Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog.
"...and then, I'll find out if you're the real Shadow..."
Even unconscious... it stung.
'I am the real Shadow... I am!'
Her... Rouge... all the harsh words...
"Even your memories might not be real..." echoed through his memory.
Memories... a flood of them.
Something must have gotten loose in his brain. Memories of things he didn't even remember. Deja vu...
~*~
Memories... of wondering what Earth could possibly be like, wondering what it would look like, smell like, feel like...
Memories of younger, more carefree days, despite being tested, for he was a science project, after all.
Memories of the kind scientist who had created him.
Memories of the scientist, Gerald Robotnik's, granddaughter, his best friend.
Maria.
Memories of the staff who always had a smile or kind word towards him and Maria.
Never being apart from Maria.
"We were inseparable..."
And then, all of that was shattered...
"Don't let them escape!"
Shadow vaguely recalled... running down the hallway, the professor telling him and Maria to leave, get in a capsule, go down to Earth...
Despite the military storming the space colony, the obvious dangers that were showing, the fear that was building in his mind, Shadow couldn't help but feel somewhat excited. Earth... were they really going to go to Earth? As they got to one of the rooms with escape capsules, though, the feeling of excitement disappeared in the time of a gunshot.
Literally.
"Maria!" Shadow started toward his friend, staring, wide-eyed in horror.
"Shadow... stop where you are..." she responded.
"But... Maria..." Shadow stopped, his heart pounding like a jackhammer. He felt it, the vibrations in his throat, the tightness, the pain in his mind...
Then he saw. She didn't just want him to stay back...
He was standing right underneath the escape capsule...
He saw her press the buttons on the controls...
"Maria!"
"Shadow... I beg of you..."
"MARIA!!!"
"Give them a chance... to be happy..."
Shadow watched, petrified, as his capsule was ejected into space...
...he watched as ARK faded from view...
...and Earth grew more in focus...
Of course, he was moving too fast to pick up any real details...
...but the impact...
...sheer pain...
...then G.U.N., coming...
...taking him to their base...
...locking him away, cryogenically freezing him...
...him swearing revenge on the world...
...the world that had killed his best friend...
Then, seemingly the next day, being awakened by Eggman
who wanted to conquer the world
It had to have been sent from the heavens.
In one glance, Shadow could tell what was on Eggman's mind.
It was the perfect chance to avenge Maria...
He'd show this doctor, a descendant of Gerald Robotnik, the Eclipse Cannon... He could destroy the world, destroy the humans, those who had killed Maria.
After fifty years, waking up in a time where he was alone. Where Maria was merely a forgotten figure of history...
In his entire quest to destroy Earth, he had failed
failed to notice the beauty of the planet
failed to see what Maria had always imagined
failed to fulfill her wish
failed to fulfill his promise
failed to destroy the world
failing to be either a hero or enemy
And it had taken Amy to make him realize his mistakes.
Amy, the rest of them...
Sonic.
Knuckles.
Even Rouge.
They'd shown him the light...
He had seen how ARK was plummeting towards Earth. How there couldn't be a way to stop it. But then Amy... Amy had come... had reminded him of Maria...
And he realized that it wasn't revenge she wanted. She had wanted the people of Earth, the same people, the descendants of the people who had caused her death, for them to be happy.
And he'd battled the Biolizard, the real Project Shadow, the one he'd thought himself to be...
However, in its defeat, he'd earned the title to himself... The Ultimate Life Form...
But, when the Biolizard had taken a desperate measure... becoming one with ARK in an attempt to destroy those on Earth along with itself... Shadow had found himself teaming up with Sonic...
And it was obvious.
He himself had nearly died. Sonic had escaped the fire of the atmosphere.
Sonic was the Ultimate Life Form himself.
But this... couldn't be.
And then the past merged into the present, until he was here.
Helpless.
Not an ultimate anything.
But still...
'Maria... I made a promise. And I intend to keep it.'
Complete confusion. Running through his mind.
But he wanted...
...the true facts.
'Maria... I want to see the world the way it is.'
A vow... to see the world, not through revenge-stricken, hate-filled eyes, but through those of one who wanted to help the world, one who wanted to learn of it.
'Maria..."