Only a short amount of time had passed before the government had found out about Shadow, and, frankly, were scared of what could happen. They traveled into space looking for Shadow so that they could capture him, and never let him free upon the planet. In this process, Gerald's only living relative, and most precious thing in his life, Maria, was killed by careless troops searching frantically for Shadow. As she was shot, and with her last breath, she launched an escape pod from ARK to the planet below, saving Shadow.
This anguish, and pain that Shadow went through can not even be imagined. He had one friend in life, one person who cared and loved him, and she was killed right in front of his eyes. Gerald's message to him: to give the people of that world a better place to live, was distorted by this tragedy. He now was concentrated on one thing, and one thing only: Revenge.
When Shadow was finally released (by none other than Eggman, Gerald's Grandson) , after being captured by the government 50 years earlier, Shadow planed to reap the revenge he had so longed for. After so long of pounding it into his head, Shadow even believed that he made a promise to Maria to get revenge.
It was only later, after Shadow had met the "faker", a Blue hedgehog that had actually managed to equal him in strength, speed, and attitude, that he remembered the true promise that he had made to his beloved friend.
Gerald had his own pain that he was going through, apparently much greater than Shadow had went through: While sitting in a chair at a mental health facility, in a strapped jacket, he had apparently gone crazy from all the extreme mental pain that he had endured. All he could say was how he was going to get revenge on the ungrateful people of that planet. That they took away all that had ever mattered in his life...
Gerald
had built the space colony all himself, and he had built it all too well.
He programmed a huge cannon in the core of the colony to, when powered by
the 7 chaos emeralds, fire straight at the earth, obliterating everything.
Earlier, Shadow had gathered the 7 emeralds in an attempt to get his and the doctor's revenge; but before it was too late, he had found his true destiny. At Sonic's side, Shadow used one of his abilities that make him the ultimate lifeform: Chaos control. This choice he made had saved the world. Chaos Control is a special technique that distorts space and time. What he did at that moment, cost him his life. He gave his life, for the very people that had killed the only person that had shown him true love.
Sacrificing his own life not only fulfilled his promise to Maria, but he fulfilled his destiny, and found out truly what he was created for.
