Chapter 13

"I'll start with the week before," Maria started, "There was an assault on one of our long time residents by one of the new younger scientists."

"Physical?" Sonic asked.

"And sexual," Maria continued.

"Shadow ended up finding them and nearly killed the guy. Grandpa had to send him back to Earth and told he would be never stepping foot on the ARK again. He told me I was not allowed to be with Shadow from now on and he was taken back to the lab."

"What...why?" Sonic asked.

"I think Grandpa was officially scared of him at that point," Maria sighed brining her knees up to her chest and hugging them, "I think he saw Shadow as a monster that could do so much damage and if the military had gotten a hold of him, the catastrophic events that could've played out in his mind must have been horrific."

She let out a long heavy sigh.

"Were...you ever scared of him?" Sonic asked.

"No. Never," was Maria's response.

"You know you don't have to talk anymore if you don't want to," Sonic told her.

"You asked, so I'm going to tell you," Maria scoffed and continued on.

"I think Grandpa knew that a raid would happen. I think he knew sending that man back down to Earth was the end. That he would blow the whistle on Ultimate Lifeform project to the military. It was over to him at that point, so he had me come over to the lab and told Shadow to protect me at all cost a few days after everything, I was confused but happy to have my only friend back."

Another deep sigh, trying to her best recollect her thoughts before she pressed on.

"The raid happened after dinner. We hadn't been in my room more than five minutes when we heard the screams of people and loud bangs of guns and rifles. I opened the door and had a solider just standing there. He had his rifle ready to fire but he never did. I think it was because I was twelve and it terrified him to kill a child. Shadow ended kicking his feet out from under him. We got out of my room and into an absolute hellish nightmare."

"There...were...so many bodies," Maria said, her voice quivering, trying her best not to break, "The iron smell of blood, the screams of people pleading for their lives, the loud bangs of guns being fired and then the deafening silence. These images are forever embedded in my memories. "

"We thought the safest place was the lab so we ran there. When we got there, there were soldiers around him. He was in handcuffs, screaming at us to get to the escape pods. So...we went back to running. We got to the room..."

Maria started to cry. Her head was buried into her knees, her body shaking from reliving those memories.

"There was one pod left," she sobbed, her voice only just above a whisper, "I think he was trying to figure out how we were both going to get in there and I shoved him. I shoved him into the pod and it closed behind him. I can remember him screaming at me, banging on the pod trying to break it open. I heard the soldiers come in. They ordered me not to pull the lever to realise the pod..."

She felt someone come over and start rubbing her back. Maria looked up to see Rouge on one side of her.

" I didn't listen to them," Maria said, "I pulled the lever and Shadow's last memory of the ARK was me getting shot."

"You saved him though," Rouge told her.

"Yeah," Maria murmured. She lifted her head up to see that not only Rouge was there but Knuckles as well.

"When did you two come in at?"

"When you started talking about the raid," Knuckles answered solemnly.

"Oh," Maria said.

"I get why Shadow doesn't bring ARK up after hearing this," Rouge sighed.

"What's he like now?" Maria asked.

"Well he tends just to keep to himself," Rouge answered back, "He's nothing exciting, rather much a loner, but he does play violin well when he no one is listening."

Maria smiled at that.

-XXX-

Day Two started off with more rehydrated food.

"I think Sonic can cook better than whatever this is," Tails exclaimed eating what was left of what appeared to be pancakes. They had a rather sponge dry texture to them.

"Har har," Sonic responded back, ruffling the little fox's head, "So! What's on the plans for today?"

"I want to see if I can find those inhibitor rings Grandpa said were for me," Maria said, "I want figure out what I am capable with doing. I know I can sense Chaos Energy and can make a bubble like shield when I'm in a super bad situation." She looked down at her left wrist.

"Oh and I can heal myself...somehow."

"You can heal yourself?" Tails asked in excitement, running over to investigate her wrist.

"You can heal yourself..."Rouge said in disbelief.

"What happened when I left her with you?" Sonic asked Amy who just giggled.

"I'll tell you all about it if you go on a date with me."

"Not happening."

-XXX-

"You know you didn't have to come with me," Maria said, looking over at Rouge who decided to follow and help dig through boxes.

"If I don't, I'd get an earful," Rouge shrugged, "And I don't need that."

"Yeah, but this is like digging through a hay stack for a needle. "

"Don't underestimate me," she hummed, pulling out a small box. She opened it revealing two silver rings, almost identical as the gold one on the Ultimate Lifeform. She closed the box and tossed the box over to Maria.

"How did you.."Maria started stammering out, but was cut off.

"Jewel thieves never reveal their secrets," Rouge said with a wink, "Now you play with those when we get back down to Earth. I don't need something happening up here. "

"Alright," Maria said. She watched as Rouge went back over to the computer looking through documents.

"What are you looking for?"

"Looking for something that might be able to help us, like instructions or a file...or..."

"Or a will," Maria stated, pointing out a document that just said 'Will'. They both stared at it for a bit.

"Are we opening it?" Rouge asked, looking up at Maria with a smirk. Maria looked down and smiled back.

"Um. Yes. I want to know what he left behind and for who."

-XXX-

After reading the will, both Maria and Rouge were left with mouths wide open.

"So...does that mean?" Maria started.

"Yep," Rouge answered back quickly.

"So...GUN wouldn't be able to...?"

"Exactly."

Rouge pulled out a USB stick and stuck it into the computer, and dragged the file labelled 'Will' on to it. She looked back at Maria.

"This stays between the two of us for now," She told her, "we are going to get this back down to Earth and then both of us are going to show the will Lt. Saunders. Is that okay?"

"Yeah that's fine," Maria said, still stunned on what she just read, "I think I need to go back to my room so I can wrap my head around...just...everything."

"I don't blame you," Rouge sighed, "It's been a rather interesting week for you." Maria just laughed.

"You can say that."

-XXX-

AN: Lofi Music is an amazing tool for writing. R&R!