Okaaaaaaay. This chapter is a little shorter than I'd like, but whatever! It's chapter one, it"s allowed to be short! Shut up! Shut up and reeeeeeaaaaadddd! This is my first Sonic story. May it get heaps of reviews from shadow fangirls!

Shadow: I have fangirls?

KYYYYYYYAAAAAAA! Of course you have fangirls, you sexy hunk of junk!

George:

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(~.~)

Shut up, George! Oh, and before I forget....

DISCLAIMER! If I owned Sonic, the dialogue wouldn't be nearly as cheesy.

Chapter One – The First Betrayal

"Professor, is anything wrong?"

Professor Gerald Robotnik looked up from the files in his hands. "Hm, hm? No, my dear, nothing."

I frowned and looked at his face, lined with worry and sadness. Both bad signs. The Professor had been preoccupied lately. More than usual, I mean. And he had looked extremely nervous when he told me to come to the stasis room for a checkup. Not that I didn't see a checkup coming my way. These...attacks, for want of a better word, were becoming more frequent and worrying.

At first it was only when I was really, really furious. And even then it was for all of a split second. Then it happened again, for longer this time. And again. And again. It continued until I lost control if I was just the slightest bit angry. The professor had warned me that I might have to spend some time in stasis. I wasn't scared. I mean, it was the Professor. He could fix anything. Couldn't he?

I stood still while the Professor attached the necessary wires to my arms and legs. Maria watched.

"Okay, my dear, time to go." The Professor said, patting my arm.

""Kay." I said happily. I decided that I would trust the Professor no matter what.

"See you soon, Berri." Maria said, a smile on her face.

"Bye!" I replied.

As unbreakable glass started to enclose the platform, I turned to say a quick goodbye to the professor before I dropped off to sleep.

When I saw his tears, I knew something was wrong. When the small chamber I was in started to fill up with not liquid copper sulfate for development but with ultra-pure water for storage, I knew what was really planned for me.

The Professor....the one I thought of as a father....was shutting me down. Shutting me down. I pressed my hands to the glass and stared disbelievingly at him. The water was almost up to my waist. As soon as my nose was covered I would lose consciousness and I had a sneaky suspicion that I wouldn't wake up again.

Maria was also startled. She ran next to the Professor and glanced between him and my tank.

"Grandfather! Wh-what....that's ultra-pure water!" Maria's voice was muffled by the glass, but I could still hear her.

"Maria, dear granddaughter, I have something to tell you...." his reply was soft.

"What is it?"

"I'm sorry, my child. I lied. I'm shutting Project Beryl down."

"Shut-Shutting down...Berri? B-but...why?"

"It is, my dear, all my fault. I programmed her with the wrong energy, and too much of it."

"What do you mean? Grandfather!" Maria had tears in her eyes now.

The Professor shut his eyes. You know already that I completely drained two chaos emeralds of their power to give to her. I came across no problems doing this. But it was only when Project Beryl's symptoms started that I realized my mistake."

The ultra-pure water had come over my nose and my vision started to fuzz. I fought to stay conscious as the conversation continued, but could only hear snatches of it.

"-like magnets. The two emeralds that I....repelled and kept out....but as....too much energy...."

"...You have fixed her?!"

A pause. Then, "....Project Shadow....replacement."

Project Shadow? My replacement? Was that what he said? Project Shadow...he was the project in room 126, right...? Maria showed him to me. But...the Professor said....he was going to be my companion...what....?

Maria, too, sounded outraged. "Grandfather!.....dare you!"

The Professor lost his temper, or so it sounded like. ".....More frequent!.....week, when she.... earrings...." he paused. "Project Shadow.....Ultimate.....form. I"m sorry."

I fully lost consciousness for a bit, and only by a sheer force of will was I able to tune back in for a few seconds. But only to hear the door close and the click of locks. The gentle sobbing of Maria from the other side.

"Sayonara.....Berri the Hedgehog."

Then....nothing.

A masculine voice I didn't recognize. "What's this door?"

Maria's. "Oh....that-that's where we keep failed projects..."

Failed projects? Was I a....

Maria's voice again. "I often wonder what it's like down there."

The same masculine voice. "What do you imagine it to be?"

The Professor's voice this time. "As Ultimate Life form, your abilities are not just of a normal hedgehog...."

Again the masculine voice, gently chuckling. "Yeah....I noticed that."

Ultimate...?....Ah.....this voice must be my......replacement....

Shouting. running. Shooting. The Professor's mad, mourning cries.

"Maria! Maria, my granddaughter!"

More shooting.

Silence. For a long, long time.

I could sense chaos emeralds, and a greater force, perhaps the master emerald. A loud, piercing cry of the Prototype. Why was….? Violent rumbling. Was the ARK...moving? Voices.....over the loudspeaker.

The rumbling stopped....the aura of the chaos emeralds....disappeared.

Movement near the ARK. I sensed a large mass, maybe a meteor or comet. Quiet again.

The sealed door was suddenly blasted off its hinges by a large explosion that shook the stasis tank. Through the broken doorway strode an extremely fat man flanked by two robots at either side of him. The man was ugly, with a long, pointy nose that somehow supported his sunglasses without arms, and his mustache, as always, looked like somebody had stuffed a squirrel up his nose. He was tall, bald and evil.

Dr. Eggman (for of course, it was he) strode over to the monitor still active after all this time. He scrolled through Project Beryl's file. He took note of her personality, likes and dislikes, belongings, level of education, attacks, and special abilities. All fine. But her physical condition....now this was interesting. Loses her mind when even slightly angry? He scrolled down to the reason of Project termination. As he read his eyes glinted with a brilliant idea. The project's abilities were quite amazing. This girl could quite easily blow Shadow out of the water. Dr. Eggman downloaded all of this information onto a disk and put it in his pocket. Yes, this girl was perfect. He studied her features. Shadow was quite obviously a male mirror image of her. In fact except for this Beryl's - or "Berri" as she apparently liked to be called - colours, she could have been Shadow. Where his skin was black hers was hot pink, where his was red, hers was black. And unlike any of those other bratty talking animals, the area around her mouth and inside her ears was nut brown.

From the corner of his eye he caught the slightest of movements. He looked up to her eyes, which were rolling around behind her eyelids.

"Ah," he mused. "She's dreaming."

Right! End Of Chapter One! Review and you win a....*looks randomly around room* STAPLER! THAT"S RIGHT, FOLKS! YOU COULD BE A WINNER! Or, at another approach, review or I kill you!

Well, I'll send George to kill you, anyway. Isn't that right, George? Yes it is! Coochie-coo!

George:

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(^.^)

Right. Now for chapter two…