"Geez, why on earth would anybody attack something so innocent?" Rouge the Bat asked as she watched young Christina Lorwhola sleep peacefully in their hotel in Chun-Nan. "I've often asked myself the very same thing, and not just about Christina." A dark figured replied. Shadow the Hedgehog was the GUN agent assigned to protect Christina, ever since she'd been brutally injured by the ruler of the Nocturnus. "You're thinking about Maria." Rouge stated. She hadn't needed to ask, to her, the meaning of Shadow's statement had been obvious. Shadow nodded, even though Rouge could barely see him in the darkness of the hotel room, "She remains me of her. Her eyes, her personality, they're very similar."
Rouge nodded in understanding, "Do you not know anything about her past at all? Did she not tell you anything before it happened?" she asked. Shadow shook his head in reply, "She never told me much other than that her father was a soldier who died in the final battle of the Great War, that she'd encountered the Doctor when she was very young, and that her mother died not long after that, although she believed the two events were unrelated. Aside from that, most of what she told me involved her family history more so than her personal history." "Her family history?" Shadow nodded, "Christina's great-grandmother was a scientist aboard the ARK." "Really? But I thought all of the ARK's scientists died in the raid, or else were executed later." Shadow shook his head again, "All of the scientists who were involved in my creation were killed, but officially, Dr. Lorwhola was not involved." He explained. "You say that, but by the way you worded it, I get the feeling that she WAS involved."
Shadow looked at his friend and nodded again. "The professor was the head of research aboard the ARK, well, the head of everything really, but Dr. Lorwhola was a brilliant scientist in her own right. She surpassed even Professor Gerald in archaeology and electromagnetics, and was considered an expert on the Chaos Emeralds. The professor considered her a respected colleague and trusted confidant. She helped Professor Gerald study Emerl, advised him on some of his other projects, and helped him to develop the Eclipse Cannon. Since she did not work in the field of biology, she wasn't supposed to have any involvement with me, however, because of her knowledge of the Chaos Emeralds, and the fact that, like Christina, she was very athletic, the professor asked her to train me. She was the closest thing to a mother I ever knew, because like the professor and Maria, she and her daughter viewed me as something other than an experiment." " So Christi's grandmother was up there too?" The dark one nodded again, "It's funny. She was very much the opposite of Christi. Bold, daring, and rarely afraid of anything it seemed. She was about the same age then as Christina is now, but you'd have never known from her strength." "Heh, yeah, pretty different from our little Christi."
Shadow leaned back on his bed and Rouge settled herself on the ceiling. Staring up at a blank spot above him, Shadow's mind drifted to the memories of fifty years ago…