Shadow can’t die, not really.
He’s immortal, an experiment he was built from the ground up. He was made to be a cure, to outlive everything and everyone. To be invulnerable.
When all is gone thousand of years into the future, what will happen? He’ll have nothing left, everything will be gone but him. Maybe a way to die would be to undo everything.
Take apart his body and mind, unmake him by the atoms, unmake what was made. Separate the consciousness from the body, separate what made him alive. But where would you put what you unmade? He would still be there, because you broke something doesn’t make it gone. you still have the parts that made it together, that held him up and made him a being. He would still be there, a lingering sense of what he used to be, who he used to be.
Or maybe not, maybe he is gone, separating them you might be killing him, stripping him of what made him himself. But he’s still there, or maybe not, after all you might’ve taken him apart but if you put it back together, is it the same?
He’s not the same mobian that met Maria,
He’s not the same mobian who fought with Sonic,
He’s not the same mobian that fought black doom,
That fought to choose for himself, and not what others told him was him,
Choose to make something of himself,
May be the same pieces but they were still pulled apart, they were still undone, they were put back together yes. But that doesn’t change the fact they are not where they used to be, they don’t have the same connection or maybe even the same place.
That may look like shadow, and think like him, have the same memories as him, but is it him?
Or maybe it is, after all it is the same pieces when you pull him apart it’s still the same guy, that’s still him, he didn’t pass, he has the same parts same consciousness.
He still, there. He’s unmade, not dealing with what was, he’s gone but that’s not mercy, that’s not death. He’s gone, but not really. He still didn’t pass.
If there is an afterlife he wouldn’t join it, he can’t, he didn’t pass, he was unmade, torn apart by the seams, he was unbuilt, separated, but he didn’t die.
Maybe the closest thing would be stasis but that’s not death either, that’s more like a sleep, a deep sleep. He’s not conscious but he is awake, that’s not death, time is moving, he is not, but he’s not DEAD.
In all of these versions he would still be awake, and after that he would be alone, he would never have what he used to have, he would never have the life he fought for, the friends he fought for. He would be alive but not really he wouldn’t be living, maybe he would just be awake, a consciousness of what he was, can be, an is. But he’s still alone.
Maybe that’s how he was always meant to be,