I don't own the Sonic series
All content belongs to respective owners.
Chapter 3: Pursuit of knowledge
The pair of Eggman and Maria simply drifted through the skies in a floating gray pod. Maria still couldn't fully keep up with everything she was faced with. "I have a cousin. I'm on Earth. And I've probably been asleep for how many years?"
"50 years." Maria groaned at her cousin's response in discomfort. "Don't feel so bad. Let me reintroduce myself. Eggman is more of a nickname for myself, my real name is Ivo Robotnik." He admitted to the girl.
"It's nice to meet you, Ivo." She sighed, still a bit uncomfortable. She started to look down at the ocean below and saw her reflection once again in the waves. She was about to mope again about her circumstances when she looked at the waves rather than herself. She got a small smile and turned to Eggman. "Could you bring us down lower?" Eggman shrugged as he lowered the altitude of the hovercraft.
Maria slowly stuck her hand out the side and gently stuck it in the sea. She giggled as it tickled her fingers when the water ran between them. "I always wanted to do this. The day I finally got to see the planet since I was a little girl. The day I could make new memories." She lamented, cherishing the bittersweet dream. Then she dragged herself back to reality. "That reminds me, how are we going to figure out… this?" She asked as she put emphasis on her now changed body.
"I have been working on a unique scanner that can read the brain and find information from within. If you just tell me what happened while we use it. We should get some answers." He suggested. The doctor shrugged again as he continued and drove the hovercraft into a desert. "If we still don't get everything, we could always just read our grandfather's diary." He spit balled casually. Maria couldn't believe what she just heard.
"His diary? Ivo, how did you get ahold of that?"
"It wasn't easy. I had to go through a lot of trouble to find it in restricted government networks. But truth be told I haven't read much of it yet." The man admitted as they floated into a pyramid. "Here we are." Dr. Eggman and Maria walked through the hidden fortress until they got to a room with a single computer and a chair. Next to the chair was a purple headband with a bunch of wires connecting to the computer. "Go have a seat and put that on." Maria did as instructed and fastened the headband on.
Soon the monitor started to glow and Dr. Eggman sat behind the keyboard. "Alright, start from the beginning. What do you last remember before waking up?" Maria closed her eyes and tried to visualize it.
"I remember being on the Space Colony ARK…" She started to recite. As she talked, the images of her memories appeared on the screen. "… I was just going about my days as usual, when my friend Shadow came to see me." As she mentioned Shadow. A black and red hedgehog appeared on the screen and Eggman tried to suppress a groan of disgust, seeing as how he looked similar to an acquaintance of his. Maria didn't notice as she continued to remember. "He wanted to give me something, something important. He was about to, but then something happened. I think it was an emergency." She assumed.
Then the screen started to jump to various shots of the ARK showing red lights going off, darkening the appearance of various soldiers. "Wait, it wasn't just an emergency. The colony was attacked by the military! Shadow and I tried to escape them and then we..." Maria gasped and her eyes shot open just as an image of Shadow getting shot by a soldier appeared on screen. Even Eggman was in shock from the incident.
"Oh, my. That's… tragic." He admitted in disbelief. Maria started to tear up at the sight.
"Shadow. He sacrificed himself for me. He DIED so I could LIVE!" She cried in pain and sorrow having remembered the truth. Her cousin simply stared at her sympathetically. His heart ached like a long broken section had warmed up again. He couldn't bare to see his cousin in pain.
"Maria, we can just stop if you want." He offered. The hedgehog sniffled and looked up.
"No. I appreciate the offer, Ivo. But if I don't confront the past now, I might never stop running."
"Hmmm. Very well, back on topic, what did Shadow want to give you so badly?" The scientist inquired. Maria stroked her chin and tried to recall. As the answer came to her, a red needle appeared on screen.
"A cure. It was a cure for a disease I had, that normally would be fatal to anyone diagnosed with it." Hearing the explanation put a thought in Eggman's head.
"I think that serum might have been more than just cold medicine, Maria." He half joked.
"What do you mean?"
"You were most likely human before taking it, right?" Maria nodded in response vigorously. "Perhaps the chemicals caused an unintended mutation that altered your body's DNA and structure." Dr. Eggman theorized. Maria was understandably a little skeptic.
"But, shouldn't Grandfather have noticed that side-effect?"
"Only one way to find out." Eggman reached into his pocket and pulled out a small computer disk. He then proceeded to plug it into the hard drive and extract the files. Various lines of text started to spell out in screen. Maria only stared in wonder as she took the headband off.
"Grandfather's diary." She whispered in awe. Eventually, enough of it loaded for her cousin to start reading.
"Now, let's see here."
Entry # 506
I'm still having trouble calming down after the incident. Shadow was off for a mere 5 hours and Maria's disease increased in its intensity and nearly sent her into a coma. I was lucky she didn't perish. But luck only lasts so long.
No more procrastinating. I'm either going to assign all my projects to my fellow researchers, or scrap them completely. I need all the time I can to work on making a vaccine.
Maria, don't worry. I'll save you.
Entry # 510
None of my experiments are showing results. In fact, one of them may have increased the virus's strength. How am I ever going to get this right?
Entry # 524
I think I might be on the right track. If Shadow is capable of sustaining Maria's condition, then perhaps his genes are key to making a permanent cure. Of course! The answer was right in front of me the whole time!
Entry # 540
YES! I DID IT! I finally got the formula right and all the traces of the infection have been eradicated from the test tray. I finally did it, Maria. At last you're safe. I can't wait for us all to go to Earth and see it all up close, like you always wanted. I feel like the happiest man on the planet!
Entry # 541
My misery knows no limits. Just as I had discovered a cure. G.U.N. raids the ARK for fear of my creations being "a menace to society." All my work has been destroyed. I just hope that Shadow and Maria are safe…
Entry # 542
WHY DOES IT KEEP GETTING WORSE!? I did a double take on my medical research for the vaccine and found that it had some powerful side-effects. It had mutated the human DNA samples to become highly comparable to Shadow's. Even stranger, they are surging with Chaos Energy as well. I'm worried about how this could affect Maria. Hopefully I can find her and comfort her…
Entry #... WHY DOES IT MATTER ANYMORE?
I just got a full list of the casualties among the ARK incident. Shadow AND Maria were both on it. I don't know what I'll do. They meant everything to me… I'M GOING INSANE! All I can think about is…
"STOP!" Maria shouted with tears flowing from her eyes. Ivo turned around startled. "I think we got enough. Oh, Grandpa… I never even got to say goodbye." She cried. Eggman bit his lip and pushed up his dark glasses.
"I'm sorry you have to go through this, Maria." She looked up at him in despair.
"Why must people be so cruel?" She asked bitterly.
"Because lots of people are selfish, evil even. I should know, since I'm an example." Maria was stunned by this response "I often try to conquer the world and rule an empire with an iron fist! But I'm always stopped by bothersome heroes. Yet there are other bad people like me causing harm in the world. Always fighting and hurting one another." He explained. "I know it's hard to accept. But there's no easy way to put it." He stated bluntly.
Maria could only mope as she realized that everything, and everyone she had ever known and loved was taken from her. As she cried, a thought was created in her head. She didn't know if it was kind, or malicious, or perhaps even a little of both. Regardless, it was there and it prompted her to make her next choice. "If conquering the world is the game you want to play…" She started to ask as she looked him dead in the eye, wiping away her tears.
"…Then what are the rules?"