Chapter Thirteen: Wounds of the Past

Shadow observes the cell. It is old and crumbled, tiny by all accounts, barely enough room for two people to stand in. But he cannot take his eyes off the body. His body. The Shadow of this timeline. Twenty years ago, the Sonic of this timeline had helped this Shadow into this lab. Sonic had escaped, promising to return for Shadow soon. But he never did. And Shadow had died in this cell, drained of his power.

Shadow feels a flush of fury. The chains which manacle the other Shadow's body to the wall, are made of no metal he's ever seen before. It's a sort of pearl blue, with silver shimmering through it in thin veins.

The dead Shadow's inhibitor rings lay just a few feet away from the body, on a table between the two Shadows. The inhibitor rings are the gold bands Shadow wears on his wrists and ankles. They keep him alive, but he can remove them for a short while to generate a massive amount of power. He can't have them off for too long though, or the energy will completely drain out of his body and kill him. Which is what had happened to this Shadow.

He can see the bloody marks on the dead Shadow's wrists where he'd struggled with all his strength to reach even one of the rings. Even one would have kept him alive long enough to escape. He'd died reaching something just a foot away from him. The scientist had explained that Shadow's captives had done it on purpose to taunt him. Torture him. They'd known he'd never break free. But he'd tried and died doing it.

Shadow is quiet. A deep calm has settled over him. Rouge had steered way clear of him since observing this calm. It is the calm before the storm. The biggest storm of Shadow's life. The Ultimate Life-Form, brought down by a couple of chains and an old cell. Inside, Shadow is shaking with rage. He wants to draw upon all the unnatural energies he has and lay waste to anything that crosses him. But outside? Calm. A deep, spiritual calm that spells ultimate and hopeless doom for anyone that breaks it.

Shadow finally tears his eyes off the body and leaves the cell. The scientist closes the door behind him.

"What's your name?" Shadow asks the scientist without looking at him.

"James." the scientist replies.

"James." Shadow repeats, "Bury him for me, will you?"

"I'd have buried him years ago if I could. But these chains and restraints were designed to never be opened. You lock them once and that's it. They're locked for good. I'd take them out of the wall, but they're attached to a wall behind the stone wall of the cell that's made of the same metal the cuffs are made of. So no way to get him out. I'm sorry."

"Why do you work here?" Shadow growls, eyes narrowing. The storm draws nearer. Shadow half turns his head and fixes his burning gaze into the eyes of James. If James is afraid, he hides it well.

"If you dislike what they did to Shadow and whoever else, why do you work here?" Shadow asks. James snorts.

"It's work for them or be a slave. Or die." James replies, "I don't like working for them, but I get paid, so I can at least keep my family safe. I hate it here. Everyone does."

"What is this metal you speak of?" Shadow asks.

"Edgeonium." James answers, "It's a new alloy they invented years ago. Supposedly, hardly anything can break, cut or melt it. It's not indestructible, but it's pretty close. G.U.N. uses it for the high end robots, jail cells and other such things."

"How was it discovered?" Shadow asks.

"A meteorite that fell to the planet shortly after G.U.N. started attacking everywhere. It's close to their main base - everyone still wonders how the base survived. The comet wasn't big, but it doesn't need to be. Travelling at that speed, from that distance and with gravity helping it, it wiped out anything within a one hundred and eighty mile radius of it. The base is only ten miles where it landed, so it should have been incinerated. But it survived. It even boggles us scientists how they did it.

"But anyway. The comet had a new sort of ore in it. They created metal from that ore and called it Comendium, named after the comet of course. They mixed it with other metals to form a compound that's light, but extremely difficult to destroy. And called it Edgeonium."

"Has no-one found a way through it yet?" Shadow asks.

"The high end executives of G.U.N. have very special tools to cut through it. But other than those, nope. Nothing."

"And where are these executives? I wouldn't mind one of those very special tools."

"They're nowhere near us." James replies, "They're all safe and sound at the main base. Crazy stuff they build in there. You think this lab is bad? If you ever get there, you'll see."

"Shadow!" Rouge calls. The hedgehog and James turn to her.

"I've...I've found something. You really need to see this." Rouge explains. Shadow blinks. James gulps.

"Is it to do with...?" James asks.

"That stasis tank. Yes." Rouge replies, "Who are you to keep such a thing here?!" she snaps at James, angry all of a sudden, "No wonder the Shadow of this timeline wanted to get to it! Shadow, seriously, come see!"

"What's in that tank?" Shadow asks dangerously to James.

"Something we were ordered to protect at all costs." James replies defensively, "What's inside is valuable to Doctor Eggman far beyond anything else."

Shadow growls and follows Rouge. He hears James begging Shadow not to open the tank then his voice is lost to the distance Shadow has put between himself and James.

They reach the tank. Two tanks. There are two tanks now. Shadow could have sworn he only saw one earlier.

Inside the two tanks are two lifeforms. Shadow's eyes widen. His mouth opens in shock.

One life form is blue, the other, black and red. Shadow is inside one of the tubes, a young, alive Shadow. In stasis presently, but still Shadow. Or a copy of him. He sees Rouge blocking his vision from the blue tank. He growls at Rouge to move. The bat hesitates.

"Don't...be mad." she says, and moves to the side. Shadow's heart stops. The inner storm fades to nothingness, lost in new emotion. Two shades of blue. A deep royal blue on top, sky blue flowing to the bottom. Slender, frail arms and legs. Beautiful, flowing golden hair.

"Shadow..." Rouge begins. Shadow shakes his head, eyes wide. Tears welling up in his eyes. His hand reaches out...

And touches Maria's stasis tank.