Secret snuck away from the group of Silver, Leaf, and Fusion to go talk to her older brother, Shadow.
"Hey Shad, hello Black Doom," she said, greeting the two. Shadow nodded to acknowledge that she spoke, and Doom's Eye turned to her.
"Just who exactly was that girl who threw me to the floor?" Black Doom asked. Secret shook her head and sighed.
"Ice the Hedgehog," Secret told Black Doom, who sort of snorted. "I'm about to go look for her, she left the party a little while ago... I think she was heading down that corridor."
Secret and Shadow shared a glance, and a memory flashed between them, accompanied by the echo of a gunshot from over 200 years ago. Shadow bowed his head, making it obvious that he didn't want to talk about that time. Black Doom looked from one to the other of the genetically engineered hedgehogs, and then moved over to speak with the first ARK project, Fusion.
Secret moved to the door that Ice had left through. She put her hand on the door, opened it, and found herself in the memory of a darker time.
"Hurry!" Shadow's voice called. Secret followed the same path she did at the same time that the memory happened. Ice was following the path that Shadow took, so Secret tried to warn her about what would happen once she reached the area near the elevator. Ice refused to accept the psychokinetic message, so Secret continued through the halls of the shadowy memory ARK.
Secret turned the corner and found herself staring at the back of a GUN soldier. She turned away as the trigger was pulled, she knew what happened...
"MARIA!"
Ice was staring at the floor in shock. Secret walked forward and put her arm around Ice's shoulders.
"I... I'm sorry..." Ice whispered. "I didn't know about... that... I—I'll go back to the party now."
"Don't apologize. GUN already paid for what they did hundreds of times, so there are no hard feelings between us and GUN: just strong memories." Secret said quietly, and then turned to look at a discolored spot on the metal. "We never DID mop that area..."
