Hey there Daffy here with the sequel to Amy's Song, thank you to all those 2 people who reviewed, very much appreciated, anyway hope you enjoy.
Pictures
Sitting by the window, a young girl with flowing blond hair, smiled as she looked to the view. Earth. Not many teens can say that they have been to space, but this is not the case for Maria A. Robotnik. 3 months ago she woke up with no memory, she was found by a loving man called Gerald Robotnik, he took her in and eventually adopted her, Maria loved him and he loved her as his own.
Gerald Robotnik was a scientist, three months ago he was truly blessed, he had finally gotten the government, to grant his request for research and development and fund his journey to space so he could begin Project Shadow, on his way home to celebrate he came across a young girl, she was lost and had no where to go, so he took her in and over time he grew to love the young girl as if she were his own, he adopted her and brought her with him to space, where he and his team of scientist will be working. The girl was an angel, and always helped in anyway she could, his co-workers all loved her. Her smile could brighten up anyone's day. Gerald was worried that Maria would be lonely in space, he had tried to encourage her to make friends on Earth, but Maria had never really found anyone other then him she would consider a friend and when Project Shadow was fully functional, she had found a new friend.
"Shouldn't you be resting," a voice said, startling the young girl.
"I know, but I just wanted to see Earth again, it's so beautiful, wouldn't you agree Shadow?" Maria asked giving Shadow a smile. Shadow walked into the light to reveal a black hedgehog with red streaks on his quills and a patch of white on his chest. Shadow smiled to her as he sat down by her side.
"Yes, but it is nothing compared to you," he replied, smirking at the sight of her blush.
"Oh Shadow, you're such a charmer," she laughed, punching him playfully on the arm. Maria's heart beat increased as she looked to Shadow "He thinks I'm beautiful," she thought, a blush still decorating her face. Ever since Maria had first seen the black hedgehog, she had fallen head over heels in love, but due to their difference in species, she had never acted on it, she truly loved him but for some reason she felt as if she already knew him.
She shook her head to clear her thoughts, before leaning her head on Shadow's shoulder, as the two sat in companionable silence. After a while Shadow looked down to Maria, smiling as he saw that she had fallen asleep. As gently and carefully as he could Shadow picked her up and carried her off to the room that they sometimes shared.
He walked over to her bed which was by the wall, a few feet away was another bed, his bed. He gently placed his precious cargo down, looking to her face, he frowned. Sweat was mopping her brow and her face was pulled back into a frown, Shadow could see that she was in the midst of a nightmare. She often had nightmares and sometimes woke up screaming, only he and Gerald knew about the nightmares and often it would only be when they heard her screaming, she had a tendency to not tell them when she was scared or upset. She was always putting others first and as much as it annoyed Shadow; he had found it to be an aspect of her character that he loved.
Shadow was unclear on whether he should wake her up or not, he knew that she was having trouble sleeping and would often stay awake at night, but he couldn't just let her suffer even if it was in a dream world.
Dream
A pink hedgehog was tied up to the wall, her body was broken and bleeding, tears welled in her eyes but she refused to let them fall as the one who had been tormenting her brought the whip across her body again, she held back the scream as she always did. She would not give him the satisfaction.
"Your friends are dead, they died because of you, you killed them, you filthy demon brat," a voice spat to her from the shadows as the crack of a whip was heard again. She cringed as a bucket of what appeared to be ice cold water was thrown over her, she shivered and felt her wounds sting, "Salt water," she thought, before rough hands gripped her chin, the pulled her head back and punched her in the stomach, making the hedgehog gasp. Mistake. Once her mouth was open they shoved a bottle down her throat, she coughed spitting out the red liquid.
"Tell me, do you like the taste of the blood of the innocent?" a voice asked her, before leaving her alone in her cell. The hedgehog growled as she began spitting out a coppery tasting fluid, her nostrils filled with the sent of iron as small tears slowly escaped from her tightly closed eyelids.
Dream end
"ARGH!" Maria screamed as she sat up panting, looking around she became confused, no longer was she tied up in some dank cell and being tortured, she looked down to her body, not a single scratch and to top it all off she had no pink fur, just the feel of her human skin. She flinched as she felt a hand rest on her shoulder, turning she saw that it was Shadow, without thought Maria hurled herself to Shadow and began crying into his chest.
Shadow placed his arm around her, cursing himself for not waking her up earlier. He slowly began rubbing her back, calming her down as the sobs wracking her slender frame were becoming less frequent, until the stopped all together.
"Would you like to talk about it," Shadow asked in a sincere voice.
"It was nothing, just a nightmare... Thank you for calming me down Shadow," she replied shaking her head, Shadow sighed and was about to say something when one of the professors colleagues entered.
"Project Shadow, the Chaos chamber is ready, if you'll please come with me."
"No, can't you see that Maria is upset..."
"It's ok Shadow, I'll be fine, after all it was just a silly dream," said Maria interrupting Shadow, giving him a fake smile for reassurance, Shadow studied her smile with apprehension before he nodded and followed the scientist out of the room.
Maria sighed before she stuck her hand under her bed, bringing out a beautiful pink diary; the diary was a plan paper book, one that Dr Robotnik got her before they left Earth and began living on the ARK. Opening the book Maria saw beautiful pictures that she had drawn in order to chase away the boredom, oh how she loved to draw, it was how she expressed herself. They were pictures of a pink hedgehog, some were pictures that she had drawn of Shadow, Gerald and her self living on the ARK, and others were images of scenery that she planed on showing Shadow, so he too could see the true beauty of nature. But most were pictures of the pink hedgehog. She looked through them, these were her secret drawings and were done with remarkable accuracy. She picked up her favourite one, it was a drawing of an outing, there was a two tailed fox playing with a yellow rabbit and a weird floating creature, a mother rabbit was watching them happily, to their right was a white bat arguing with a red creature, she wasn't sure what he was just yet, to their left was a blue hedgehog posing in front of a squirrel and right in the middle of the drawing was a pink hedgehog being held in the arms of a black hedgehog. Shadow. She sighed dreamily hoping that one day this drawing would come true for her friend and that he would find love, even if it wasn't with her. She turned to a new page and began drawing her dream out, leaving space underneath it to write what she had seen.
After 4 hours of drawing Maria put down the pen and looked at her art work, it was of the pink hedgehog being chained to the wall, turning back through the pages she saw many that depicted the hedgehog alone and upset, Maria shuddered at her own images, no one deserves this, no one. She was startled as a tear drop fell onto the paper, she didn't even know she had been crying. She wiped her eyes; closing the book she put it back in its hiding place.
Shadow was walking down the corridors of ARK, he was on his way back to Maria's room so that the two could go and get lunch, time was a funny thing on the ARK, in the depths of space it was hard to tell if it was day or night, so the scientists made due with sleeping at any time of the day once they had finished their shifts, the canteen was open 24/7 with cookbots preparing all kinds of food. He shook his head as he thought about the hundreds of robots that were being used on the ARK, all with different purposes, some for security, some for cooking others for cleaning and then there were the ones that would fix all damages no matter how small, he smiled as he thought of the way Maria would treat them, to everyone else they were just machines but to her they were wonderful and didn't deserve to be taken for granted, Gerald had even given some of the robots a personality, there were many bots that he and Maria had befriended.
Entering her room, he smirked as he watched her brushing her hair, using his speed and stealth Shadow crept up towards an unsuspecting Maria.
"BOO!" he screamed, once again startling the poor girl
"ARGH!... SHADOW! OH I'LL GET YOU!" she screamed, as she began to give chase after the chuckling black hedgehog. Maria was laughing as she chased Shadow around the hallways of ARK. Shadow led her to the canteen which was quite as there was only two people eating at the time.
"Come on Maria! You're going to have to be faster then that," called Shadow back to her playfully as he was running round the tables, he turned round only to stop in his tracks, he couldn't see Maria, panic filled him before he was pounced upon.
"Ragh! Gotchya," laughed Maria as she pinned him to the floor, Shadow laughed with her, relief filled his being, before he smirked and rolled over making it so that he was the one pinning Maria.
"Hey no fair," she cried as she feigned pouting before both she and Shadow burst out into laughter. Sitting up, they both looked around the room to see an amused Gerald eating with one of his equally amused co-workers.
Shadow helped Maria to her feet as the two of them made their way to the lunch line coming back to sit next to Gerald, his co-worker having already left to get back to work by the time they sat down.
"Having fun are we?" Gerald asked with a grin, he loved watching Maria and Shadow play, they were his kids and he loved them dearly.
"Yes father, Shadow and I were playing tag, I won," claimed Maria with a smile.
"What? And who was it who had the other one pinned?" Shadow asked with a hint of mirth.
"Yes well, I had to let you, I didn't want to make you feel inferior to me," she replied with a laugh, Shadow rolled his eyes as he too laughed. The three sat down and ate their lunch, it was a family dinner for them, one that each of them treasured, it had been a while since their last one with Gerald always being busy. Mari smiled to her family as she ate her burger, every so often she would laugh at Shadow as he always managed to spill something down him self.
"Shadow," Maria said in fondness, drawing his attention she doubled over with laughter seeing as Shadow had a piece of lettuce hanging from his muzzle, blushing Shadow quickly ate the lettuce as both he and Gerald joined in with the infectious laughter.
Once their meal was finished Gerald and Shadow had to get back to work running some more tests on the hedgehog, but not before walking Maria back to her room. Once they had said their good byes Maria reached under her bed pulling out her diary and began drawing a picture of the meal they had just shared, it was unusual for Shadow to be in such a playful mood, it was a side he only ever showed to her.
Once she was done with her picture Maria began tidying up her room, although she wasn't a messy person, Maria loved to make sure everything was clean, she always helped the cleaning bots in her spare time, bending over to pick up a piece of rubbish, Maria's necklace dangled in front of her. She stood up and held the heart shaped locket in her hand.
It was a very mysterious locket to her, she had it before she met Dr Gerald and could never get it open, inscribed were the words Hidden Heart, she had always wondered where she had got it and if perhaps it held the secrete to her past, the other thing was that no matter what she tried, the locket would never come off, there was no clip to it and it was too small to pull over her head. In some way, she was glad because she couldn't bear to part with it, every time she was down, she would look to the locket, it always gave her hope and made her smile, whatever happened in her past was unimportant, what mattered was the here and now, and right now people needed her, Shadow need her and Gerald needed her and she needed them just as much.
Maria was too busy concentrating on the locket to notice someone coming towards her.
"Oomph!" she cried as she fell back landing on her butt, looking up she saw a tall man with red hair in a lab coat.
"Sorry Dr Zero, I didn't see you there," apologized Maria, even though he was the one who walked in to her, Dr Zero was looking at her with distaste, it was unknown to Maria why he disliked her, she was always nice to him, although she wasn't frightened of him, his behaviour always upset her.
"Clearly, next time watch were you are going!" he ordered as he walked past her leaving her on the floor.
Maria shook her head before getting up, there was something about him that gave off bad vibes, she wasn't sure if it was her imagination but he always seemed to be watching her whenever they were in the same room, shaking her head again to clear the thoughts Maria began walking down the corridor.
Dr zero watched her leave from around the corner, he glowered at the girl, she was messing up his and Black Doom's plans for Shadow by treating him as an equal, the hedgehog was a mere tool to be used however they desired, but her friendship with Project Shadow was turning Shadow soft, something would have to be done about her.
Maria smiled as she entered the storage room, the storage room was used for storage of all sorts, each object was placed in a categorical area, making the room look very much like a maze; this was one of Maria's favourite rooms. Looking around she saw two robots that looked to be arguing with each other. She smiled as she approached them.
"Bimbo, Donnie what are you two arguing about this time?" she asked with a hint of amusement, a while ago Maria took it upon herself to give every robot their own name, not once had she ever forgotten any.
"Maria, will you please tell Donnie that a tomato is a fruit!" cried the robot called Bimbo, looking to Maria. Bimbo was a humanoid looking robot with the exception of his head which looked like it belonged on a dog, he was a silver black colour and was wearing a jumper that Maria had given him when it accidentally shrunk in the wash.
"Maria, tell him that it's a fruit!" cried the other robot, Donnie. Donnie was a droid that had no legs, he simply floated above ground, his head was in the shape of a toaster, which was seated on a floating microwave with arms.
Both robots were built for different purposes, Bimbo was built as a rubbish collector, he was a failure and only put the rubbish into categories, causing more mess, he was supposed to be terminated but Maria had come up with a better solution saving him from the scrape yard, by giving him a job in the storage room sorting out the items. Donnie had the same malfunction with chemicals, being used as a oven heater for the scientist's chemicals; he would often switch them to place them in order, causing a catastrophe one time, when he switched nitrogen with potassium, another failure in his department, but great for the sorting of the storage as well as baking cookies for Maria using his oven. Maria sweat dropped, only these two could have a really pointless argument about a tomato, knowing that they wouldn't listen to what she said anyway, she changed the subject.
"Hey Bimbo, Donnie, are you up for another captains voyage?" Maria asked looking towards them, she laughed seeing their eager nods of anticipation.
"Ok. All hands on deck for Captain Maria, the bestest pirate to ever sail the seven seas!" Maria called out as she went over to the toy chest, which she had been storing here. Opening it up, she pulled out a bandana and an eye patch for herself, giving Bimbo a plastic hook and a sailor's hat and Donnie a black and white striped top with a toy parrot attached.
"Argh matey, today we chart the seven halls of storage, the most dangerous sea there be, tis said that just looking at the ocean maze can drive a person insane," Maria said putting on her best pirate accent.
"Aye aye Captain," replied Bimbo and Donnie in unison, giving their captain a salute. The three set off roaming around the storage maze, until eventually they heard a clang coming from the east side.
"First mate Bimbo, directions to the east!" called Maria as they ran towards the source of disturbance. Bimbo directed them around the maze; they stopped as they found a metal pipe on the floor.
"Argh, seems to me that we 'ave a stow away," said Maria looking around the room.
"Bimbo, Donnie man the cannons, be prepared to attack!" called Maria handing the robots a basket of paper balls to throw. Maria led the three around the maze, stopping when she heard movement, she turned only to catch a paper ball to the chest, looking at her mystery assailant she smiled as she saw Shadow.
"Argh, look, it be the famed black and red spiked sea monster, fire at will!" Maria cried grabbing some "Ammo" and aiming at the smirking hedgehog. Shadow dodged all of the attacks and pounced on Maria sending the two tumbling where he then pin her to the ground.
Maria smirked, seeing Bimbo and Donnie from the corner of her eye.
"Shadow... you shouldn't have turned you back on the others," Maria said in a sing song voice before Shadow was playfully pulled off of her, being held between the two robots. Maria stood up and dusted her blue dress, and readjusted her bandana.
"Argh, we have you, now what to do with you?" Maria asked turning her back on an amused Shadow making him miss the devious smirk that appeared on her face. Maria turned and pounced on Shadow, tickling him in all his ticklish spots, making the black hedgehog try to stifle his laughter.
"Ok... Ok... I surrender to Captain Maria!" cried Shadow through his laughter trying to get her to stop, Maria laughed and held her hand to her chin in mock thinking.
"Hm, I don' know matey, are you prepared to join our crew," Maria asked with a smile, Shadow smiled and nodded. "Then welcome aboard cabin boy Shadow," smiled Maria, she laughed at the face Shadow made from the low rank, before helping Shadow up and pulling him into a hug.
"Crew, I own you! You are my crew, and I am your captain, let it forever be known that Shadow the black and red spiked sea monster, be for ever in my debt for sparing his life," recited Maria as the four left to explore the rest of the maze.
The four had spent the next two hours exploring the sea of the storage maze before Maria's stomach rumbled signalling the end of the game, Maria and Shadow had said their goodbyes they made their way back to the canteen for dinner.
Once Shadow and Maria had both had their fill, they returned back to Maria's room, where the two just sat talking in bed.
"What is planet Earth like?" Shadow asked looking at the window that was opposite their beds.
"It's wonderful Shadow, there are so many people, and so many animals, nature is a thing of beauty," replied Maria, getting a dreamy look on her face. Shadow didn't understand what Maria was saying, to him Earth was just a round blue ball, but if it meant so much to Maria then it had to be wonderful.
The two spent ages talking about the glorious blue marble that decorated their view, with Maria doing most of the talking and Shadow listening.
"What were your friends like on Earth?" Shadow asked interested. Maria got a sad look on her face as she push a strand of hair out of her eyes before answering.
"The truth is, I didn't have any, or if I did... I don't remember them," replied Maria, looking to him she asked, "Do you remember when I told you of how I first met father?" at Shadow's nod she continued, "Well... Ever since then... I just get this feeling... That I'm not meant to have friends... I tried making friends... But that didn't go well... the other kids didn't like me much..." trailed off Maria, tears coming to her eyes as she remembered the mean things the kids at school said about her.
"Why wouldn't anyone like you?" Shadow asked generally surprised, Maria looked to him as a tear escaped her eyes.
"People can be cruel, Shadow... They sometimes... Lose the way..." trailed off Maria looking to the ceiling before she turned back to Shadow with a smile, "But you must never give up on them, no one is born with a heart of stone, you just have to look for the marshmallow goodness that's inside of them," Shadow looked at Maria, giving her a smile he saved only for her, this is what he loved about her, her big heart and her ability to see good in everyone, even someone as grumpy as him.
Ending the discussion both he and Maria turned, getting into a comfortable position before drifting off to sleep.
"No...Please don't...It hurts...Don't touch me...Please!" cried Maria in her sleep, she was tossing and turning as tears cascaded down her tightly closed eyelids. Shadow shot out of his bed seeing her tears and rushed to her side. He started shaking her, trying to wake her up.
"Maria... Maria wake up, it's just a dream..."
"ARGHHHHHHH!" screamed Maria as she bolted up in her bed, looking around she saw Shadow looking at her with worry. She flinched as he placed a hand on her shoulder, before drawing her knees close to her chest as sobs wracked her slender frame.
"Maria, what happened?" Shadow asked, fear evident in his voice. Maria turned to look at him before she pulled him into a hug.
"Oh Shadow...Sob...It was horrible...Hic...There was this girl...She was being attacked and hurt in the most foul way!" cried Maria, choosing to keep the fact that it was a pink hedgehog who was attacked, as well as the fact that she herself was the victim of the heinous crime, to herself. Shadow rubbed her back, this dream had shocked him, he knew that Maria had nightmares, but he didn't know they were this bad, he assumed that she like many others, had a childish fear of monsters in the dark. He pulled the girl into a tight protective hug, he knew how cruel man could be, but Maria always seemed naive and innocent.
"It's ok Maria, no one is going to hurt you like that, no one is ever going to hurt you, not while I'm around," whispered Shadow in a soothing voice calming the young girl down. Maria sat in Shadow's embrace listening to his heart beat. She wished Shadow could always be there for her and only her, but she knew that the world needed him, that people like the pink hedgehog needed him to protect them, she felt selfish for wanting to keep him all to herself.
"Shadow... I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you," she said not looking Shadow in the eye. Shadow lifted her chin up, wiping away the remainder of her tears.
"Don't be silly Maria, you're my best friend. I would do anything for you," he said as he gently lowered her back to her bed, as he was about to return to his bed, Maria's voice stopped him.
"Shadow...Could...Could you sleep here with me?" Maria asked him shyly, Shadow smiled as he climbed into her bed. He blushed a little as Maria snuggled up to him, before the two of them drifted back to dreamland, for Maria she had no more nightmares during the rest of the night. How could she when she had her brave Shadow the hedgehog to scare them away.