Disclaimer: Sonic The Hedgehog and all related characters are copyright to SEGA. Athair the Echidna was originally copyright to Sonic Archie Comics and Sonic Underground. I changed him a lot, but they still get credit. Lemon the Echidna, Tenchi the Hedgehog and all related characters that don't belong to SEGA belong to me, Zeldafreak-Vikki and my friend, Alyssa the Bat!
Author's Note: Okay, the big reason this took so long is because I started drawing a comic of Sonic's Shadow. Why? I dunno, I felt like it! Well, Eshbaal made some fan pages of it so he was kind of an inspiration there. I'm almost done the Prologue, which is already 12 freaking panels long! I'll be posting them on my deviantART account as I go along, as well as my site. (you can click on my name for the URL!) So, yeah, now for Chapter 22!
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO – ONE LEFT
Maria Robotnik felt her whole body shake with fright as she walked down the street, wearing her usual jean outfit and a pair of sunglasses. She was so nervous, she barely heard Matt Haruna talking in her ear.
"The café should be around the corner, Maria!" directed the old man, feeling almost as nervous as Maria. The night before, the two had decided that it was time to finally approach the other projects. The Ultimate Life- Form's voice was becoming stronger and stronger, and its impatience flowed through Maria. It was starting to become unbearable. That's why the determined girl had to do this. It was her only hope to rid her of that terrible force.
She turned the corner and walked up to Sonic's café. She couldn't help but smile at how cute it was. She gazed up at the second story and, just as Arashi had foretold, the windows were dark. Shadow the Hedgehog wasn't home. Maria grinned.
"Perfect."
The doors opened, breaking the warm silence in the café as the little bell above the door rang. Sonic, who was sitting behind the bar-table, bored out of his mind, finally opened his eyes sluggishly. It was such a slow day; he was surprised anyone had walked in at all. The bigger shock was that it was a human. Oh well, Sonic couldn't complain. He stood up as the young girl walked up to the counter, sunglasses hiding her eyes. He blinked as he observed this girl, with her short blonde hair and worn out clothes. She looked like any other human girl and yet... something about her made Sonic feel very unsettled. Like when he had first encountered Tenchi...
"C-Can I help you?" asked Sonic, suddenly trembling. He gulped, trying to keep his hands steady.
The girl smiled, giggling slightly. "Well..."
"YOU!"
Both the girl and Sonic jumped as Shuri stood in the door, her eyes wide. The human turned to face the now teenage echidna. Following behind her was Shade, who tried to shove past his sister to see what was going on. As soon as the two were inside, the door closed and all was silent. Sonic felt a chill run down the back of his neck as Shuri stared to the girl, who simply stared back through her sunglasses. Sonic blinked, confused.
"What's the matter, Shuri?" he asked. "You're not supposed to yell at customers like that!"
"That's no customer, Sonic," said Shuri, disbelief written all over her face. "That's..."
The human girl sighed and pulled off her sunglasses, looking to Sonic. And immediately, the blue hedgehog knew. It was the same blue eyes he remembered seeing almost nineteen years before.
"Maria!"
Maria smiled shyly, glad he recognized her. "Oh good, you know me."
Sonic blinked, suddenly confused. He DID know her but... how? And just what was Maria Robotnik doing there anyway?!
"I thought I KILLED you!" growled Shade, who was burning with anger.
"Well, you came close, Shade, but the Hatian cells in my blood made me a bit tougher than that," retorted Maria, who simply crossed her arms.
Sonic was barely listening to the conversation. He was busy staring at Maria and wondering why he felt like he knew her so well. She glanced back at him as Shade and Shuri left to find Arashi and noticed his staring. She smiled and leaned her elbows on the table, making Sonic lean back to give her room.
"Amazing that you recognize me, even after we erased your memory," she said, ignoring his noises of confusion. "Well, Sonic, you don't remember your childhood, right?"
Sonic paused, then nodded slowly. He had always felt very sensitive on this subject, especially whenever Tails or Knuckles talked about their own families. It was a little depressing not remembering anything before simply waking up in the forest one day, knowing nothing but his name and having one sole purpose: 'Protect the Earth.'
"Do you want to know where you came from?" asked Maria, not sure if he really wanted to know. What if he'd hate her for it?
His reaction was quite the opposite though.
"YES!" yelled Sonic, suddenly standing up. Then, going a little red, sat back down, mumbling a quick "sorry". Maria chuckled.
"Well, you'll remember that Matt Haruna was a scientist who worked with Gerald Robotnik back on the ARK. He was one of the survivors of GUN's raid. He's actually the one who saved me. While the soldiers were taking things from the laboratories for investigation, I snuck in while they weren't looking and grabbed you. Then Matt and I smuggled you onto Earth."
Sonic blinked, taking this all in with shocking calm. "So," he began, registering all of this information into his brain. "Why do I only remember back a few years?"
"Well," replied Maria, "You really were asleep for about 40 years. We didn't see any need to awaken you and begin the Ultimate Life-Form's awakening. But then, almost twenty years ago, my cousin began terrorizing Station Square."
"Eggman," clarified Sonic.
Maria nodded. "Yes. I knew he'd try to use our grandfather's weapon sooner or later, so we decided to awaken you. Matt and I raised you as a normal hedgehog, training you to be strong and recover from your long sleep. Once you were about sixteen years old, we left you to go out on your own... I'm sorry..." Maria gulped, scared of how Sonic would take this. He looked down.
"So... you just left me," he repeated, his voice shaking slightly.
"Y-Yes," replied Maria, afraid of his anger. "But, we kept an eye on you and Matt made you the tornado to help you explore!" She gulped, not getting an answer to her excuses. Then she realized he was grinning. "Sonic?"
"Well! That answers my question! And here I was thinking I was all alone!" laughed Sonic, grinning as usual. It really was a big relief that he actually had an origin and he actually had people who cared for him. It was that big relief that caused a tear or two to appear under his eyes. Lucky for him, Arashi walked in before anyone noticed.
"Maria!" exclaimed Arashi as he walked in, followed by the twin echidnas. "Decided to come out of hiding, huh?"
"Well, now that you have all seven Chaos Emeralds, the Ultimate Life- Form's getting stronger... I'm sure you've all felt it..."
The whole room went silent. They all slowly nodded and looked to each other. Sonic, Arashi, Shade, Shuri and Maria. Five of the seven beings who were destined to come together and create the Ultimate Life- Form. Shuri suddenly had a bad feeling and spoke her mind.
"But we can't listen to it! If the Ultimate Life-Form rises, won't it cause chaos liked Professor Gerald wanted?!"
Shade rolled his eyes. "Oh, c'mon, Shuri, it won't be that big of a deal! Besides, don't you wanna stop that voice from bugging you every night?! I know you hear it too!"
[Heheheh... Shuri and Shade are ours!] Maria smiled, agreeing with the voice in her head.
Shuri paused, then nodded, unable to fight it. Deep inside, she really wanted this to happen, but her heart was telling her this was wrong. But her heart's will was being deafened by the Ultimate Life-Form's terrible voice, telling her to listen to Maria.
"Well, five of us are here. Arashi? Can you and Sonic release Jigoku? We need him too." Maria looked to Arashi, who went very white.
"W-Well... I suppose we could..." he stammered, fearing the very mention of his nemesis. But the Ultimate Life-Form's will was telling him everything would be okay. And he trusted that.
[Arashi as well! And wherever Arashi will go, Sonic will follow...]
Maria grinned maliciously as the big portal opened, a blinding light making the whole room go white and red. Everything was going according to plan... now there was only one left...
Rouge hummed as she cooked in her kitchen. Usually, Lemon would cook their dinner, but the enthusiastic bat decided to try her hand at the task. Outside of the door, Lemon and Knuckles stood there, already dreading Rouge's experimental cooking. Knuckles looked to his sister, gulping with fright.
"Lemon, please tell me you'll cook something!"
Lemon chuckled. "Don't worry, bro, I already made some snacks." She reached into her pockets and pulled out a little bag of food and handed it to Knuckles, who couldn't stop thanking her. The crafty echidna-girl smiled as she pulled out a second bag and started to leave.
Knuckles blinked. "Where are you going?"
"I'm gonna give this to Shadow. I'll bet he's hungry." With that, she was gone up the stairs. Knuckles shook his head, not approving of his sister seeing Shadow. But he knew better than to interfere.
"Shadow! Hey, Shadow! I made you some food!"
Lemon pushed the ceiling door open and climbed up onto the roof, breathing the cold night air with relief. The entire house filled with smoke, she now understood why Shadow had retreated onto the roof. She crawled along slowly until she found him, lying on his back, with his hands behind his head. It looked like he was watching the moon, except his eyes were glazed over with thought, reminding Lemon a little of Tenchi.
"Hey, Shadow!"
"WHOA!" The black hedgehog suddenly sat up, lashing an arm out behind him in an awkward sort of attack. Lemon yelled and quickly lunged sideways, dodging his attack but losing her balance, falling over and rolling right into him. Shadow choked and shut his eyes as he was knocked onto his back, the wind being knocked out of him.
"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?!"
Shadow coughed as he opened his eyes, which widened very quickly. Lemon was right on top of him! The two of them paused, going red.
"I-I'm fine..." stammered Shadow. Inside, his heart was panicking and began screaming in terror. Shadow clenched his teeth, feeling like he was having a heart attack.
Lemon blinked, noticing Shadow was turning very red. "Are you sure you're okay? You're a little red..."
"I said I'm fine!" He sat up slowly and Lemon quickly got off, clearing her throat. The soft night wind whispered in their ears as neither spoke, recovering from what has just happened. Finally, Lemon spoke.
"Er, I brought you these." She said, holding up the bag of food. Shadow blinked and took it.
"Oh, thanks," he said, still a little red. "It looks great!"
Lemon smiled. "So, what're you looking at?"
Shadow sighed as he leaned back on his hands, looking up. "Just the stars. It always makes me feel better whenever I'm down."
Lemon came and sat beside him. "Well, can I watch them with you? I don't want you to... feel down alone."
Shadow looked to her, feeling his heart beating his chest apart. She seemed to always be there when he needed her. This girl... did he really...love her?
He hesitated, then put his arm around her shoulders. He waited, wondering what she might do, then started to turn red again as Lemon leaned in against him. He gulped, trying to calm himself down.
"I'd like that... a lot..."
Lemon smiled and put her arm around him too. They stayed up there for a long, long time, watching the stars shimmer in the sky. Shadow wished it would last forever, but he knew that the next day, something bad was going to happen...
Extra note thingy: I dunno why but this chapter was hard for me to type. It's kind of a "filler chapter" as I plan the whole Ultimate Life-Form sequence and as I draw the Sonic's Shadow comic. I promise the next chapter will be better! ;;
Author's Note: Okay, the big reason this took so long is because I started drawing a comic of Sonic's Shadow. Why? I dunno, I felt like it! Well, Eshbaal made some fan pages of it so he was kind of an inspiration there. I'm almost done the Prologue, which is already 12 freaking panels long! I'll be posting them on my deviantART account as I go along, as well as my site. (you can click on my name for the URL!) So, yeah, now for Chapter 22!
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO – ONE LEFT
Maria Robotnik felt her whole body shake with fright as she walked down the street, wearing her usual jean outfit and a pair of sunglasses. She was so nervous, she barely heard Matt Haruna talking in her ear.
"The café should be around the corner, Maria!" directed the old man, feeling almost as nervous as Maria. The night before, the two had decided that it was time to finally approach the other projects. The Ultimate Life- Form's voice was becoming stronger and stronger, and its impatience flowed through Maria. It was starting to become unbearable. That's why the determined girl had to do this. It was her only hope to rid her of that terrible force.
She turned the corner and walked up to Sonic's café. She couldn't help but smile at how cute it was. She gazed up at the second story and, just as Arashi had foretold, the windows were dark. Shadow the Hedgehog wasn't home. Maria grinned.
"Perfect."
The doors opened, breaking the warm silence in the café as the little bell above the door rang. Sonic, who was sitting behind the bar-table, bored out of his mind, finally opened his eyes sluggishly. It was such a slow day; he was surprised anyone had walked in at all. The bigger shock was that it was a human. Oh well, Sonic couldn't complain. He stood up as the young girl walked up to the counter, sunglasses hiding her eyes. He blinked as he observed this girl, with her short blonde hair and worn out clothes. She looked like any other human girl and yet... something about her made Sonic feel very unsettled. Like when he had first encountered Tenchi...
"C-Can I help you?" asked Sonic, suddenly trembling. He gulped, trying to keep his hands steady.
The girl smiled, giggling slightly. "Well..."
"YOU!"
Both the girl and Sonic jumped as Shuri stood in the door, her eyes wide. The human turned to face the now teenage echidna. Following behind her was Shade, who tried to shove past his sister to see what was going on. As soon as the two were inside, the door closed and all was silent. Sonic felt a chill run down the back of his neck as Shuri stared to the girl, who simply stared back through her sunglasses. Sonic blinked, confused.
"What's the matter, Shuri?" he asked. "You're not supposed to yell at customers like that!"
"That's no customer, Sonic," said Shuri, disbelief written all over her face. "That's..."
The human girl sighed and pulled off her sunglasses, looking to Sonic. And immediately, the blue hedgehog knew. It was the same blue eyes he remembered seeing almost nineteen years before.
"Maria!"
Maria smiled shyly, glad he recognized her. "Oh good, you know me."
Sonic blinked, suddenly confused. He DID know her but... how? And just what was Maria Robotnik doing there anyway?!
"I thought I KILLED you!" growled Shade, who was burning with anger.
"Well, you came close, Shade, but the Hatian cells in my blood made me a bit tougher than that," retorted Maria, who simply crossed her arms.
Sonic was barely listening to the conversation. He was busy staring at Maria and wondering why he felt like he knew her so well. She glanced back at him as Shade and Shuri left to find Arashi and noticed his staring. She smiled and leaned her elbows on the table, making Sonic lean back to give her room.
"Amazing that you recognize me, even after we erased your memory," she said, ignoring his noises of confusion. "Well, Sonic, you don't remember your childhood, right?"
Sonic paused, then nodded slowly. He had always felt very sensitive on this subject, especially whenever Tails or Knuckles talked about their own families. It was a little depressing not remembering anything before simply waking up in the forest one day, knowing nothing but his name and having one sole purpose: 'Protect the Earth.'
"Do you want to know where you came from?" asked Maria, not sure if he really wanted to know. What if he'd hate her for it?
His reaction was quite the opposite though.
"YES!" yelled Sonic, suddenly standing up. Then, going a little red, sat back down, mumbling a quick "sorry". Maria chuckled.
"Well, you'll remember that Matt Haruna was a scientist who worked with Gerald Robotnik back on the ARK. He was one of the survivors of GUN's raid. He's actually the one who saved me. While the soldiers were taking things from the laboratories for investigation, I snuck in while they weren't looking and grabbed you. Then Matt and I smuggled you onto Earth."
Sonic blinked, taking this all in with shocking calm. "So," he began, registering all of this information into his brain. "Why do I only remember back a few years?"
"Well," replied Maria, "You really were asleep for about 40 years. We didn't see any need to awaken you and begin the Ultimate Life-Form's awakening. But then, almost twenty years ago, my cousin began terrorizing Station Square."
"Eggman," clarified Sonic.
Maria nodded. "Yes. I knew he'd try to use our grandfather's weapon sooner or later, so we decided to awaken you. Matt and I raised you as a normal hedgehog, training you to be strong and recover from your long sleep. Once you were about sixteen years old, we left you to go out on your own... I'm sorry..." Maria gulped, scared of how Sonic would take this. He looked down.
"So... you just left me," he repeated, his voice shaking slightly.
"Y-Yes," replied Maria, afraid of his anger. "But, we kept an eye on you and Matt made you the tornado to help you explore!" She gulped, not getting an answer to her excuses. Then she realized he was grinning. "Sonic?"
"Well! That answers my question! And here I was thinking I was all alone!" laughed Sonic, grinning as usual. It really was a big relief that he actually had an origin and he actually had people who cared for him. It was that big relief that caused a tear or two to appear under his eyes. Lucky for him, Arashi walked in before anyone noticed.
"Maria!" exclaimed Arashi as he walked in, followed by the twin echidnas. "Decided to come out of hiding, huh?"
"Well, now that you have all seven Chaos Emeralds, the Ultimate Life- Form's getting stronger... I'm sure you've all felt it..."
The whole room went silent. They all slowly nodded and looked to each other. Sonic, Arashi, Shade, Shuri and Maria. Five of the seven beings who were destined to come together and create the Ultimate Life- Form. Shuri suddenly had a bad feeling and spoke her mind.
"But we can't listen to it! If the Ultimate Life-Form rises, won't it cause chaos liked Professor Gerald wanted?!"
Shade rolled his eyes. "Oh, c'mon, Shuri, it won't be that big of a deal! Besides, don't you wanna stop that voice from bugging you every night?! I know you hear it too!"
[Heheheh... Shuri and Shade are ours!] Maria smiled, agreeing with the voice in her head.
Shuri paused, then nodded, unable to fight it. Deep inside, she really wanted this to happen, but her heart was telling her this was wrong. But her heart's will was being deafened by the Ultimate Life-Form's terrible voice, telling her to listen to Maria.
"Well, five of us are here. Arashi? Can you and Sonic release Jigoku? We need him too." Maria looked to Arashi, who went very white.
"W-Well... I suppose we could..." he stammered, fearing the very mention of his nemesis. But the Ultimate Life-Form's will was telling him everything would be okay. And he trusted that.
[Arashi as well! And wherever Arashi will go, Sonic will follow...]
Maria grinned maliciously as the big portal opened, a blinding light making the whole room go white and red. Everything was going according to plan... now there was only one left...
Rouge hummed as she cooked in her kitchen. Usually, Lemon would cook their dinner, but the enthusiastic bat decided to try her hand at the task. Outside of the door, Lemon and Knuckles stood there, already dreading Rouge's experimental cooking. Knuckles looked to his sister, gulping with fright.
"Lemon, please tell me you'll cook something!"
Lemon chuckled. "Don't worry, bro, I already made some snacks." She reached into her pockets and pulled out a little bag of food and handed it to Knuckles, who couldn't stop thanking her. The crafty echidna-girl smiled as she pulled out a second bag and started to leave.
Knuckles blinked. "Where are you going?"
"I'm gonna give this to Shadow. I'll bet he's hungry." With that, she was gone up the stairs. Knuckles shook his head, not approving of his sister seeing Shadow. But he knew better than to interfere.
"Shadow! Hey, Shadow! I made you some food!"
Lemon pushed the ceiling door open and climbed up onto the roof, breathing the cold night air with relief. The entire house filled with smoke, she now understood why Shadow had retreated onto the roof. She crawled along slowly until she found him, lying on his back, with his hands behind his head. It looked like he was watching the moon, except his eyes were glazed over with thought, reminding Lemon a little of Tenchi.
"Hey, Shadow!"
"WHOA!" The black hedgehog suddenly sat up, lashing an arm out behind him in an awkward sort of attack. Lemon yelled and quickly lunged sideways, dodging his attack but losing her balance, falling over and rolling right into him. Shadow choked and shut his eyes as he was knocked onto his back, the wind being knocked out of him.
"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?!"
Shadow coughed as he opened his eyes, which widened very quickly. Lemon was right on top of him! The two of them paused, going red.
"I-I'm fine..." stammered Shadow. Inside, his heart was panicking and began screaming in terror. Shadow clenched his teeth, feeling like he was having a heart attack.
Lemon blinked, noticing Shadow was turning very red. "Are you sure you're okay? You're a little red..."
"I said I'm fine!" He sat up slowly and Lemon quickly got off, clearing her throat. The soft night wind whispered in their ears as neither spoke, recovering from what has just happened. Finally, Lemon spoke.
"Er, I brought you these." She said, holding up the bag of food. Shadow blinked and took it.
"Oh, thanks," he said, still a little red. "It looks great!"
Lemon smiled. "So, what're you looking at?"
Shadow sighed as he leaned back on his hands, looking up. "Just the stars. It always makes me feel better whenever I'm down."
Lemon came and sat beside him. "Well, can I watch them with you? I don't want you to... feel down alone."
Shadow looked to her, feeling his heart beating his chest apart. She seemed to always be there when he needed her. This girl... did he really...love her?
He hesitated, then put his arm around her shoulders. He waited, wondering what she might do, then started to turn red again as Lemon leaned in against him. He gulped, trying to calm himself down.
"I'd like that... a lot..."
Lemon smiled and put her arm around him too. They stayed up there for a long, long time, watching the stars shimmer in the sky. Shadow wished it would last forever, but he knew that the next day, something bad was going to happen...
Extra note thingy: I dunno why but this chapter was hard for me to type. It's kind of a "filler chapter" as I plan the whole Ultimate Life-Form sequence and as I draw the Sonic's Shadow comic. I promise the next chapter will be better! ;;