Disclaimer: Shadow the Hedgehog and all related characters are (c) SEGA. Carol and The Voice are (c) me, as is this story.
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Gerald was getting frustrated. His attempts to create the ultimate life form had so far been going nowhere. Just when he felt that he was nearing a breakthrough, something would come along to ruin his plans. His latest experiment had become withdrawn, refusing to participate in the Test. It was the closest they had gotten to the shape adorning the ancient pyramids' murals, a small spiky figure. However, while the mural showed a glowing golden figure, their genetics researchers had yielded a creature steeped in black. It seemed that this darkness penetrated to his very core, and for this reason they had named him The Shadow.
He was to be the last genetic experiment, and Gerald had set a lot of hope in him. For the last and supposedly greatest genetic feat in the history of cloning to be such a withdrawn, untrusting, ambitionless disappointment was, to Gerald, a base insult. Well, there would be a change. A new team of archeologists had recently discovered more ruins similar to those that the mural had appeared in, as well as what looked like a primitive robot, which would be sent to the ARK for further study. Gerald planned to get all over this project, so the ultimate life form experiment was put on hiatus. Gerald was now convinced that the secret to perfect life lay in non-life. This was the state of things when Maria met the experiment.
She walked down to the holding area cheerfully with her escort following closely behind, as she always did. Maria's condition dictated that someone be with her at all times. Today it was Carol. Carol had, in fact, been expecting something quite different when she signed up as a medical technician aboard the ARK. She had thought that her days would be filled with mostly nothing, with the occasional interruption when one of the scientists caught the flu and had to have a shot. She wouldn't have minded that. Instead, her days were filled with mostly playing babysitter to Maria, with the occasional interruption when the girl had another NIDS attack and had to be rushed to the nearest hospital station.
NIDS – Neuro Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome – was a relatively new disease, in that it had just recently been recognized. The patient would occasionally lapse into a state of shock and either collapse or go frozen, depending on the type of NIDS. In either case, the patient would be completely paralyzed and unable to do those most basic of functions such as breathing. There was no known cure, and the only treatment was to give the paralyzed patient a shock to get their heart moving again, followed by a shot of serotonin to boost their nerves back to normal. When patients woke up, they remembered nothing of the time when they were paralyzed. The worst part of it, thought Carol, was that you never knew when Maria was going to "stroke off," as she called it. It could be months between attacks, or it could happen so often that the girl didn't leave the hospital bed for a week. At any rate, she was certainly kept on her toes. Some days it felt like fighting a losing battle.
Within the holding area, a different sort of battle was taking place. The Shadow had undone his captive locks with relative ease, but he couldn't seem to remove the golden bands placed around his wrists and ankles. And as if that wasn't enough to irritate him, his Voice chose that moment to start pestering him. Again.
Do you want to be strong? This was the way their conversations always started out. The Shadow's Voice always seemed to think that The Shadow was too weak.
Quiet, you, he thought. I don't need your help. His fingers searched for a seam, with no results.
Oh, but I think you do, his Voice replied. You can't get those silly bands off on your own.
Yeah? Well something tells me that you couldn't do it either. They always fought. They were just too different to get along.
At any rate, you'd better brace yourself. The Shadow blinked. He had expected a response, but not that. Before he could ask for clarification, he heard the distinctive tmp, tmp, tmp of someone coming towards the door. Realizing that he would be in big trouble if he was found without his captive locks on, he slipped back into them, but loosely. He might have to get out of them again in a hurry.
Through the window into his cell, he could see a girl dressed in blue enter. This in itself was not unusual; there were plenty of female scientists aboard the ARK. The unusual part came when she turned to look at him. She had the most amazing blonde hair he had ever seen. It's funny the things you notice sometimes. The girl looked back at him, a look of slight puzzlement crossing her face.
You're staring, his Voice said. The Shadow realized that he was. He quickly turned his gaze to look impassively at a spot on the wall.
The girl grinned. She turned on the microphone that allowed her to address the hedgehog. "What's up?"
The Shadow turned back. He looked confused. "Up?" he asked, turning to stare inquisitively at the ceiling. This resulted in a giggle from the girl. "No," she said, "I mean how are you?"
The Shadow blinked again. What did she expect? He was kept in a holding cell day after day, and the one person who had the authority to change that was… well, after The Shadow's abysmal performance at the Test, they weren't exactly on speaking terms.
"Considering the circumstances, I could be worse."
Oh, well played, bravo, taunted his Voice. She's putty in your hands, lad.
The Shadow could do nothing to retaliate except to glare at the door, and glare he did. The girl didn't seem to notice, because she said, "I imagine you're pretty fed up with those locks." She then turned and asked her caretaker something The Shadow couldn't hear. The lady nodded, and the blonde girl reached over and hit a button, causing the captive locks to open with a pneumatic hiss. The Shadow was more surprised than anything else. His Voice told him, She must be pretty high up to be able to do that. She could be our ticket out of this cell. The girl picked up the microphone again.
"My name's Maria. Maria Robotnik. Who are you?"
"The scientists call me The Shadow."
Maria tilted her head sideways. "Shadow… what a pretty name." She smiled.
She didn't put a "the" in front of it, said his Voice. It sounded different, as if thinking. Interesting.
The Shadow was thinking too. He was still thinking after she left. A part of him was considering what his Voice had said, that she could get him out. But most of his thought centered on the smile she had given him. The way she didn't seem to care if he was "showing improvement" or not. Her blonde hair.
It's funny the things you notice sometimes.
A few weeks later, a few visits later. Shadow was sitting cross-legged on the floor, arguing with himself. They'd been at it for a while.
I'm telling you, the girl's sick, his Voice was saying. Let her get us out, and then ditch the bitch.
I can't do that. You know I can't.
She won't last, you know. His Voice made a pouting noise. If I was in charge, we'd be out by now and you wouldn't be starstruck with Gerald's granddaughter.
First, I'm allowed to be nice to her. Second, I'm not "starstruck." I just like having people to talk to.
Besides me, you mean.
You're not a "person."
If a bystander could have witnessed the scene inside Shadow's head, they would have been confused at best. Even Shadow and his Voice weren't exactly sure what they saw when they talked to each other. It was all hazy. The only time they had ever seen each other clearly had been during the Test. Shadow had been on one side of his mind, his black fur almost blending into the lack of sky or ground, his gray eyes and white patch of fuzz the lightest things about him. On the other side of his mind had stood his Voice. Voice was difficult to look at because he glowed so fiercely. It was like talking to a scarecrow that someone had caught on fire: you could almost see a familiar shape sometimes, but all the flickering made you dizzy if you looked too hard.
Whether I'm a "person" or not doesn't interfere with facts. You're getting too attached. They never called each other by name. It was a sort of taboo. She's gonna wilt, and when she does you'd better not come crying back to me.
Shadow didn't respond.
Don't tell me you can't see it. I know you do.
Behind Shadow came the soft tmp, tmp, tmp sound of a visitor. Looking up, he saw a familiar face.
"Hello, Maria. How are things?"
She smiled at him. "Doing great, thanks! And today's really exciting, do you know why?"
Shadow blinked.
"Today I get to ask Grandpa if you can come out! And you can come with me, if you want." She was practically beaming, and yet Shadow could tell that she was trying to hide how nervous she was about asking Gerald about his abandoned project.
Shadow's expression softened. "All right. I'll come with you."
They walked through the ship's corridors in a sort of calm. It wasn't silence, because silence means no noise. A calm is more like everyone's waiting for something, and it was like that. Shadow was, of course, wearing restraints. Not that they would pose much of a problem should he decide to escape, but for some reason he felt that he would be letting someone down if he did break out. It would be wrong, somehow. And so, despite a lot of silent prodding from his Voice, he stayed in his restraints all the way to Gerald's study.
Maria opened the door and looked inside. The room was lined with massive bookshelves, and fine red carpeting covered most of the floor. An oil painting of a rural countryside adorned the far wall. Gerald Robotnik was at his desk, working on what appeared to be a massive circuit board. The girl nodded at Shadow, signaling for him to follow her inside. He did so, and the door shut behind them, closing out the guards. They approached the desk, but when they got close Gerald spoke, stopping them in their tracks.
"Hello Maria. Sorry I can't talk much now, I've got to fix my main computer terminal after the robot fried it. Was there something you wanted?"
Maria only hesitated for a moment. "Actually Grandpa, there is something I wanted to ask you…"
"If it's about the hedgehog, my answer is no."
"But Shadow's a nice guy!" she protested. "He hasn't hurt anyone or done anything wrong! And it's not fair to keep him locked up all the time."
Gerald sighed. "Maria, he doesn't take orders. Who knows if he'd go insane once he was released? There's no way to keep a check on him."
He knows his granddaughter well, said Shadow's Voice. Too well. She'll have a hard time convincing him to let us roam around.
"I wasn't going to 'roam around,'" replied Shadow, but unfortunately he had replied out loud.
Gerald half-turned from his work. "Weren't you, now." He turned all the way around then, putting down the soldering iron he had been using. "Tell me, hedgehog, how can I trust anything you're saying?"
"I'm not lying to you, professor," replied Shadow. "Maria trusts me."
"Really. Ever wonder why she's the only one who does?"
Shadow averted his gaze. He didn't have to ask why. "Because I didn't follow your orders to attack during the Test, you assume that I will disobey you no matter what you say."
Gerald frowned. "So now you are claiming to be a nonviolent creature." He sighed. "Shadow, that's not what we bred you for."
"Nevertheless, that is my mentality," Shadow replied. "Where would the advantage be in destroying the ARK?"
"Hmm," said the professor, giving Shadow a calculating stare. "I wonder… did we touch on something the original Eosimias had?" He seemed to be talking to himself, descending into mutters.
"Please, Grandpa," said Maria. "He could do something completely nondangerous, like… like being an escort!"
Gerald gave Maria a wide-eyed look. "What? You don't seriously mean –"
"Yeah, I think he'd be really good at it," continued Maria. "Besides, he'd always be under watch, and I don't think he'll try to destroy anything with me around." The girl winked at Shadow, who realized that he was supposed to be agreeing with her.
Gerald stared at Maria for a moment longer, then let his expression slip into a smile. "You've been planning this all along, haven't you?" He gave a light laugh, then turned back to the hedgehog. "Shadow, do you swear on your life that you will protect my granddaughter from any harm, and not destroy anything yourself?"
Oh, come on, said the Voice in the back of Shadow's head. This is so dumb, it's obviously a trick. Don't answer him.
But he did. "Yes."
Gerald nodded vaguely. "Good, good," he said. "Inform the guards outside. It looks like you've got yourself a free hedgehog, Maria."
Maria made a happy noise and threw herself on Gerald in a big hug, saying "Thank you thank you thank you!" Gerald laughed and gently moved her back, picking up the soldering and turning back to his work. Maria grabbed Shadow's hands and led him out of the study, practically skipping with glee. Shadow and his Voice, meanwhile, were both wondering the same thing.
Does he really mean it?
Shadow walked down the hall. It had been a few months, but people were finally beginning to trust him. He really was good at being an escort. Today was the first of July too, a special occasion. He eventually reached Maria's room, knocking on the door. A moment later Maria opened it.
Shadow nearly reeled back in amazement. Maria was wearing a light pink dress that just went past her knees. The sleeves puffed out at the shoulders, then were tight to the wrists. The whole thing flowed like it was made of silk, which it probably was. She was wearing matching pink shoes and a headband, and holding a book. The whole effect was rather breathtaking.
The Voice gave Shadow the mental equivalent of a kick in the shins. Shadow seemed to snap out of it. "Wow Maria, you look…"
Maria grinned, blushing. "Do you like it? It's a present from my mom and dad." She twirled, and the dress spun impressively. "Along with this," she added, showing Shadow the book. On closer inspection he could see that it was titled "Eighty Faerie Tales for Young and Olde."
"'The Little Mermaid' is my favorite. I'll have to read it to you," she went on. "It's all about these creatures that live in the ocean, and they don't have any souls, but one of them gives up her voice and becomes a human so she can marry her true love." She sighed dramatically. Maria was really into fairy tales, Shadow knew. The idea that she could magic away her problems and have a chance to live happily ever after was very important to her. Her favorite before had been "Silent for Seven Years."
"Can I hear it later? There's something I want to show you," said Shadow. Maria stepped out into the hall, closing the door behind her. Shadow led her down the halls until he reached a door with a keypad. He reached up, typing a sequence of numbers that was followed by an affirmative beep. The door slid open.
Maria gasped. She was looking at a rolling green landscape dotted with trees. There was a lake and some mountains in the distance, and small puffy clouds were floating by overhead, occasionally shading the grass from the sun. She walked forward, completely entranced by the vision before her. A gentle breeze stirred, toying with her blonde hair and carrying the faint smell of tin.
"Happy birthday, Maria."
Shadow walked in behind her. Maria was beaming. "It's just like the painting in Grandpa's study!" she exclaimed, spinning around and taking in as much of the scenery as she possibly could. "How did you do it?"
"I asked the guys in Optical for a favor," the hedgehog replied, referring to the ARK's computer simulation department. "Now whenever you want to visit Earth…" He paused. He was about to say, "You can come here," but a simulation wasn't the real thing. You could only trick four senses in a simulation; nothing can fool the sense of smell.
Maria walked over to him and put a hand reassuringly on his shoulder. "It's okay. Thank you." She sat down and patted the grass next to her. "Come on," she said. "I'll read you a story."
Shadow walked over to where she was sitting. Maria was looking out at the view before her, completely amazed at a place that was, for her, completely new. Like something out of a fairy tale. "Look Shadow, they've even got the sun here," she said, squinting at it between her fingers. "It looks so different from Earth."
"You shouldn't look right at it," Shadow said.
The moment was completely ruined by a loud voice coming over the speakers in the ceiling. "Attention all personnel, attention please. There is a sentient battle robot on the loose in sector 20. All personnel occupying sector 20 and surrounding sectors are advised to take cover immediately in designated lockdown points. The robot is armed and dangerous. Repeat, all personnel are advised to take cover."
Shadow and Maria exchanged glances, and then they rushed out of the simulation. The nearest lockdown station was at least three hallways away, which meant a mad dash was in order. Halfway down the second hallway Maria stumbled and nearly fell.
"Come on Maria, we're almost to the lockdown point." Shadow grabbed the girl's hand and tugged her along. The robot had been heading this way, but if they hurried they should get to safety before –
The robot stood in front of them. Shadow and Maria skidded to a halt. Instinctively, the hedgehog stood in front of Maria, holding his arms out to keep as much of her behind him as he could. Maria obligingly slid to her knees.
"Maria," he said, not taking his eyes off the machine. "I'll distract it, then you need to run, got it?" There was no reply. Shadow's eyes darted back to her, and then widened with shock.
Maria sat on the ground, arms limp, staring straight ahead. Her eyes were vacant orbs of glass. Shadow could tell that she wasn't breathing. Ahead of him, he heard a shotgun being cocked.
He dived to the side, pulling Maria with him just as a 12-gauge blast littered the hallway where they had been seconds before. Shadow propped Maria against the wall in a spot where she would hopefully have some cover, and charged the robot, hoping to keep it from firing again.
Shadow hit the robot square on, knocking it to the ground. The robot twisted itself around and did what looked like a backwards somersault, ending on the ground and facing the hedgehog. Then it charged Shadow just like Shadow had done a moment ago. The move caught the hedgehog by surprise, and the robot grabbed his arm as it went past. It then flipped itself around the arm, holding on tightly and making a sickening popping noise in Shadow's shoulder. Daggers of pain shot up his arm, making him scream in pain. The robot let go of his arm, which flopped down like a boned fish. Shadow found that he couldn't move it. The robot spun around, kicking Shadow full in the chin, which in turn sent him spinning until he crashed into the side of the hallway.
Shadow sat where he had landed, his back to the wall. The pain in his shoulder blurred his vision. It was no good; the robot simply turned his attacks back at him. He glanced over at Maria; she was leaning against the opposite wall, staring sightlessly forward. Her earth-blue eyes had frozen over, turning into two orbs of ice, and Shadow could do nothing.
He couldn't save her.
He couldn't save her.
He shut his eyes against the sight, trying to block it out, and he was suddenly in another place. His Voice stood before him, blazing and flickering like a comet's tail. The expression he wore was one of stolid seriousness. Shadow stared; he had never seen his Voice so clearly before.
Shadow, said his Voice, breaking their taboo, and the hedgehog knew what the next sentence would be.
Do you want to be strong?
Shadow opened his eyes. It couldn't have been a second since he had shut them, but the robot was making swift progress on its journey down the hallway. He looked at Maria, sitting helpless and comatose in its path. His eyes shut again.
Yes, he said. I want to be strong.
His Voice looked at the hedgehog for a moment more. Even now, at what could be the end of your life, you want power for her, not for yourself. You want to help her He shook his head. I have never understood what you see in her. I suppose I never will.
In that instant, his Voice charged, jumping over or destroying whatever invisible barrier had kept them apart before, and ran into Shadow. To say that they hit each other would not be accurate, since Voice literally ran into Shadow. His eyes burst open, and he realized that he was kneeling. That realization soon gave out to the observation that he was on fire.
The fire seemed to burst from within himself, covering his hands and feet and destroying his shoes and gloves. Two thin tongues of flame reached up his arms and legs, getting ever closer to engulfing him. He could feel his spines go alight as well, and though his eyes were watering from the pain, the water was evaporated just as quickly by two little flames in the corners of his eyes. Amidst all the chaos and torment, a thought formed in his mind. If these flames don't stop soon, I'll go crazy, and what will Maria do then?
He was standing now, standing in the middle of the hallway and facing the temporarily perplexed robot. His arm was still hanging limply at his side, but he could tell that he didn't need it now. He raised a hand toward the mechanical creature, words forming on his tongue that he wasn't aware he knew. The robot braced, ready to acquire whatever new technique this was.
"Genoh ev tuhbdojj udt vcumo, johlo oeih don mujkoh! Chaos Spear!"
Bolts of yellow flame shot out of his palm at such a speed that it was impossible to follow any one with the naked eye. Fortunately, there were dozens of them, all striking with unrelenting precision and forking deep into the body of the thing. Shadow could feel something squirming inside his eyes; the fire had somehow gotten there as well. Ash was swirling in confused circles around him.
The robot, meanwhile, was staggering in the hallway in front of him, trying to figure out how the hedgehog had done it and analyzing data. Its core sensors told it that it was dangerously close to overheating, but this new technique intrigued it. Shadow took the opportunity to kick the robot in the neck, sending it flying to the left and through the wall. A few yards away, the robot landed and decided that it had had enough, and so shut itself down.
Shadow looked after it, knowing that this should be the time to put out the fire somehow and get Maria to a hospital station, but there was something driving him to destroy the robot, destroy it, destroy, destroy. The flames flickered higher.
No! thought Shadow. I have to stop now
He tore his gaze away from the hole in the wall and ran to Maria. He was still on fire. In a haze of pain and not quite thinking things through, he did what he was told to do if there was ever a fire on the ARK. Running across the hallway, he reached up and pulled the fire alarm.
When Shadow came to, the first thing he did was swear, loudly. He was still in pain all over, but this was a different sort of pain. When he was on fire, it had been sharp and crisp, and somehow separate from himself. Now he just felt a dull, strong throbbing, combined with an odd pins-and-needles sensation whenever he tried to move or touched something. The smell of burned hair hung heavy in the air.
I expect I'm half bald, he thought. Silence met his ears. Startled, Shadow shut his eyes, expecting to see the familiar dark landscape and a misty point of light in the distance. Instead his gaze was met with the back of his eyelids. He opened his eyes again, visibly shaken now.
Voice? he tried, calling with his thoughts. The silence in response was the loudest thing he had ever heard.
He was, for the first time in his life, completely alone.
The door opened, and Maria wheeled herself in to the medical station, despite the protests of the woman behind her. She worked her way over to where Shadow was, which wasn't exactly easy for her bulky wheelchair in the close quarters of the station. She was obviously flustered.
"Shadow," she panted, "are you all right? Goodness me, you've got stripes."
At about the same time, Shadow had said, "Maria, thank goodness you're alive, my Voice is missing!"
Maria blinked. "You sound fine to me."
Shadow blinked back. "No, not my voice, my Voice voice. It's a…" he started gesturing vaguely, "it's a sort of… it's a…" He sighed, giving up the ghost. "Never mind."
They sat for a few minutes in silence, when suddenly Shadow turned his head.
"Did you say I've got stripes?"
Amazingly, Shadow was not half-bald, as he had thought. The flame had instead dyed his fur from coal black to a bright crimson. And whatever the golden bands were on his wrists and ankles, they had survived the flame and were still on him, looking no worse for the wear. Well, he thought with bemused interest, the bands know their stuff, that's for sure. Several of the researchers believed that the bands had suppressed the fire enough for the hedgehog to remain sane and pull the fire extinguisher.
Shadow's shoulder turned out to be dislocated, and he had no fun when the doctor popped it back in. He had also cracked a rib. Fortunately, Maria had suffered no brain damage from the large amount of time she was "stroked off." It took her a while to regain full control of her legs, however, due to their distance from the heart and the time they had gone with no circulation.
A few weeks after the incident, Shadow was summoned to Gerald's study. This was a surprise; Gerald had been avoiding the hedgehog ever since the robot had escaped. It was to be strictly confidential, so no one else was allowed in. Shadow stood before the automatic doors of the study, took a deep breath, and entered.
It was the same study as before, almost to the letter. Sound, it seemed, was forbidden in this room. Gerald was now looking over old books and entering information into his newly restored computer. Before Shadow could make his presence known, the professor held up a finger to silence him.
"Hang on, hang on, just one last paragraph." Thirty seconds later, Gerald turned in his chair to face Shadow. The hedgehog cleared his throat instinctively.
"You wanted to see me?"
Gerald smiled. "Shadow, I don't think I ever properly thanked you for subduing the robot and saving Maria."
Shadow looked away. "Well, it cost a lot to repair the wall, so I figured that made it even –"
"That's not quite what I meant, Shadow." The scientist's gaze intensified. "I was wondering if you would like another go at passing the Test."
Someone aboard Shadow's train of thought pulled the emergency brake. You only got to take the Test once; that was the rule. Once you failed, that was it. It was an unprecedented opportunity. To finally throw off the label of "failure" that had haunted him for so long…
He shook his head. "I can't," he said, surprising himself as well as Gerald. He looked up at the professor's face. "I promised when you let me out that I would look after Maria. I can't go back on it."
Gerald was silent for a long while. The silence in the room grew to a buzzing that filled Shadow's mind. Finally the professor tilted his head to the side.
"Well then. If that's what you really want, then by all means continue doing your job." He allowed himself to crack a smile. "She's a treasure, isn't she?"
Shadow smiled as well. "Yeah. She is."
Carol was in the hospital station where Shadow had stayed, getting out some antibiotics. One of the scientists had mixed the wrong chemicals, and the resulting explosion had shot a few fragments of glass into his forearm. Carol had removed the glass already, and was preparing to disinfect the arm before bandaging it. The door opened unexpectedly and Gerald stalked in, startling her. He had a preoccupied look on his face.
The scientist looked up, trying to make eye contact with the professor. "I… heard that The Shadow refused your offer," he said with what sounded a bit like tact.
"Hmm?" said Gerald, as if he hadn't seen the two people standing there. "Oh yes, he did."
The scientist sighed. "A shame," he said. "We might have had it there."
Gerald's expression changed subtly. "No, I think we did have it. Doctor," he said, turning to Carol suddenly, "did you save the hedgehog's blood work?"
Carol jumped, but nodded and went to get it. She found it in a cabinet, nicely labeled, and gave it to Gerald. He stared at it as though he had won a particularly difficult chess game against it, and then handed it to the scientist.
"When you're done here, take that down to the cloning labs and tell them that I expect many more of these, and about half transported to my research lab on Earth."
The scientist looked at the little test tube in his hand and blinked. "How many more, sir?"
Carol would later remember Professor Gerald's grin, usually in nightmares just before it sprouted fangs and dove at her, howling for the rest of the pack to join in the hunt. Even when the GUN launched their takeover of the ARK, her main fear was that one of the soldiers would suddenly burst into that grin. Time would tell that his grandson inherited that maniacal expression.
"As many as we can make."