails?"

"It's fine, really..I'll put it somewhere else.. it was a stupid mistake to have put it up there anyways. I'm really sorry..you could have been really hurt.."

Shadow suddenly spoke harshly,"She could have -died-.."

But then went silent if/when Maria would cast him a look of any sort, looking towards the motor.

Her intelligence would tell Maria that Shadow`s actions were a result of fear; fear of loosing her a second time. So, she doesn`t hold any anger of any sort towards Shadow. He has changed as a result of the trauma and that`s the way it is. Maria walks back over to Tails and passes the detached item to him,"I`m sorry..."

"..It's nothing, don't worry about it."

Taking it, he chucked it over his shoulder, as if to emphasize that it really wasn't anything; he even faked a smile, although she could likely tell he was afraid. Shadow crosses his arms and looks on patiently, as if in deep thought.

Perhaps it was best they moved on? Maria doesn`t want to cause any more disasters for this poor little fox. She is used to clear floors on the Arc and wide open rooms. She will have to work on her clumsiness. Maria smiles to Tails,"Well, it was nice meeting you, Tails. I hope I get to see you again."

Tails nodded a few times,"Nice meeting you too, good bye. Come back anytime.."

Seeing them out, Tails walked them to the door, guiding them over any stray parts on the floor or the like. Smiling towards Maria a few times, then looking nervously to Shadow, he slowly closed the door; silence settled. Shadow didn't say anything, he just looked off, still feeling lingering guilt.

Maria takes notice of Shadow`s different mood. She takes a hold of his hand and when he looks at her, she smiles,"Why don`t you show me this city you were talking about?"

And this was Maria`s way. She never scolded Shadow when he did something wrong or made mistakes.

"..I guess I can do that." Shadow eventually spoke up, taking her hand and leading her to the train-station. Only a few archaeologists were there, all staring towards the two. A few smiled warmly towards Maria and even waved, but they looked to Shadow with mixed expressions; Shadow stood a fair distance with Maria. Then the train came, and he promptly boarded, sitting down in an empty car with her,"Now we'll have an hour to talk.."

Maria`s soft smile continues the whole way through,"Yes, I would like to hear more about your adventures."

"..Well, it's a long story.." Shadow starts off, telling her about how he started out on the Earth, how he came to fight against GUN operatives and "sided" with Robotnik and fought a series of battles against various people. How he came to have met Sonic, going all the way to space and fighting a bio-weapon created by the scientists. A mixture of peace and sadness had settled over him, he told her of the times he managed to gather the chaos emeralds to revive her..which led up to the here-and now. The train stopped just a bit after he told her the series of stories,"Oh..we're here."

Maria takes the whole story in stride. It cleared up why people were keeping their distance from Shadow. Sure in the end he saved everyone but they still remember all the terrible things he had done and the lives he had taken. But Maria won`t be concentrating on that; Shadow had done the right thing in the end and the best thing to do is move forward from there. She rises up with Shadow and exits the train.

Shadow felt a little surprised with how well she had taken it, but shrugged it off as he led her into the city; Station Square. Paying for the trip with some money he had collected in a satchel at his waist, he led her out of the station. Things were clear and beautiful, numerous normal-looking people walking the streets. Cars buzzed by, several buildings surrounding them. It was a very urbanized environment, but there were several parks that had a few trees and a lot of grass.

"I saved some money while you were..asleep. Tonight we can eat a nice hot dinner and check out a room at the hotel."

"That sounds like fun."

A smile is ever present on her face as she looks at Shadow, giving him her answer. Apparently, she rarely lacked a smile when she looked at him. She looks around at the city. She finds the tall buildings to be incredible and the different designs of all the cars going by to be very interesting. Everyone`s clothes are a little different than what the pictures shown them to be but not so much.

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