Chapter Six
"It's nice to see you again, Shadow," Eggman said wryly. "Where have you been?"
I was in a dark cell behind long, rusted, metal bars. The floor was damp with cold water and my ears detected a leak dripping in the far back of the room. The air smelled of stale metal; it stung my nose. How long was I passed out? Eggman was standing over me, watching me from the other side of the bars. My back hurt more than anything, and it took a large amount of concentration to get the words out.
"That's...," I grunted and positioned myself against the wall, where I felt safe. "None of your concern." My voice was breathy and shaky, but somehow loud enough for Eggman to hear me. His eyebrows came together in hatred.
"What the hell is going on here?" I asked between clenched teeth. Somewhere above my tail my back stung and throbbed and pinched all at the same time. I would have given anything to make it go numb. Paralyzed, even. The pain made me dizzy. What did he do to it? I didn't dare look.
Eggman's voice filled the room. I trembled. "Shadow, you naïve fool. Did you really think I wanted to head off to some planet that I didn't even know whether it had an established civilization or not? Yet we took the path closest to Earth? You're incredibly foolish when I give you the chance."
"You...you lied to me!" was all I could think to say. Eggman stepped closer. I tried to focus my eyes on him. "Wh-Where is everyone else? Where are the others?"
Eggman pretended to look sad. "I'm afraid they didn't make it."
This infuriated me. "What?" I tried to step closer to him, to look him in the eye, to really examine him. "What?" I repeated, a little louder this time. "You killed all those people? You took everyone's lives just to make your plan a success?"
He grimaced. "It's called compromise."
"No!" I was shouting now. "It's not called compromise! You ended the lives of innocent people! There were children on that ship, Eggman!"
"Does it look like I care?" he shouted back at me. I recoiled into the security of the darkness. He seemed to notice this action and took it as a chance to kick me when I was down.
"So I guess the Ultimate Life-Form isn't so ultimate when he's afraid," he said sourly. I could hear the sharpness of his tongue, how he said each word carefully and slowly, building suspense.
"I...am not afraid of you," I said strongly and clearly, though I was halfway lying on the floor.
"You should be," Eggman said. "Besides, I don't have time for you. I'm not letting you get in the way of my plans."
His Eggman Empire. So it was really happening. His plan would come through and this planet would crumble...
"No. I won't allow you to do that."
The cell door suddenly opened and Eggman stepped inside.
"Oh, Shadow," he said bitterly as he walked slowly toward me. "I'm afraid I have to establish my empire. And I need you to help me do so."
I looked up at him. Why was he coming toward me? What did he want?
He gripped me by the white tuft of fur on my chest and lifted me to meet his face. His words pierced through me. "Have you forgotten you were created as a weapon of war?"
I started to breathe heavily, trying not to concentrate on the excruciating pain shooting through my body. "That is not...why I was created." Chills ran up and down my spine. I started to sweat, though the room was cold. "And that will never be why I was created."
He tossed me against the wall and it took everything not to scream. My head began to spin again, my back spasmed with pain, my legs shook so hard I couldn't even sit. Instead I lay motionless in the crease of the wall and the floor. I remembered Bailey, and how nicely she took care of me...and how now I was being thrashed around. Maybe I really wasn't used to being taken care of. The cell door slammed shut with a shriek. Eggman almost began to walk away.
"What do you know about my Companion?" I asked him. He stopped abruptly in his tracks but did not answer me.
I went on. "I've been having these weird dreams about this girl who was supposed to be the Ultimate Life-Form's Companion."
He turned away.
My words punctured the air. "I'll ask again: What the hell is going on?"
Eggman turned back to me. "Who told you about that?"
So it was real.
"No one," I answered. "After I hit my head, I started to remember some things..."
He looked away. "How could you remember?" he muttered. Turning to look at me, he said, "You weren't even awakened yet."
The pain in my back started to subside. I started to feel numb. I knew it wasn't a good sign, but at least the stabbing feeling had died down. I was overcome with relief.
"But I was almost finished being worked on," I said. "I remember hearing and feeling things while I was in the pod, but they were very vague and foggy. I've never remembered anything quite like this. I...I even saw these people through some memories, after a while, instead of just hearing their voices. I never rememberd being able to see something or someone while I was in the pod." My mouth felt dry. It was exhausting even to talk. I sighed anxiously.
"So are you gonna tell me?" I asked Eggman. Then more harshly, "Or will I have to find out myself?"
Now that my back didn't hurt, I was able to sit against the wall again. I had no idea what damage I was doing to it, but that didn't matter. I had to sit for this; I had to be attentive.
"All right," Eggman sighed, his shoulders drooping. "I thought I could hide this from you. But nothing stays in the dark for long..."
My ears bent with listening.
"It was when you were still being created, when you had yet to be released. The Ultimate Life-Form was all anybody ever talked about on the ARK. The doctors and professors were especially excited. They all looked up to Professor Gerald, my grandfather, as you know, and they were eager to see what you would be capable of. One doctor, though, Dr. Jame Evans, took things a little too far."
He continued:
"You see, he was so obsessed with creating an entire army of Ultimate Life-Forms that he just couldn't wait until you were completed and awakened. Gerald told him to wait until his creation was ready to show off its abilities before building any more. He did not wish to start a whole project when his first one was still incomplete. However, Evans was an impatient man. Though he secretly admired Gerald, he was ever-determined to become a better scientist than him. I knew he was undoubtedly jealous. So by taking my grandfather's general plans for an ultimate life-form and bringing them to a new light, he quietly worked on his experiment."
"This experiment would be like none other. Since Gerald did not allow Evans to conduct his experiment, Evans figured the only way to be successful was to go against Gerald's word and show the world for himself that this creation would be awe-inspiring, incredible. Gerald built his creation from scratch, but Evans had another idea: He would take a human and work from there."
"This life-form would be more powerful than Gerald's. He'd take a young human—no more than eight years old—and begin his experiment. The human-hedgehog hybrid would have the ability to transfer between its two forms and even cause Chaos Control with not a single emerald. A hybrid, he figured, could easily sneak around as a human and deliver the final blow as a hedgehog. It'd be the ultimate deceiving tactic. Not only that, but switching from one form to another required more power, and Evans believed if he conquered that, he was already a better scientist than Gerald."
"The human had to be young, as it would be a while until the experiment was complete. He had no special preference as to whether to choose a boy or a girl. So long as it was young, it could gain strength through the years. He eventually found someone's daughter."
"So unhealthily obsessed with his new creation, he met with the five-year-old girl's father to convince him to give her up. She'd still live, but just not as a human full-time. He told Evans plainly no. Evans tried to trick him into believing his girl was special, different from the other kids, which was not the case, but the man was desperate. The father didn't believe him, anyway."
"When Evans first brought up his creation plan, he tried to convince Gerald to have his own life-form work alongside Gerald's. They'd be Companions. Though at first Evans wanted his creation to be used as back-up for Gerald's Ultimate Life-Form, and then eventually cloned into an entire army, he figured the everlasting partnership between the Ultimate Life-Form and his Companion would be more powerful. This Companion would be designed to protect the Ultimate Life-Form and would explore new ways to build such creations. Gerald never agreed to this, however. Evans was a sneak, too, and very dishonest. He did try to steal Gerald's plans, and even succeeded partially. Though he worked on his hybrid plan in secret, he learned to add the hedgehog DNA to the girl's young body. But, like I said, this happened when Evans first talked about his creation."
"Why didn't you say that first, then?" I croaked.
Eggman scowled. "Do you want to hear the story or don't you?"
I shut up.
"Evans was a traitor, as you can presume. Out of spite, Evans continued to make this girl the Ultimate Life-Form's Companion, all in the taste of revenge after Gerald told him no. This young girl, who'd endure pain for many months—maybe years—as a result of the operation, would be forced to work with the Ultimate Life-Form; she'd be connected to him. Once she met the Ultimate Life-Form, she couldn't part with him, as they were lifelong partners. It was the only way to ensure they'd work together on missions and rely on each other. This way they'd be more powerful. It was also a way for Evans to get revenge on Gerald for never letting him build his creation, for telling him no every time. Now Gerald would have to live with this pain of taking this girl's life and turning it into something totally different and dangerous. Though it wasn't his own fault, he was still taut with anxiety about it. When he found out about the hybrid plan and how Evans took the man's daughter, Gerald yelled at him and fired him from his position."
"Then something rather odd happened a few days while the girl was resting unconscious: She mysteriously died on the operating table after Evans had worked on her insides to transform her into a hybrid. Shadow, she died before you were awakened for the first time. Gerald felt horrible about the young girl's death, but at least now she couldn't be used as a revenge tool. The girl's father was never to be seen again after he heard the news. He didn't fight Evans; that's how upset he was. Instead he just solemnly walked away after hearing the news and disappeared into thin air. No one really knows what happened to him."
"What happened to Evans?" I asked.
Eggman shrugged and looked away. "We believed him to be dead. We never heard from him either afterward. Some say he jumped off the ARK in a suicide attempt. Then again, that's what people said about the girl's father."
"Were you a part of this?"
Eggman shook his head. "No, I found this all in my grandfather's diary."
"Shadow," Eggman said again, "you had your memories revived about this, is that so?"
"Yes. When Professor and Evans were talking, when the father and Evans were talking, when the girl was being taken away, and when Gerald was yelling at Evans for saying it was dangerous and he wanted no part of it."
Eggman nodded. "Your memories are merely fragments. I can't tell you if they were in order. I'm astonished you were able to regain them after hitting your head."
I thought that especially weird, considering I never remembered having these memories before. They really only popped up after I crashed to Earth.
"Maybe crashing into Earth wasn't such a bad idea after all," he said with an evil smirk.
Something thumped inside me. "Wait, Eggman," I said quickly, anxiously. "Did this girl have a mother?"
Eggman shook his head. "No, she died when the girl was young."
"Haven't seen my mom since I was little. I think she and Papa are divorced, but I never asked about it."
I rubbed the spot where she stitched my glove.
"Did this girl have a name?"
The memory came back to me right where it left off and spoke in synch with Eggman.
"Her name is-
….
-Bailey."
