Shock was the first emotion to tear through the bat. She knew the corpse behind the glass. Bewilderment clubbed her into a daze. How could this be? Was this a ghost hanging before her in a green aura? He was dead. Dead!
"You're dead," she seethed, ordering the blood-streaked spines to disappear. Shadow had burned up in the planet's atmosphere, Sonic had said so himself; he had given her all that remained! Rouge still had the wristlet; she pulled it from her belt pouches and held it up to the green tube, as though the evidence could make this impossibility go away.
No. Not impossible. There was always a way out. Those who thought otherwise were too frightened to open their eyes to every possibility. There had been a saving grace for Shadow the Hedgehog: two words, one miracle.
Chaos Control.
Amazement weakened her legs; Rouge let herself stare stupidly at this thing of wonder. There was no boss to impress or underling to intimidate here; she could put aside her cool detachment and admit that she was astounded.
Rouge put away the wristlet, and pulled out another circular band: her ring, her perfect, prized, black pearl ring. Gems really were amazing: the flawless architecture, the millions of millions of atoms that fused together to create wondrous, greater being. And she saw now that life was like the gems she adored, and that calamity and triumph could come together; could link and connect and unite into a greater beauty. She was meant to come here – the Cat, his misdirection, the sickness, the scarab, the holes in the wall, the paths not taken, the doors that opened. The greater Power of life – fate, destiny, God; whatever – had brought her here to ascend a final transformation into perfection.
She reached up and touched the glass lovingly. "You're all mine now," she purred. Here was her means, her way out. The military wanted her to provide insight on The Project Shadow? They could get everything they wanted out of the flesh and blood Ultimate Life Form.
All they needed to do was a little bartering with a bat…
She assessed the tank and looked for what to do next. Shadow hung naked in the solution of green fluid; bubbles emerged rhythmically from the mask and tubes around his muzzle. She guessed the chamber was some stasis tube for healing. There were intravenous tubes and cables inserted everywhere: in his arms, in his legs, and in his shoulder.
His face was twisted into is usual cold look of cruelty. "Aw, don't be so mad," she cooed. "You're gonna be out of there before you know it!"
She tested a few keystrokes on the console below. Screen savers shut off and revealed heart rate, blood pressure and other vital stats. If she had doubted before, then here was her proof: the thing inside was alive.
The bat tapped the keyboard and explored the computer that operated the stasis tube. She didn't get very far before it began asking for user identification and password. Simple, she remembered this one. M-A-R-I-A.
ACCESS DENIED. INVALID PASSWORD.
"Right, wrong Robotnik. … Oh well." She clicked her heels and waltzed over to the far end of the room. Then she turned around and rushed the tube. Her boots glinted in the green light.
With one strike, the wall splintered and green liquid began to seep out. Rouge landed on the console and started kicking some more. Slamming the glass, feeding the spider-web cracks, until her egg began to hatch.
The water broke. The entire front of the tube shattered; the contents rushed out and flooded the floor with green liquid. Sparks jumped from the control console. Shadow's sleeping body went limp, held up only by the puppet strings from the tube. Red beacons flashed on the ceiling.
Rouge paid special attention to the last one. Blast – a silent alarm! Things had to move fast now. She hopped over the sparking controls and reached inside to pull the respirator off his face. "Shadow? Wake up, we've got to move!" But with every tube she snapped out of his body, his weight only sunk further into the glass. Rouge growled and wrapped her arms around him, head on her shoulder and pulled.
The cords cut one after another, and pussy fluid spurted from the wounds. The last cable pulled out of his shoulder with a pop and Rouge suddenly fell off the console, dragging Shadow with her.
Red lights washed over the soaked floor and the awkwardly piled bat and hedgehog. Guards would come soon. "Shadow, you've gotta wake up!" His wet face just drooped over her shoulder. There was no rush of air.
"He's not breathing…" Rouge rolled the body off and ducked her ear to his mouth. He wasn't breathing – he was off life-support! What had she done? Rouge squatted over his black spines and pulled his body into her arms like a child. "Shadow … Shadow?" He was drifting into eternal sleep.
This wasn't fair! She hadn't suffered capture by Fang, endured that entire jungle, and climbed down all of Final Egg just to have her meal ticket ripped up. "Dammit, Shadow: Breathe!" She slapped him across the face.
Huuuuuuhh. Air rushed down his throat.
Something was wrong – it was … he couldn't describe it, but his muscles were shivering at this new place. His eyes! He wanted to clench them like a fist! What were those blades stinging his eyes?
The points atop his head were ringing! Waves from the new place rushed his head and made them ring! It was almost like the whispers from inside his head, but these were more present, more powerful. They hurt!
He became aware of the absence. The whispers… they were gone! Where had they gone?
Needles slapped his face. Something else happened too: something … went inside of him! It made him grow bigger, and it made him shiver! He did not want this – he forced it out – he made it go away. But in it came again, and his muscles convulsed at the presence!
He was cold, that was it. That was why his body shivered.
The something coming into his chest was changing him: he started to know things. The stinging, that was light. The ringing, that was sound! The needles, that was touch, that was…
Hurt. The whispers, they returned!
No … wait; this was not they, only their memory. Once, they had told him what hurt was; now he remembered. Hurt. Hurt came from Attack. He was being attacked!
He couldn't let that happen. He did not want that. He wanted this cold … Air. He wanted air – he wanted it to tell him more, to tell him light and sound and fire! But how?
The whispers told him all. Kill.
He knew Kill. He knew it very well.
The whispers urged him on.
Rouge was so overjoyed, she nearly squealed. "He's breathing! Yes, Shadow you're breathing!"
His hand lunged and seized her neck.
Kill!
Rouge gagged and choked. The grip tightened.
But Shadow had a weak hold; his muscles were soft and loose as wet string. His fingers had no more strength than a newborn's reflex. Rouge pulled his grip away and swiped his face for good measure. A hiss sputtered from Shadow's lips. Four bloody streaks down the side of his face added to the red in his spines.
He wasn't finished – Shadow's other hand clamped over her face and his palm pressed shut her mouth and nose. Between the slits of his fingers, Rouge's eyes went wide.
Finish it! Finish it! The whispers egged him on.
But Air was making his mind strong. His heart beat fast, and he was learning. A will was growing against the whispers of his instincts. He was thinking.
Finish it! It was not a request – it was an order. Finish it!
He wasn't sure he wanted to.
Finish it!
Why?
Shadow's eyelids peeled apart and stared her down. His pupils shrank, and the cruelty of his face leapt away. His hand jerked from Rouge's face, as though he'd grabbed a hot coal, and he shrank away from his murderous work. The bat got on her feet and she kicked the mad hedgehog in the stomach. Shadow crumpled.
"What the hell is up with you, you idiot? I'm saving your life!" Shadow only crawled through the sewage on the floor, retching over the pain in his chest and huddling in a little ball. Red lights still spun over the room.
"Are you going to move, or should I drag you?" How much longer until security arrived? Rouge splashed through the wet floor and knelt over the hedgehog, pulling him from his fetal position.
He yelled and squirmed like a fish out of water, wriggling out of her pull and erecting barricades with his hands. "Don't touch me!" he ordered with a high and terrified voice.
"I don't have time for this!" Rouge grabbed his wrist and tried pulling the hedgehog up, but Shadow's fighting only made him drag across the floor.
He shivered and sobbed. "Why are you doing this? Who are you?"
Rouge's patience had been pushed to its limit. She was ready to punch him unconscious and carry him out, when the security doors around the room hissed open. Water lapped out the entrance and two dark Eggbots stood at attention, blocking escape. Each carried a tall lance over their shoulder. Their blue eyes blasted to life, locking down a muddy, sweaty bat, and the soggy black bundle she was dragging across the floor.
The lances lowered for attack. The Eggbots charged.
Rouge dropped Shadow and barred her fangs. This was it; the first wave was here. She rushed into the bloodshed.
The red newcomers attacked the white lady, and she fought back. He knew that they were robots, and that she was a bat. He knew the ground was wet, and that the red lights hurt to look at.
He intuited that the white bat felt pain when the lances slapped her, but she got up anyway. She could fight; he recognized the kicks shown to him by the whispers. He knew the first robot was dead when its face flew off, and he knew the other would not survive impalement on a lance. He learned quickly; it seemed to come automatically with every breath he took.
He knew he had black fur on his arms, chest and legs, with red markings. He knew there was blood running down his face and that his throat hurt from screaming. He knew he was cold and naked, and that he could not move well. His arms and legs were very tired.
That was all he knew. He did not know where he was, or how he had got there. He did not know his name.
A shimmering form came to him. Her wings spread to a heavenly expanse and the shadow of her head wore a tiara with two horns. The white lady was coming for him.
"Stay away," the waterlogged hedgehog warned. "I'll hurt you." His voice was taking on the cold seriousness she remembered.
Rouge panted in the red light. Sweat dripped from her face and rippled through the wet floor. "Yeah right," she laughed. "I'll kick your ass."
Shadow sat up on edge. "What do you want from me?"
Her hands dropped to her side in a posture of fatigue. "Don't give me any more crap, Shadow. It's Rouge. Now get up before I kick you for that choking stunt again!"
"Rouge?" Shadow twitched and covered his head. He seemed to wince under a headache. "I … know you?"
"Don't weird out on me. C'mon – Robotnik's not really on our team anymore."
Whether she was emissary of Heaven or Hell, he did not know, but the white lady ordered him with a tone of familiarity. She seemed to know him, but he did not know her. He did not know anything.
He looked at his body: his five fingers, his long, matured legs and his firm, wiry muscles. He was old. He had lived a long time. His body told him that he must have done many things. Why couldn't he remember them?
The white lady grew impatient and seized his hand. "Get up!" she ordered. The violation made him rage; he slapped her away and tried to think.
Something was wrong. Something was missing from his mind and left him incomplete. Everything was missing! Panic shook his body and interrogated him with questions. What's your name? Where's your home? Why are you alone? Why can't you remember, are you stupid? What's wrong with you? Don't shirk like that; answer me! Who are you? WHO ARE YOU?
"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU, YOU STUPID HEDGEHOG!"
His anger exploded in a scream that frightened his guardian. "What did you do to me?"
The white lady looked down with false bewilderment. She knew and she would not tell! He wanted to smash her, crush her perfect face! He wanted to destroy that perfect face with a name and a home and a past. It was too much for him to bear anymore.
Shadow started crying. The genocidal butcher just curled up like a little lost kitten and let out the waterworks in shaking sobs. Rouge could only look at him with complete disgust. Back on the ARK, she had questioned his sanity in abundance, but now … now, she didn't know what to think – this wasn't Shadow at all!
He shivered. "Why can't I remember?"
Her eyes flashed. Rouge dropped to his level. "Wait a sec. You – you don't remember me? What about the ARK, or, or Chaos Control, or," she paused hopefully. "Maria?"
His fist caught her jaw. Already, he was regaining his icy strength. "Stop it!" he roared. "Stop it – it, it hurts!" The hedgehog fell on his side, tearing at his spines as though he could pull his lost memories out of his head. He rolled and clawed in agony of the unknown.
Rouge suddenly had the key. He wasn't acting out of hate for his unsteady ally; he didn't want to kill her or have her captured. This was something more, bigger than one of his sob sessions for Maria.
"Amnesia," she whispered. He couldn't remember anything! Well, this would make dragging him down to G.U.N. a whole lot easier!
"Shadow, listen to me." She fought away his fists and made him look at her. "Listen! That's your name, okay? Shadow. I'm Rouge, I'm your," she paused. "I'm your…" Should she risk it?
"I'm your partner."
He stared up at her in total confusion. "Partner?"
She tightened her alibi with a compassionate smile. "Partners – that's right! Rouge and Shadow: world's greatest treasure hunters! Don't you remember all the times we had?" She cut off his negative.
"Listen, I'll fill you in on everything later, but you have to come with me before more robots come to check on those two guys." She jerked a thumb at the oily corpses.
"We're in danger?"
"Lots of trouble. C'mon, I've still got to find the exit!"
With her help, the hedgehog climbed to his feet. He didn't resist her any more, but Shadow was still too weak to walk. He slipped on the floor as though he wanted to skate away. Rouge draped his arm over her shoulder and helped him limp through the puddles.
"My skates are in a container underneath the console. There's a handle, pull and it will come out."
Rouge looked at him with shock. "How do you know?"
Shadow seemed just as perplexed. "I … just … do." He would not mention what the whispers had told him.
Sure enough, with a tug, a metallic storage box pulled from underneath the tube. Rouge saddled Shadow over one shoulder and held his belongings in her other hand, and they limped out of the birth chamber.