Author's Notes: So basically, this chapter was originally only meant for the exploration of the A.R.K. I was gonna take you around the Space Colony, part of it anyway, it's really, really huge. XDDDDDD So all it was going to be was Maria wandering around the A.R.K. and eventually going to Gerald's laboratory and it would end there as a nice, quiet, calm story.

Basically, it was gonna be boring. X'DDDDDD I was bored just writing it! So I brought in a mysterious guest early to give it some excitement! And apparently that was effective, so I'm happy.

To answer a few questions you new guys might have, allow me to explain:
1. In this fan universe, Mobius is a separate planet from Earth. Earth is where humans are and Mobius is where Sonic and friends are. Kind of like Sonic X, but less planet converging nonsense and confusion. XDDD
2. I tried to keep everything as logical as possible, but as we know, Sonic the Hedgehog is not quite logical so forgive me if somethings seem a little far fetched.
3. This is the product of research and careful theorizing/speculation on the games only. No comic or show continuity is used in this fan universe.

I am currently working on covers for these stories, but if you feel compelled to draw something cover-like for it, go right ahead. Just let me know so I can show off your talent to everyone else! ^^

Favorites are appreciated, but comments are welcomed warmly. Thanks for sticking with the story! Above all else, enjoy!


Over the next few weeks, the Gizoid had become a major part of the A.R.K. It would do all the heavy lifting, quite literally. When asteroids were on course to collide with the A.R.K., the Gizoid would go into space and destroy the space boulders before they could touch the space colony. It could even anticipate when a lab accident would happen and guard the researchers closest to the accident from harm. The people of the A.R.K. began to wonder how they got along this far without the Gizoid.

Gerald was also glad that the little robot was on the A.R.K. as a helper and not a destructive weapon like it was most likely intended to be. Still, Gerald's research on the Gizoid was ongoing, albeit, with no results. Gerald just couldn't figure out the "Link system" installed into the robot. The hieroglyphics didn't have in depth details of the inner mechanisms of the Gizoid. Just a general, cryptic warning about it destroying the entire planet.

"Helpful" Gerald thought to himself. But there was something that he had yet to try, mainly because he wasn't confident that it would work. It was much too simple... but what did he really have to lose?

"Gizoid, is there any chance that you know how to undo the Link system you're built on?" he asked, half serious, with the Gizoid laying down on an operating table. Its chest opened and wires spilling out of it, like a cup overflowing with water. The elderly genius was currently trying to tap into the power core of the ancient robot; what was it made of, how it was constructed, whether or not it needed to be replaced or cleaned, all of these things he wanted to find out so if there was a more efficient way to harness Chaos energy, he would know for future reference.

"I do not know how to do that, Professor Gerald" it responded blankly. Gerald continued to examine the cords and wires in the robot. He wiped his brow, clearly tired.

"Of course it can't be that easy" he chuckled out sadly. He continued to tinker with the Gizoid's insides.

As far as Project Shadow's progression... there was none. Project Shadow was stuck, permanently, according to the other scientists. They had exhausted all possibilities, all ideas, all theories. There was just nothing left for them to work with. And they tried to tell Gerald of their predicament, but he dismissed their notions. He was close to something, he knew it. He just had to figure out what the "something" he was close to was.

"I can't give up. Something is missing. I just need to figure out what. Ugh. This is unbearably frustrating" he said to himself as he continued working on the Gizoid.

"This is unbearably boring" Maria thought to herself as she stared at the ceiling of her room. She was on the floor, her golden blond hair spread out from her head and covered the floor around her head like a blanket. She was of course, referring to being stuck on the A.R.K. She was fed up.

There was nothing for her to do. Nothing fun, anyway. She had read all the books at her disposal a hundred times over, she had played and out grown nearly all her toys, she couldn't go out and explore the A.R.K. without someone to keep her from really enjoying herself. And what's worse... she didn't have anyone to be with.

Sure, nurses would monitor her condition daily, doctors would come once in a while, Grandfather would make a daily visit... whenever he could. But there was no one her age. There was no one who could play with her, she was surrounded by adults. Adults who worked all the time. All. The. Time. And so it was unbearably boring for the sick little girl.

She stared at the ceiling, the same as everyday since she can remember, looking at the details of the ceiling panels, the lights, the sprinkler system, the air conditioning vent, and the blah blah blah. She had done this so many times, she couldn't be bothered to even do that. She sat up and pushed herself to her feet. She was through with being cooped up in her room. She had been on the A.R.K. most of her life and she had yet to see all of it. It was way past time she explored the space colony.

"If I never get to see that planet down there, then at least I'll see everything up here" she thought to herself as she pushed a button on her wall. Suddenly her electronic door shot up with a swooshing sound. The young girl peaked her head out and glanced from one end of the hall to the other. There was no one around, it was the perfect time. She pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled on it before placing it on the metal floor right outside her room's threshold.

With that done she ran off in the opposite direction of the infirmary, not really knowing where she was going. But that was the fun of this little adventure she was going to take. She didn't know what to expect. Her cobalt shoes clicked merrily as she skipped through the hallways of the A.R.K. living area. Maria couldn't help but hum a happy tune and bob her head side to side as she made her way past all the familiar sights and into new, unknown rooms.

She continued, turning when forks in the road presented themselves, and found a giant room with lots of lines painted on the floor in strange patterns. Maria stopped skipping and slowly entered the room. She could hear the echoing thumps of something bouncing on the ground, screeches of sneakers, shouts of excitement from adults. They seemed to be playing a game of some sort with a weird orange colored ball. They were in teams, she figured that out, bouncing was definitely part of the game, but they kept throwing the ball at these weird structures on either end of the room.

Maria watched them for only a few moments before moving through that big room into another big room. This one she recognized, she remembered walking in with her Grandfather a couple of times. It was the library, the place she got all of her Earth books from. She spent hours immersed in those books when she first got them from this place. Now she was bored with them, she read all the books in the library. There was no adventure to be had in this room.

The blonde girl cut right through the library and entered a room she didn't even realize was there. This room was a lot different than any other room she had been in. This room had plants all over it, so much green was covering the room, you could hardly tell it was a section in a spacecraft. The precious explorer was in awe, she had only ever seen plants in books. But these were much more interesting than the pictures.

She wandered around the room, wide eyed and gasping in delight at each new plant, new fragrance, each new texture. This was almost too beautiful to be real, she thought. There was nothing quite like this. Oh how lucky the people on the planet below were! To be surrounded by this luscious, vibrant life 24/7 had to be nothing short of paradise!

Maria's excited feet took her all over the wondrous garden, from the small trees, to the fruit producing shrubs and bushes, to the flowers. And the flowers were the most spectacular part of this entire jewel in a desert of metal. There were colors and hues, shades and gradations, large and small, but all of them were beautiful. In Maria's eyes all of the delicate blossomed petals were masterpieces to behold.

"This is the most incredible thing I've ever seen!"

"This is the most incredible thing I've ever seen, Professor!" called one of Gerald's colleagues. Gerald thanked him, he was ready to take a break from the Gizoid's complex mechanics. That little robot was proving to be a bigger project than he initially thought it would be.

"What's got you so excited?" he asked politely, wiping his hands with a handkerchief.

"Professor, there's a fascinating phenomena occurring right outside of the space colony! It's an asteroid like form. But it's inhabited!" the man enthusiastically explained. Gerald's jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

"In- inhabited? What else did the scans pick up from it?" the old man asked, his voice growing loud unintentionally. He was just too curious about this new thing approaching.

"Well uh, the scans are still in progress, but the External Observation Towers were able to make out a strange energy signature. And it just so happens that it is-"

"Similar to the Chaos Energy signature from the emeralds... This is interesting indeed..." Gerald's large mustache quirked up in unison with the corners of his mouth. Things were beginning to finally get exciting again. The entire Project Shadow team had hit a solid, inescapable brick wall on their progress; the Biolizard was a giant murdering feral failure, the Gizoid was just the source of more questions and not one answer, the Artificial Chaos were a step in the wrong direction.

They had basically run out of ideas on how to proceed. How were they going to unlock the secrets of the Chaos Emeralds and immortality and the cure for Maria's disease? Gerald had been struggling to come up with a solution for these long months. But finally he just might have found it.

"... Tell the External Observation Towers to get ready to make a broadcast"

"Professor?"

"There are living beings with energy signatures similar to the Chaos Emerald's energy on that asteroid. We've been trying to make the link between living organism and Chaos Energy this whole time and something almost exactly like it suddenly appears? We can't just let this opportunity slip by!" Gerald quickly walked out of the room, the doors automatically shutting behind him and the A.R.K. researcher.

"We need to move, quickly!"

She needed to move quickly. She had already wasted a lot of her time in the Botanical Garden area, it was only a few hours before she had to take her medicine. And when the nurses come to her room to find it empty, Maria knew she would be in trouble. So she had to get back before anyone knew she had gone.

However, there was much more exploring she wanted to do first. So with as much stealth as a young girl with no formal stealth training could muster, she avoided detection and entered into rooms she had never been in before. Most of them were boring for the adventure seeking Maria, though.

Rooms called Technical Facilities, Manufacturing Sectors, Utility Operations, and System Operations were just filled with boring adult stuff. Confusing buttons and knobs connected to confusing screens and lights. Blegh. Very dull and not adventurous at all. But all the rooms weren't so bad.

For instance, in one of the Manufacturing Sectors, there was a giant wall of glass that let Maria see some giant swirling machinery and tubes. These were the Rebreathing Systems, Maria recalled her Grandfather explaining it to her.

She had read in her books that there was no air in space so she asked her Grandfather how there was air in the Space Colony. He wisely told her that the Rebreathing systems were working in accordance with the carbon dioxide being exhaled by everyone aboard the A.R.K. It basically recycled the substantially unused oxygen content of each breath exhaled. Oxygen is added to replenish the amount metabolized by the population.

It was all very impressive, how it worked and looked. The bright eyed girl also managed to catch a glimpse of the A.R.K.'s power plant. And only a small glimpse at that, the generator alone must have been bigger than half a mile. Maria was especially attracted to the power plant because in her books, power plants were always creating giant clouds of smoke. But this one didn't seem to make any smoke and what's more, it looked like it was powered by water... Somehow.

It fascinated her. Thanks to this giant structure, the A.R.K. could keep running comfortably. The lights, the air conditioning, the computers, everything electric depended on those generators. The golden haired girl smiled at the small section of the power plant.

"Thank you, Power Plant" she quietly said before walking back. She had to continue, her exploration was getting more amazing as she went. She couldn't wait to see what else was in store.

He couldn't wait to see what else was in store! This asteroid, at first glance, was nothing but a random space rock. But upon closer inspection, there were structures, a civilization of sorts, not just a few micro-organisms haphazardly slapped on a floating boulder. Gerald, as well as his fellow scientists in the Observational Tower, could see intelligent life on the dark asteroid.

Through the scans and the telescopes, they could see that there was electrical technology on it as well. Just as Gerald hypothesized. After learning just a few more things about the vessel in close proximity to the A.R.K., Gerald was ready to try and communicate with the black asteroid.

Despite his colleagues disapproval of the idea, Gerald ordered the technicians in the tower to prepare to send a broadcast to all channels. They really weren't happy about this, considering they knew nothing about the asteroid or the organisms on it. Sure, they seemed to be intelligent enough to have structures and electrical technology, but didn't that make them all the more dangerous?

And even if they were to receive the message, why would they care? They had no idea who the A.R.K. scientists were either, they could just choose to ignore them. But more than likely, they would probably invade the A.R.K. and... well they didn't want to think about what would happen if they actually breached the space colony.

But what if they didn't even receive the message? Then all of this effort would have been wasted on a fruitless venture... again... Perhaps they knew it was better to try something drastic than to do nothing and go back home with almost nothing to show for it. Besides, Gerald needed this, he was never the most stable person, but this potentially dangerous thing was his final ray of hope. They couldn't take that away from him. And who knows, maybe everything would work out in the end.

Maybe...

... God, they hoped this wouldn't end badly.

So they hesitantly got the equipment ready and awaited Gerald's message. The old man in question picked up the microphone connected to the broadcasters. He swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the sudden lump in his throat. It occurred to him that he was about to talk to an alien species for the first time. He was about to talk to aliens, real, actual aliens.

This had to be some sort of nerdy dream come true for him. He clicked the button he needed to speak and be heard, potentially. But no words came out. HE WAS ABOUT TO COMMUNICATE WITH ALIENS.

HOLY CRAP. THAT WAS SOMETHING ON HIS BUCKET LIST! Gerald forgot himself and started to bounce around giddily. Earning him the confused and almost disturbed glances of his underlings.

"Guys, I'm about to talk to freaking aliens! Is this not the coolest thing ever?!" Gerald asked, turning to them expectantly.

... Well when he put it that way.

The entire room of adults began to squee like pre-teen girls thinking about a dreamy boy band. They got up from there seats and some held each other's hands as they incoherently babbled about this being "so awesome they couldn't breathe".

She couldn't breathe. There was just too much stink in the air. Maria had opened the door hoping to find something interesting, but all she got was a giant wind of funky garbage blown in her face.

Turns out that last Manufacturing Sector led to the Garbage Disposal and Maria unknowingly walked into her smelly doom. She quickly ran through the room, careful for her bouquet not to fall or touch anything in the dirty room. After running across the metal railings that stretched above the actual garbage and waste of the entire space colony, Maria finally made it to another door leading somewhere else.

Inhaling fresh breaths of relief, Maria kneeled on the floor. All that running was making her a little tired. The poor girl quickly regained her composure and realized something was odd. The floor was reflecting a weird moving light. The curious Maria looked up and was immediately in awe of the sight.

In this large metallic room, there was enormous glass containers filled to the brim with water. Clear tubes connected to the vast glass tanks and stretched all over the room. And behind the clear water tanks, the wondrous peaceful planet that was the gem of this galaxy, shining magnificently in the vast blackness of space. Its only company the pinpricks of light scattered across the dark vacuum surrounding it and the Space Colony A.R.K. its greatest observer. The glow of it shined in the room like a spotlight from a stage, making the slight shifts in the water appear like Aurora Borealis projected on the more bland surfaces of the room.

It was... incredible...

It was incredible. But the sheer magnitude of the feat he was about to attempt would not delay him from actually doing it. Gaining his composure, the bald genius cleared his throat, pushed the correct button, and inhaled. He needed to say the right things, first impressions and all that.

"He- hello, unidentified space craft! This is a friendly transmission from the nearby space colony! Repeat, this is a peaceful transmission from the Space Colony A.R.K. My name is Professor Gerald Robotnik, I'm the leader of this space colony! I wish to speak to your captain, please respond!" Gerald managed to get out without stuttering from anxiety.

He lifted his finger off the talk button and awaited for the static to turn into words. But after several tense moments of nothing, Gerald tried reaching out again.

"Unidentified space craft, this is a peaceful transmission from the Space Colony A.R.K. This is Professor Gerald Robotnik, the leader of this space colony. Please respond if you can hear me"

Again, the transmission room was silent, save the white noise of static. The Professor tried a few more times, but the result was the same. The fellow researchers and scientists were convinced. There was no way they could interact with the foreign space vessel.

"Please respond if you can hear my voice! I just want to speak to your leader for a moment! We come in peace!" Gerald continued pleading for a response. All he got was static. The ends of his fluffy white mustache visibly drooped, his expression following suit. The A.R.K. researchers tried to tell him to stop. They gave it their best, but this was to be expected. Maybe they really didn't have a way to hear the message even though they had other electrical capabilities.

Gerald stood silent for a few moments, processing what his followers were saying and the relentless white noise of silence on the other end. They humans tried to lead him out of the room, but Gerald pushed them off of him. He ran out of the External Observation Tower, all the way to his private lab in the Project Shadow sector of the A.R.K.

"There's more than one place to send a transmission, if I can't do it there with those naysayers, then I'll proceed on my own" he thought to himself, determination set in his strides.

This had to happen. He wasn't going to let his last chance pass him by. Those extraterrestrials held the secret to Project Shadow's success. He could feel it. And he had to make contact with the space vessel.

Somehow.

"Somehow... this kinda small thingy is stabilizing the WHOLE A.R.K.?" Maria asked out loud. She was pretty shocked, when she saw signs for the Orbital Stabilizing Wings, she was expecting... airplane wings. Though, if her memory wasn't failing her, thanks to NIDS, she would have remembered the day she first entered the A.R.K. back on her home planet.

Back on Earth. Her grandfather told her, they weren't going to be navigating the stars for the whole trip. He said the A.R.K. was only meant to get to the planet and orbit around it. These little wings were meant for that express purpose, like the attitude and orbit control subsystem of a satellite. They were there to make sure the space colony stayed in the correct orbital position, while keeping the antennas positioned in the correct place.

But to Maria, they just looked like flat little flecks of metal stuck to the side of the space colony. They weren't very pretty to look at. So she continued in the direction she walked to get there, her flowers still filling her presence with a tranquil aroma as they rested comfortably in her hands. Right down from where the weird orbital wings were, the Docking Bays and something called the A.R.K. Lift.

Curious as ever, Maria walked past the sign to get there. As she entered the small tunnel, she could hear faintly a low hum of an engine reverberate off the walls, the smell of exhaust slightly cut through her lovely flowers. Her cobalt blue shoes clicking on the metal floor, the distance between the elegant Maria and the actual Docking Bays were closing rapidly. After a few moments, the tunnel expanded into a corridor, from there Maria could see a vehicle of some sort.

"That must be the A.R.K. Lift. I wonder if I can get it to take me to Grandfather. I think I'm all pooped out from adventuring..." the young girl thought to herself. Truly it had been a long day for her. She had seen so much, snuck past the grown up, experienced so many things for the first time. It was a long day, but it was a good day. Maria had never had this much fun, being cooped up in her room.

Cooped up in the room, Gerald, with the Gizoid by his side, quickly plopped in front of the small communication system in his lab. He expertly set everything to properly broadcast on all channels, picked up a desk microphone, and clicked the talk button.

"Alien vessel! This is Gerald Robotnik, Professor Gerald Robotnik! I swear, I mean you no harm! I don't want to trouble you or my crew! But I need you to respond!" he pleaded, his past insecurities and inhibitions out the metaphorical window. He had to get there attention, had to reach them. Someway.

"Please respond! I need help!" he yelled, tears beginning to sting at his eyes. Somehow. Get them to say something back.

"I can't do this! I've gone as far as I can go! And curse it all, it's not enough!" Gerald was beginning to lose control. The Gizoid stood by his side, observing him.

"The reason I'm here... The reason ALL of us are here... is to find a way to cure an innocent girl! The only girl in the world- in the cosmos, that matters to me!" Gerald began to hunch over, placing his hand on the desktop. Sweat drops dotted the surface as he tried to hold back sobs. Pull yourself together. You have to keep talking. You can't let this chance slip.

You can't let her down!

Gerald's eyes shot open and he stood to his full size again. Not realizing the Gizoid was just trying to comfort him by rubbing his back, he slightly pushed it back, pressing forward in this singular goal.

"We've done all we can do- I have done all I can do! I can't keep this up any longer! Every possible thing, every possible angle, every possible path to take, I've done it! And it's not enough!" he screamed bitterly. He inwardly cursed himself, he was completely and utterly useless. He had always failed when it truly mattered; his wife, his son, his daughter in law. And now his granddaughter's fate hanged in the balance.

He was not about to let her die too!

"I DON'T WANT HER TO DIE! SHE CAN'T DIE! DO YOU UNDERSTAND!? SHE NEEDS TO LIVE AND I CAN'T KEEP HER ALIVE MUCH LONGER! I NEED YOUR HELP! PLEASE!" the elderly man wailed at the top of his lungs. He could feel his throat beginning to rasp. He ignored it. He could hear the Gizoid faintly say "master" in the background. He ignored it. The static continued to fill the other end.

He ignored it.

"I'LL DO ANYTHING! ANYTHING! JUST HELP ME SAVE HER! HELP ME FIND A WAY TO CURE HER! HELP ME SOLVE THE SECRETS OF IMMORTALITY! HELP ME CREATE A LIFE FORM THAT CAN NEVER GET SICK! NEVER DIE!" The tears flowed freely from the Professor's eyes. He had lost it. The Gizoid, as powerful as it was, could do nothing but watch its master struggle with things it couldn't understand. It just stood there, helpless. But if the Gizoid knew one thing, his master had lost it.

"PLEASE! HELP ME CREATE... THE ULTIMATE LIFE FORM!" he cried loud enough for the entire A.R.K. to hear. Sweat poured down his face and stained his turtleneck collar. He slumped to his knees, the microphone still clutched desperately in his hands. Gerald let the tears flow for a moment, futilely trying to suppress sobs.

He couldn't fail her. He had to keep pressing. But he just didn't know if his cries were in vain. And he never would. If they didn't respond. And all he could hear was static. Slowly his hope was dying. Evaporating like a drop of water in the desert sand. He didn't even feel the Gizoid tentatively trying to comfort him once more.

All he could hear was the static...

All she could hear was the static. After she looked at the Docking Bays, she decided it was time to go see the Professor. But he was all the way on the other side of the space colony. She remembered that the lifts were expressly created for the purpose of traveling across the A.R.K. quickly and easily.

But when she pushed the button on the communicator ans asked the grown ups in the External Utility Tower to please start it up, there was nothing but static. Maria, eager to see her Grandfather and not wanting to bother the grown ups if they were busy, looked sheepishly at the buttons and switches of the lift.

"Ummmmm... hmmmm... uhhhhh... which one-?" she murmured to herself as she ghosted her hand over the controls. Timid as a little rabbit, she reached for one button, but swiftly pulled back, only to slowly reach for another button, but pull back as soon as she was an inch away from touching it. And the process was repeated over and over until she got tired of not trying anything.

Sighing in defeat, Maria slumped back into the driver's seat, "Well these should really be labeled. What if there's an emergency and someone doesn't know how to operate this thing? Like... this emergency right now!"

Maria absentmindedly looked around the lift, not really expecting to find anything, just more out of boredom than anything else. This quickly became boring however, and she finally had the motivation she needed to push all the buttons on the console until it started working. And after a moment, much to her surprise, the lift up started up.

Pumping her tiny fist into the air in victory, she giggled. "Yeah, I knew I could do it!" The hum of the lift rose in the reverberation-y corridor. The good little girl quickly sat back down and strapped in her seatbelt. A wide grin plastered on her face, she eagerly awaited for the lift to pick up speed and shoot across the A.R.K.

Much to her display, it was only going about 5 mph. With a dissatisfied huff, blowing her golden locks out of her face, Maria looked for another button or switch to speed it up. After experimenting with a few again, she found the one she was looking for. A lever with certain settings for speed.

"Who put it on 'leisurely sightseeing'?!" she complained more than asked. That just wouldn't do. Maria pulled the rusting lever up to max speed and as soon as she did, the lift turned into a more exciting locomotive. A half yelp, half laugh exited her mouth as the A.R.K. Lift went about 40 mph across the remainder of the Docking Bays.

The young girl wasn't prepared for what was about to happen next. After the Docking Bay's disappeared, she entered into a small subway-like tunnel, and then abruptly, a glass dome covered the lift and she was in space. She was no longer on a space colony, she was IN SPACE.

She was technically outside of the A.R.K.! Maria shrieked in delight at the ride she was taking. Who would have thought that this was how you could get around the A.R.K.? This was WAY better than walking everywhere and getting tired! She tried to take it all in, the outside image of the A.R.K., the vastness of space she was technically in right now, the almost unobstructed view of the gorgeous planet she always wanted to visit.

She felt incredibly happy, being granted this sudden freedom, at this fast pace. She was practically in Heaven. As the lift shot her across the A.R.K. she noticed a large round structure propped on the outside of the A.R.K. Maria was going to fast and was too far away to realize what it was, but it was one of two Artificial Gravity Generators. It was probably for the best that she didn't get up close to it, she might have turned the A.R.K. into a weightless mess.

But she didn't want to see the A.R.K., she wanted to take in the beauty of space. And that's when she turned and saw it. The black asteroid. It was close to the A.R.K., like it was headed straight for it. When Maria looked at it... she felt a little scared. In comparison to the beautiful planet and the many other comets and asteroids she has seen outside the A.R.K's windows, this dark asteroid looked... so ominous.

And just as suddenly as she had gotten that impression of it, it vanished from sight. All of space vanished from sight. She was back in a lift tunnel and as it slowed down, she entered into another set of Docking Bays. The slightly saddened girl got off the lift as soon as it slowed enough and landed on familiar metal flooring.

"That was the most fun I've ever had. Hopefully, I'll get to take that ride again..." she thought to herself as she clutched the flowers she had carried this whole time just a little tighter. After a small moment of silence and a melancholy sigh, Maria took a few steps toward the entrance of the corridor than led to the tunnel. She was ready for the adventure to end now. She was ready to see him.

He was ready to see them. The aliens with the similar energy to Chaos Energy, were Gerald's and by extension, Maria's last hope. He was so ready to communicate with them and even if they couldn't do anything for him, even if there was nothing he could do, he could at least have the notion that every single possibility was tried. There would have been nothing he or anyone else, human or alien, could do.

He could at least have that to soothe some of his grief. But no. There would be no such comfort. The aliens were going to pass the A.R.K. by and never know how desperate he was. They were never going to know that if they had talked to him, they might have helped Project Shadow to move leaps and bounds it would never be able to without them.

Or worse of all, maybe all of this truly was for nothing. There was a good chance Gerald had gotten his hopes up for nothing, there was no real evidence that those aliens were capable of sharing any knowledge that could have helped him in any way. Which didn't help his mood at all.

The poor scientist had cried for several minutes and eventually sat on the floor defeated and silent. His solemn mood didn't go ignored by his faithful servant, the Gizoid. Over the small robot's stay on the A.R.K., Gerald had discovered a few things about it. It copied things it saw and experienced, it had an artificial intelligence that made it use the things it copied in new combinations to accomplish a certain task, and there was something about it that made it seem like it had... a heart.

Sometimes it would display this intangible part of itself, often when Maria was around it played with her almost like a family pet. And when it wasn't being studied by the researchers, he would copy them in a joking way, keeping the team entertained. And very rarely, it would sit closer than necessary to Gerald, like a young child dependent on the presence and touch of their parent.

And right then, it displayed this phantom heart once again. As Gerald succumb to hopelessness, the fair colored robot gentle patted Gerald's head. If the elderly scientist wasn't in such a foul mood, he would have been fascinated by the feat happening in front of him. Instead, the robot's gentle pats and comforting calls of "Master...", were of no affect. The old man was just too crushed to do anything but sit on the floor and cry silently. The whole day had tired him out...

The whole day had tired her out. Maria was really starting to feel the weight of all the exploring she's done. It was truly a full day and Maria was fatigued in a satisfying way. As she walked through the familiar laboratory, she noticed that the researchers were a lot more reserved than usual.

Wondering where her Grandfather was, seeing as he was always immediately within sight when she entered the Project Shadow laboratories, she asked them where he was. They told her he retreated to his private office and explained that he was incredibly sad. Maria, being the jewel that she was, decided she needed to cheer him up. She hated seeing her grandfather sad, so whenever he would get sad or depressed, which she noticed was happening a lot, she would come to his rescue.

She didn't know it, but this was why the scientists and researchers bothered to tell her Gerald's state of mind at all. They had all tried to cheer their boss up when he would often fall to depression, but nothing they did or said could reach him. Maria was the only one who could help the genius get back to his determined and confident self. Only Maria had the gift to light up his life and that's why they pointed her his direction.

The golden haired girl, walked quickly, but quietly, to the back of the joined laboratories where her brilliant grandfather sulked. She knocked on the metal door, something only she did, everyone else would call him on the office line. Immediately registering the knocks as his beloved granddaughter.

He quickly stood to his feet, politely pushing the Gizoid away so he could get the door open. He got his office remote and click the button to open the metallic door. Maria's smiling face greeted him and his mood had already started to lighten. The Gizoid, also recognizing Maria as a friendly face, got up to greet her. However, before they could get a word out, a deep, ominous voice rang out.

"Professor... Gerald... Robotnik..."

The voice seemed to chill his soul, clutch his heart in a vice, and suffocate him all at once. As he turned to look around the room, frantically searching for the origin of the dark voice. Maria, still standing in the doorway, looked at her grandfather curiously.

"Grandfather? What is-?"

Maria felt an impossibly severe shiver shoot through her frail body. She gasped, terrified and confused, at the sudden sensation, gaining Gerald's attention. As he whipped his head around to see what was wrong with Maria, blurring past the Gizoid which was also looking at him confused but alert.

And immediately, his heart and breath stopped in a horrified gasp.

A demon.

A demon was right behind Maria.

It's bloodshot, soul-less eyes pierced Gerald's still heart and again, the sensation of his soul chilling came back in full force. All of his instincts told him nothing. He could think nothing but one thing:

What was this thing about to do to Maria?

Maria.

Oh God, Maria.

It's right behind her.

IT'S RIGHT BEHIND HER!

Gerald tried to move, but he couldn't even find his breath. He simply watched in terror as Maria looked down to her hands clutching the delicate flowers she had picked during her exploring.

But they were no longer flowers.

They quickly shriveled and died in her hands when the chill shot through her. The once lively and beautiful petals fell disgracefully to the floor, desaturated and corroded.

Something definitely wasn't right.

Maria slowly turned around, against her better judgement.

And she immediately wished she hadn't.

A monster.

A massive, frightening monster stood just inches from her.

Her breath was gone and her heart frozen.

The being reached a clawed inky black hand to the innocent girl. The Gizoid sprung into action a few feet away and Gerald finally found his voice again.

"MARIAAAAAAAAA!"