When Shadow opened his eyes, he was in the same white bed in the same brightly lit white room with the same white curtains, only they were pulled back and he could see into space, and Maria sat on the edge of his bed. She smiled at him when he looked at her. "Hey, Sleepyhead! You poor thing, you must have been hit harder than we realized, because you passed out in the hallway! Priscilla brought you back. She's so nice, isn't she?"

Shadow felt his head and cursed at the pain. Priscilla had carefully hit him in the same spot as before, so he still only had one bruise. Only, now it was red with blood under his bandage. "Maria," He said, "Priscilla hit me."

"What? No she didn't, Silly!" Maria argued, "Well, she did." Shadow raised an eyebrow. "Back on Earth, but that was only so you would stop trying to struggle! You bit her middle finger off!"

Shadow thought about that for a second. Priscilla's robe covers her hands, and if he remembered correctly, she held the knife in her left hand, so he never did realize it was her. Did she want revenge? Why was she with the Doctor?

"Maria," He said again, "Priscilla hit me twice. That's why I passed out." Maria looked at him quizzically.

"Shadow, you were hit pretty hard..."

"It's true! I swear it! I promise you, Maria!"

"Okay, okay! Calm down!" He sat up, and she pushed him back down. "Get some rest. We can talk about this later. Okay?"

Shadow sighed, then said, "Fine."

"Good boy." Maria smiled as she leaned down, not leaving much space between their faces, "Everything's fine now. You're with me. I know you have a lot to take in today, so try to keep your mind at ease. These are good people." Shadow nodded slowly, then whispered,

"Don't ever leave me. Not like that again. Please?"

"Never again." She assured him, "I promise you."

There was a silence and they froze for a moment, just staring into each other's eyes. Maria's a gentle shade of sapphire, Shadow's a determined flame color. Maria closed her eyes, and she leaned in closer, closer...

"Hey there!" The cheerful voice rang through the room, startling Shadow and Maria, interrupting their moment.

"Oh, hi!" Maria greeted. Shadow looked up and moaned in annoyance. It was bad enough that they had been interrupted, but the interferer was Priscilla.

"What do you want?" Shadow grumpily asked.

"Oh, I just wanted to see how you were doing, of course! Don't worry, I forgive you about my hand. Just your very presence has put me in a better mood!"

Clearly, Maria didn't sense the sarcasm, because she just kept smiling. "Shadow, is it okay if I leave you two alone? It's my job to check the engines."

"No!" Shadow yelled. "Please, I don't want to be in the company of such filth!"

"Shadow! You're hurting Priscilla's feelings!" Maria scolded, "Just look at her! I'm so sorry, Priscilla." She said, "Shadow's very confused right now."

"It's quite alright..." Priscilla looked at the ground and shifted her weight to one foot, then the other. She was a good actor when it came to body language.

Convincing Maria to see the truth will be harder than I realized... Shadow thought to himself.

"I really need to go. See you two later." Maria called as she walked out of the room. Shadow watched in horror as the door closed, concealing him and his latest nemesis in a room by themselves. Shadow hurt and bleeding, Priscilla good as new. Except, of course, for the hand that Shadow still couldn't see.

"You're getting quite nosy, you know." She stated as she walked to his bedside. "That's going to be a problem."

"Why don't you just let me and Maria live our lives?" He asked, "I have much more important things to worry about." He sat his back against the headboard and stared up at her through the tension.

"Because," She explained, "I need you, as much as I hate to admit it."

"Why?" Shadow asked, his eyes burning with curiosity and hatred.

Instead of answering, Priscilla pushed her sleeve back, revealing a bandaged hand. Her middle finger appeared half as long as the others, the white stained with red where it covered the stump. She ripped the bloody fabric off and shoved her mangled finger in Shadow's face. "You. Did. This." She whispered, her voice quavering but hostile.

Shadow gritted his teeth. The gore didn't scare him. He had seen a bullet lodged in Maria's back, for Christ's sake. He was annoyed. "Get your disgusting flesh out of my face, you atrocious female!" She pulled away and slapped him in the face with her good hand.

Shadow sat there for a moment, dazed. Then he looked up at her and bared his malicious teeth. A low growl escaped his throat. Priscilla smirked at him. "Do you really think you stand a chance against me? You don't even understand why you were created. You're pathetic!"

Shadow jumped from the bed, but Priscilla dodged and ran out the door, laughing. Mocking him. Shadow hit the window and fell to the floor. He shook his head as he sat on the ground. He could feel his nose bleeding from being slapped. For a woman, she's got a strong arm. Shadow admitted to himself, But I'm not done with her yet!

Maria walked in the door and saw the aftermath of the fight. "Oh my God, Shadow! You need to be more careful! Priscilla told me you fell out of bed!"

"Ha." Shadow laughed sarcastically. "Not likely."

"Then what happened?" She asked.

"Well," Said Shadow, "you have to promise to believe me, okay?"

"Okay," Maria said in her soothing voice, "I promise I'll believe you." She picked him up and laid him on the bed. Then she grabbed a box of tissues from the end table next to his bed and handed it to him. "Tell me what happened."

"Okay," Shadow wiped the blood off of his face. "Priscilla and I started to argue, and she slapped me in the face. I lunged at her, but she evaded and fled the room. I swear, that's how it happened."
Maria took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "You don't believe me, do you?" Shadow asked. Maria opened her eyes, then whispered softly,

"I do."

Shadow tilted his head in shock. "Really?" Maria nodded.

"Priscilla's been acting a little strange lately. She's always asking for permission to see the Chaos Emeralds, but I'm the only one allowed in that room besides engineers who work there, so I believe you this time. It's just, all these people seemed so excited to see you. I didn't think any one of them would ever treat you that way. But don't worry. I'm here."

"And you'll never leave me." Shadow added.

"Never." Maria agreed. Once again, they closed their eyes, and leaned toward each other's faces. Time slowed down, and Shadow could hear his own heartbeat thumping in his ears. Their lips were hardly even an inch apart. Just a half-second more...

"Maria?" Margery's voice came flooding into the room and Maria sat up straight again.

"Yes?"

"I need you to reset computer number six in the control room. It's acting up again, and only you know the password, of course."

"Okay, I'll be right there." She smiled at Shadow and hurried out of the room with Margery.

"Come on!" Shadow muttered under his breath, "Every time!" He sat there for a moment afterwards, thinking. "Oh crap!" He exclaimed, "I never told Maria about Eggman! He was here!" He got out of bed and ran into the hallway. There was nobody in sight, and he still didn't know his way around the place. "Hey, anybody?" He called out to no avail. He decided to explore, but worried he'd get lost again, Shadow kept in mind that his room was number twenty-two. "Wow, what a huge spacecraft!" He said aloud, admiring the scene, it reminds me of the ARK, but it's smaller and mobile! How fascinating..."

"Talking to yourself, are you?" It was Priscilla's voice that came from behind him.

"Leave me alone, or I'll..."

"You'll what? Hurt me? Give it up! It's so obvious that I would win any fight!"

"No. I don't think so." Shadow replied, still facing the other way. "You've got a fatal flaw. You're a coward; you either run or knock me out. Either way, all you can do is escape."

"Oh?" Priscilla said, an eyebrow raised.

"Yes."

"Hedgehog, I'm getting very tired of you, so I'm just going to use you for my plan now. Sayonara. Hahaha!"

He heard rapid footsteps behind him, and turned just in time to deliver an agonizing punch to Priscilla's torso, knocking the breath out of her. She stumbled backward, and Shadow saw that she held the same blade as before. The corners of his mouth turned up into a half-smile.

Meanwhile, Priscilla struggled to catch her breath. She looked down at the floor for a split second and heard a Click! Click! When she looked up slightly, she saw Shadow's inhibitor rings as their clatter to the ground echoed through the long, narrow hallway in which she and her opponent stood.

"No." She whispered, knowing her fate was in Shadow's hands now. She watched as he collected energy and glowed brighter by the second. In a last resort, She threw her knife. Shadow saw this coming and lunged at the same time, only being able to hope that the knife would miss him by a few inches.