Since I'm still waiting for more info on the Babylon Rogues, I've decided to write myself into a story. Please read and review.

The Ultimate Life Form

It had been quite a while since the defeat of the Black Arms. Since then, Shadow had made his home on the ARK, since it supplied him with everything he would need. The colony was deserted, quiet, undisturbed, the perfect place to get away from everyone else. On this particular occasion, Shadow found himself feeling lonely once again. Sure, he had friends; including Sonic, with whom he constantly competed for bragging rights. But despite their apparent similarities, which he could not see, Shadow still felt like he didn't belong. Wandering through the corridors of the ARK, he decided to see if there were any rooms he had missed during his previous occasions.

In a section of the colony that he hadn't explored, the self-proclaimed ultimate life form came across a door that looked like it hadn't been opened since Maria's death, and then some. It was welded shut, meaning that whatever was inside the room was never meant to be found. Deciding that it was probably nothing important, he turned to walk away.

Shadow stopped in his tracks. He could have sworn that a quiet, whispery voice had just called his name. Was there someone else on the ARK that he didn't know about? Seeing nobody, he shrugged it off and started walking again.

'Shadow…' The voice came again, a little louder this time.

"Who's there!" he shouted. After a few minutes of silence, Shadow began to question his sanity. 'Am I hearing things?'

'Shadow!' Any doubt regarding the voice's existence was gone. Somebody was definitely calling to him. What disturbed Shadow was that the voice seemed to come from within his mind. Frustrated, Shadow shouted once more.

"Who are you!" No answer. "SHOW YOURSELF!"

'My brother…'

"Brother? I don't have siblings, I was created!"

'I have been waiting for you…' An image appeared in Shadow's mind, but it only lasted for a split second. He suddenly found himself drawn to the door. 'You know what you must do…'Shadow couldn't stand it any longer; he had to know what was beyond that god-forsaken door.

"Chaos NIGHTMARE!" The door crumpled like paper and fell to the floor, revealing the interior of the room beyond. Inside the room, there were various machines, control panels, and video screens. In the far corner, there was a stasis capsule of some kind. The glass had turned opaque over the years.

'Shadow… ' The voice seemed to be beckoning him toward the capsule. 'Free me from this glass prison!' Without thinking, the black hedgehog dashed over to the nearest control panel and entered a security override code that he could swear he hadn't known before. Slowly, the liquid drained from the capsule, which then opened. Shadow took one look at the being inside and gasped, for he now beheld the most gruesome sight that he had ever seen.

It looked like a brownish black hedgehog with barely noticeable green highlights, similar to his own red ones. Whether it was the color of its fur, or its skin, Shadow couldn't tell, although it did have a tuft of fur on its chest whose color was gunmetal gray. Its gloves and shoes were of a similar design to his own, albeit with blue and green in place of red and black, respectively, and lacking the gold rings that Shadow wore on his wrists and ankles.

Unfortunately, that's where the similarities ended. Its body was almost skeletal in appearance. Its tail was long, like that of an echidna, but segmented and tipped with a nasty looking spike. Rather than having only two downward pointing spikes on its back, it had four, which curved up and then down again in the shape of an "S". It had six spikes jutting from the back of its head, the topmost of which curved downward and was a good ten inches longer than the others. The lateral ones curved inward, while the lower middle one pointed straight out and was segmented like the tail. An exoskeleton of some sort covered the topside of said spike, from its tip down to the area where its eyes should have been. Its nose was slightly shorter than his, and its jaw looked as though it was held on by little more than muscle and tendons. Stepping into the light that entered the room from the doorway, the exoskeleton on its head became transparent, revealing its elongated skull underneath, the front of which had a pair of eyes set deep within their sockets, while the part that stretched back had what looked like vertebrae and ribs surrounding its brain cavity. It grinned at Shadow, revealing numerous pointed teeth. The monstrosity that now stood before him was truly something out of a nightmare.

"It feels so good to be free once more," it hissed. Walking toward the door, it paused and turned to look back at him. "Come, we have much to discuss." Only when it was finally out of sight did Shadow realize that his mouth had been hanging open. Regaining his senses, he followed the demonic creature.

Finally, Shadow reached the colony's central control room, where the creature was peering out a window that overlooked Earth. After a minute, it turned toward him.

"I'm sure you have some questions," it said.

"Who are you?" Shadow asked. "And for that matter, what are you?"

"My name is Xeno. I was one of the prototypes for Project: Shadow,"

"Wait, you were created by Professor Gerald and his colleagues?"

"Yes," It paused, turning back toward the window. "Until my creators decided that I was a threat to their species."

"Why would they have thought that?" There was a long pause.

"Tell me Shadow, what do you fear more than anything else?"

"That's none of your business!" Suddenly, everything went black.

Shadow then saw Maria's death; just as vivid as the day it happened. Then, he saw himself, when he had been allied with the Black Arms. He watched as his past self approached a wounded soldier and, with fire in his eyes and wearing an expression of utter hatred and loathing on his face, killed the man. Just as quickly as the vision started, it ended; Shadow found himself lying on the floor of the ARK's control room with a splitting migraine. Xeno grinned at him from the window.

"You see Shadow, I was created with an advanced form of telepathy. There isn't a single iota of information in that brain of yours that I don't know about. And as you have seen first hand, I can exploit what I know. The humans realized that I had the ability to use their own minds against them, so I was sealed in that room. They thought that the stasis would keep me from using my powers, but though my body was kept in its present state, the systems could not keep me unconscious. To pass the time, I would probe the minds of anyone who came close; and that's how I learned about you. Every time you arrive in this colony, I search your thoughts for anything of interest."

"What do you want from me?" Shadow responded as he stood up shakily.

"I am here to offer you a choice, Shadow. You've been feeling out of place on that planet since you first went there. I know everything about your feelings for the good doctor's granddaughter."

"Leave Maria out of this! I don't know what our creators were thinking when they made you, but I'm sure that they were justified in locking you away!"

"Harsh words. If I remember correctly, you weren't exactly Mr. Popularity either." Shadow couldn't take it anymore; he turned and stormed out of the room. Then he heard Xeno talking in his mind again.

'What if I told you that Maria wasn't killed?' That caught the black hedgehog's attention.

'I'm listening,' he thought, figuring that he didn't need to communicate with the other through speech.

'I can bring you to the place where she is currently being held in stasis.'

'Sounds tempting, but what's in it for you?'

'I want you to teach me how to use Chaos Control.'

Well, that's all for now. Unfortunately, the personality that I've portrayed isn't the real me. It's actually the only aspect of my personality that I know how to express in story format. Anyway, Please review. I know what you fear…