"Densely being, this is the end."

The place was dim, the stars scattered across the dark sky. A black hedgehog stood a few meters away from a towering square form; no windows were on the strange building. The hedgehog stepped into the gleaming light; showing red stripes were on his legs, arms, and quills and above his eyes. He ran a hand through his upturned quills, he sighed and looked to the cemented ground. 'Why am I here?' He pondered; his heart told him to keep going, but he didn't even know why. The building looked like it was still operative, lights were standing high around the area, illuminating the dark depths of the forest. Shadow took a few steps forward; the doors were open, already awaiting him. A chill ran up his spine; he froze in place, he could hear breathing. It was slow and harsh, but at the same time; gentle. Shadow was swept over with confusion, he felt enticed to move forward.

He shifted a step further; his heart skipped a beat as the sounds completely ceased. "What the?" He murmured, the silence felt so strange; it wasn't normal here, and Shadow wanted to find out why. Slowly, he continued forth, getting to the double doors leading inside. He entered the building, something warm slid down his cheek. He instinctively wiped it away with his glove and looked at it; his glove had become damp, with a tear. A sour taste came from the back of his throat, he suddenly felt weak as he leaned against the wall and slid to the floor. His red eyes looked around aimlessly, tears freely spilling down his cheeks. "What's happening?" He looked at his hands, to see that he was shaking. Shadow squeezed his eyes shut and let the tears fall; silently, he sobbed to himself. His heart stung, as the few memories of what had passed; slid through his mind.

A long time passed until the hedgehog finally gathered himself; he stood up and wiped away the dampness from his cheeks. He looked down the hallway, all the lights were on, but nothing moved. Shadow had a strange feeling that he stood out, but nothing seemed out of place and the facility looked around the same as Ark. The walls and ceiling were a light gray, the floor; was a dark gray metal. The black hedgehog stepped forward along the illuminated hallway; there were large windows on each side of the passage. On the left was a room with working tables and chairs that were moved about; as if people were still seated around the room, but it was obvious to the hedgehog that no one was in that room.

Shadow walked to the other side of the hallway; the window was wet on the inside, but all the chairs and desks were still in place and dry. He scanned the room briefly before peering down the corridor to a stairway. He cautiously began to tread closer to the stairway; he stopped at the top of the stairs and stood for a moment, deciding what exactly he was doing. Then without even thinking through, he trotted down the metal stairs. The rocket pieces of Shadow's shoes made a loud clanking noise every time he walked onto the next step; the empty echoes sent a chill up his spine. He stopped; he could hear water dripping. Again without thinking, he quickly rushed down the rest of the stairs and came to an empty room with a door heading somewhere; water was dripping from the ceiling.

He stepped over to the door, and stopped; he slowly turned to look at the dripping water, it looked slightly like it was in slow motion. Shadow approached the expanding puddle and bent down to look at it closer; it smelt like distilled water, but it looked so strange. The hedgehog let his hand fall and touch the odd substance, he fell back in shock as the water slid away from him and quickly made its way back to the ceiling. Shadow stared in awe at it; then felt his stomach give an unsettling gurgle. He instinctively covered his mouth as a nauseating feeling spread over his entire body; salty saliva gathered in his mouth, Shadow quickly tipped his head to his side and threw up a bit of water he remembered drinking earlier in the day. His abdominal muscles pulled tightly as his stomach tried to rid itself of anything else the hedgehog had swallowed, after a long thirty minutes, Shadow sat up properly and sighed miserably. A queasy feeling settled over his mind, he felt ill; but it eventually faded.

As soon as the nausea made itself scarce, he was on his feet again; quickly he sped through the door to get away from the strange feeling he got from that room. Shadow found himself in another hallway, very similar to the one he had first encountered. As he walked up to the window he noticed that both the rooms were tidy; not a single paper was out of place. He glanced to his right; a desk was against the wall; like an ordinary office. Shadow turned to look through the other window, when out of the corner of his eye he saw a small blonde haired girl standing in the middle of the room, staring straight at him. He stared back at her, she had deathly white eyes; he felt sick again. Quickly, he bent to the floor and coughed violently, holding his stomach, he looked up again and; she was gone. Shadow felt ill again, for no reason he could think of. He inspected the room longer from the view at the window; in the corner of the room was a capsule, full of water.

He sighed, feeling uneasy about the room before trotting off down the hallway. Again, there was a staircase. But this one was cement; Shadow felt his heart beat pick up and something told him; that whatever had made him come here, was waiting for him down the stairs. He took a deep breath and slowly trod down the steps one at a time; he held his breath as he noticed that his feet didn't make a sound against the cement. The hedgehog sighed heavily as slowly; he continued down the stairs. He watched his shoes silently tread down the steps one at a time, his gaze drifted to the wall; it was also cement and, slightly damp. Shadow sniffed the air; it smelt just like the water that made him sick earlier, but he didn't feel ill at all.

After a few more steps, he noticed the passage was widening, the ceiling stretched high above his head. Shadow froze; in front of him was a large wall of water, he felt his stomach lurch. He could see a human figure behind the wall of water, he squinted to try to see it clearer, but he could only see that it had blue glowing eyes. "What o-" Before Shadow even finished, a large amount of water came down on him like a whipping tentacle; hitting him on his head. The hedgehog fell to the ground from the blow, he quickly rolled out of the way as another water tentacle flailed and whipped after him. He managed to get on his feet and skillfully dodged a third tentacle as it came from the large water creature. Shadow activated his hover shoes and began to run along the wall, he spun into a ball and collided with the wall of water. The collision did nothing to the creature as it easily flung shadow back against the far wall; the hedgehog rebounded off the wall and landed safely on his feet. A tentacle appeared from the floor and quickly lifted him into the ceiling, thrusting him hard against the cement. Shadow choked for air as he fell, another tentacle threw him sideways and he quickly met with the wall. He fell to the floor, gasping for air, when all three tentacles began to beat him continuously.

When the dark hedgehog began to lose consciousness, the tentacles stopped. Shadow spat out some of the strange essence and peered up at the creature, he could still see those piercing blue eyes; it was watching him. He painfully, and slowly stood up, his whole body sore. His eyes blinked several times and drooped tiredly, he was running out of strength. He stared at the human form beyond the water wall, slowly things pieced together and it was a good chance that the human was controlling the water. Shadow watched and froze as the human's arm flinched, a tentacle appeared out of the watery form. His theory was making sense, so he figured if he somehow got to the human; he could defeat the water creature.

The hedgehog took a step forward; the human flinched again and froze as it watched him with its glowing eyes. Shadow felt a tingling sensation run through his body, he looked down; the water near his feet was a strange purple color. He gasped. Pure Chaos Energy. He bent down and touched it, a surge of fire coursed through his veins, his wounds instantly healed, the burning sensation circled around his hands. He smirked and clenched his hands into fists; he sprung into the air and opened his left hand towards the water. "Chaos Spear!" Large lightning bolt shot out from his hand and lashed at the creature, the whole wall flinched and moved back slightly. Shadows grin widened.

His feet touched the ground; he scooped up more Chaos Energy and dodged as a tentacle swiped at him. "Chaos Control!" Time froze; he knew it was limited, so the black hedgehog quickly looked for a larger puddle of pure Chaos Energy. He saw that just beyond the wall of water, was yellow Chaos Energy, a giant pool of it below the humans form. Time returned to normal and he swiftly dodged a tentacle coming from the ground, Shadow scooped up a handful of Chaos Energy and his pace sped up, he charged into a ball and instantly collided with the wall. The hedgehog was surprised when he tore through the wall like it wasn't even there; he fell to the ground and landed in the center of the Pure Chaos Energy.

A golden circle formed around his body, his fur began to glow and shone into a glorious silver color, lighting the whole room. The whole pool of Energy disappeared into the silver hedgehog; he jumped up at the humans form as five tentacles impact at the spot he was just sitting. He came face to face with the human and swung his foot right at its head, striking it with crushing strength. The human screamed and Shadows eyes widened as it hit the wall, its hair a light blonde, with blue clothes. In an instant, he became his natural dark color and he dropped to the floor and caught the girl before she hit the ground. The wall of water collapsed, and strangely; disappeared into nothing. The hedgehog laid the girl on the ground, he couldn't breathe; it was Maria.

She breathed deeply and coughed, looking weakly into his eyes. Shadow began to shake, "Maria... I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you I-" Maria put a finger to his lips and smiled. "Thank you Shadow." She slowly closed her blue eyes, she let out a sigh; her breathing stopped. "Maria?" Tears welled up in his crimson eyes; a sour taste hit the back of his throat. "Maria! Please... You can't die! You can't..." The hedgehog couldn't hold it in any longer; he started to sob loudly and buried his face in her shirt sleeve. He linked his right hand with hers; he nudged his head against her arm with affection. "This time I wont leave Maria... I promise."

In a scientists Journal

Maria Robotnik's body seems to be able to accept Chaos Energy, unlike others that start to mutate if too close to the strong source of energy. After repeated tests, strange things began to happen around the lab, everything would be wet but she was still in her special capsule. When we doubled her dosage of Chaos Energy; her eyes began to glow. Still, we could not remove her from the capsule without killing her; her immune system was still too weak. One of the other scientists suggested we double the dosage again; I was the only one to disagree. I also heard a rumor that outside in the world; there was someone who could cure her, but the others think that just constantly treating her with Pure Chaos Energy will work; I have my doubts. If it was my choice, we would look for the being that is able to cure her, but then I remembered; if it could cure her, it would have to be made from at least a bit of her DNA. There were no other females on Ark, except for the prototype of the ultimate life form, but its DNA was too unstable.

We're going to double the dose again tomorrow, and I have a bad feeling about it.

The End