Chapter 14

Maria rummaged around her old room, looking for anything of worth to bring back with her. There were bits and endings of things but nothing worth any extreme value or attachment. She got down onto her knees and dove under her bed.

"No way," she exclaimed excitedly. She pulled out a rather thick and very dusty book. She opened it and read the message that was on the back of the cover.

To my "little sister" Maria,

Love you always

-Lilly-Ann Hollick

Maria closed the book and ran out of the room and towards the kitchen with it tucked under her arm. It was getting close to dinner time anyways.

-XXX-

"So what did you guys do today?" Rouge asked.

"I found a greenhouse, " said Amy happily, putting down a small vase with lilies and daisies of various colours on the table.

"Pretty," Rouge cooed over them, "I forgot you had a knack for flowers arrangements." Amy blushed at that statement.

"We went swimming," exclaimed Tails excitedly, "I didn't know the ARK had a pool! It's MASSIVE."

"I tried to throw the hydrophobe into the water," Knuckles answered.

"Not funny," Sonic snapped. He looked over at Rouge to change the subject, "Anyways what did you and Maria get up to?"

"We found her inhibitor rings. She went back to her room and I stayed in the lab looking at files that might help with some stuff. Rather boring day."

"Hey guys! You are never gonna people what I found in my room," Maria squealed, clutching the book to her chest as she ran to sit with everyone.

"A book?" Knuckles asked, looking at the book and then to Maria, "You're excited by a book?"

"It's not really a book," Maria explained, "It's a photo album, made for me by Lilly-Ann who was like a big sister to me. She was amazing at getting pictures at the right time. She was going back to Earth for college for photography when..."

Maria froze. Her last memory of Lilly-Ann was of her screaming for her to run and being shot in front of her.

"Well let's get dinner going and the we'll have a look," Rouge said, bring Maria back to the present. She smiled and put the album down and went to help with dinner prep.

-XXX-

As everyone was eating, they flipped through the pages of photos that showed how much that time had gone by.

"That was first Christmas," Maria stated. The picture was of her in a bright red dress with white furry trim along the bottom. Shadow stood beside her with a green bowtie on.

"He never really understood the concept of Christmas, " she laughed, "Always thought it was odd that a jolly fat guy breaks into your dwelling and leaves you gifts. I always wonder how he knew where the ARK was."

She looked at everyone, they all seemed to be puzzled over something.

"What's wrong?"

"He's...smiling," Rouge said, "I've been his friend so long and I've never seen him smile. Not once."

"Oh," Maria stammered. It was the only word that had come to her mind at that point.

"Hey, it's something we don't see from Mr. Grumpy Pants," Sonic said, "It's nice to able to see him have more than fifty shades of melancholy."

Maria smiled and they kept flipping through.

-XXX-

As they finished looking through the album and eating dinner, Rouge looked at everyone.

"We need to get out of here," she sighed, "We need to get back to the bigger picture at hand here and that's now finding Shadow and keeping him and Maria safe for the time being."

"How are we going to get out of the ARK?" Amy asked, "It's not like we have a magical rocket ship that will get us out of here."

"We will tomorrow," Maria said thinking out loud, "Tomorrow we get another shipment of meals and how else are they going to bring it to us?"

"Fair point," Sonic agreed.

"Alright," Rouge started, "Let's come up with a plan then." The six of them got straight to that.

-XXX-

AN: Shorter chapter as I'm starting to get down the home stretch of it. It feels odd saying I'm almost done.

Darko out!~