This prologue has been updated as of 09/08/2020

When Amy is assigned a tutor for History the last person she expects is perpetually grumpy and prone to detention Shadow. Then again, she also isn't expecting a mad scientist to feature heavily in her life, or to wind up on the run from G.U.N., so that's a thing. As for Shadow, the biggest surprise of it all is his growing fondness for the colour pink.

A note that since there's a focus on how trauma can change a person I first have to build up what the characters are like pre-trauma, so expect a few chapters before the main plot goes down

Oh, I'm writing this as a human AU, just in case anyone wonders why the characters aren't using their usual powers and abilities.

I'm also posting it on Ao3, under the same name. You can find more in depth tags and warnings there.

Sunday, November 3rd, 3:40pm, Backstage MNG

A balding, heavyset man with an impeccable moustache sits alone in the dressing room for the Mobotropolis News Group. The world's leading expert on robotics and Chaos manipulation, founder and CEO of Eggman Industries, Dr. Ivo Robotnik stares at his reflection in a studio mirror while preparing for an important interview.

After the sudden and inexplicable closing of Eggman Industries, and the resulting loss of thousands of jobs, Robotnik found his time to now be more of a commodity rather than less. The official story was bankruptcy, but that was far from the truth. No, the truth was, as always, much more interesting.

They'd arrested him in his workshop- a cavernous space that housed all manner of aborted creations. It was there that Robotnik kept his more ambitious research and tried his wildest experiments. It was there that he'd first invented the very power source used to fuel all of the Guardian Units of Nations' robots. That invention alone had netted him enough money to retire on comfortably, had Robotnik wanted to. He hadn't, though. Even as a child, Robotnik had always craved more. More dessert, more freedoms, more challenge in school. And now? More money, more influence, more power. He used to wonder if anything would ever fill the yearning in his heart, but then he'd heard whispers of an abandoned project; a project so controversial that he simply hadn't been able to resist it.

The details on the project had been successfully hidden from all but the upper echelons of G.U.N. for decades after it was forcibly terminated, but Robotnik had carefully extracted the highly classified files deep in G.U.N's database. Now Robotnik was onto something that could fill the hole in his heart: the ultimate weapon, an innovative but extremely dangerous science. Something so powerful that, with it in his grasp, he would be unstoppable. Of course, some of his research suggested that the weapon was actually alive. Sentient. Capable of thoughts and feelings. So, he'd made secondary plans, and tertiary plans.

But then G.U.N. had discovered the breach in their systems. They'd come for him and his research, and in the blink of an eye, his known labs were shut down and the bulk of his files were confiscated. If Robotnik hadn't kept back-ups of his back-ups off site in secure locations, he would have been halted in his tracks. If they'd discovered his full plans, rather than just the project notes, he would be in jail. As it stands, Robotnik was no fool. He was a careful man, and so his progress was only delayed. No matter, he'd planned for delays.

A knock at the dressing room door draws him from his thoughts. An intern pokes her head in. "Dr. Robotnik? They're ready for you."

Well then, it's showtime.

With one final adjustment to his collar, Robotnik sweeps out of the room and onto the stage. Taking a seat, he gestures for the cameras to start rolling. For a moment they hesitate, but then the reporter nods and a sign lit up behind the camera crew: ON AIR.

"Hello, this is Scarlet Garcia reporting live for the Mobotropolis News Group. We have a special guest with us today, a man whose name has been hot in the news lately. Dr. Ivo Robotnik, CEO and founder of Eggman Industries, thank you for joining us today. What prompted you to approach us for this highly sought after interview?"

The scientist smiles at that; she got right to the point, like he'd requested. "Well Scarlet, I wanted to clear up some things. The official story the media has been fed by federal agencies is a load of crap. Eggman Industries is a multibillion dollar company; the notion of bankruptcy is absurd even in the worst of our quarters. The truth is that the government stole my research and forced my company to close its doors." He turns to the camera. "All of you sitting at home, comfortable on your sofas: mark your calendars. On November 23rd something big is coming. Eggman Industries will rise again!"

His pawns are lined up now, his pieces in motion. Today he rants and raves on live TV, practically guaranteeing that the higher-ups won't take him seriously, but soon... Mobotropolis won't know what hit it.

Well, it has been a long time coming, but I'm finally caught up to where we were before on this fic's re-write. Due to some very majour changes I've made, I strongly advise re-reading everything before I post the new chapters in a few weeks. I will be trying to update regularly until this fic is finished, but with covid and everything else we will see how well I do.

If you're curious to read the old version of this fic, please PM me and I will be happy to send you a link to the google doc I've kept of it. Alternatively, you can find the link in the notes of the Ao3 version.

Note that since I have re-written this fic from scratch and added many scenes and shifted events from the end of one chapter to the beginning of the next, and vice versa, that a lot of the reviews will be on the wrong chapters, so be careful not to spoil yourself reading them.