Author's note:
As always, forget what you know from the comics (do I really need to even say this? – okay, won't mention it anymore). Some of the Legionnaires are a little different anatomically wise… that is, there's a little more or less mecha to some of them.
…and remember, I'm not staying true to any couplings with any of the characters – even though I may play around with them a bit – and I say this because I have no intention of adding a romantic plot to this fic at the moment… it's more of a humor thing…
Ooooh… this one was fun to write!
Get ready… it's time to rewind time a bit and shift the spotlight… and just for a second, don't worry. : ) It's just to fill you in on what the heck is going on…
Chapter 8
Déjà vu, the medical lab.
The Dark Legionnaire, Juli-Su, sits at the computer console while Shadow is leaning against the furthest darkest corner of the room, waiting for Eggman. The air reeks of chemicals and blood, and a dull silence fills the air.
Juli-Su watched Shadow indirectly out from under her hood. She found him creepy, to say the least, and would have left the room already had she not been directly ordered by Kragok to keep a close watch over him. Juli-Su did not fear Shadow, nor did she Kragok – her fear was reserved only for Dimitri, the ruthless tyrant and dictator – though perhaps it was because she didn't yet know just how ruthless Shadow himself could be. Even though Dimitri did not seem to like him, the Legion tolerated Shadow, as they knew he could be an important key in their success, because of his ability to harness Chaos energy. They also did not like the concept that Dr. Eggman seemed to seriously depend his and their plans on this shady hedgehog one bit, especially one that appeared to be so weak…
They did not generally include Juli-Su; she wasn't particularly fond of her comrades, and neither were they of her.
Eyes accustomed to the dark, Juli-Su could easily make Shadow's sulking outline in the dark corner – though it looked more like he was sleeping against the corner, with arms crossed and eyes closed. In reality he was trying to sort though unwelcome memories, trying to find a happy thought to hold on to, or at least one that didn't involve Maria's death – though memories unlike those were few and far between in his shortened reminiscence, and he wasn't having much luck.
'What's he so upset about..?' she wondered, thinking him almost ungrateful, 'Yeah… sure… I'd be pissed, too, if I had to be rescued, but not that pissed…' The only things she knew of Shadow, were that he could self-heal, was able to travel at supersonic speeds, was able to use Chaos energy in spectacular ways, and that he was created by Professor Gerald to be the Ultimate Life Form – whatever that meant.
Juli-Su did not know about him being frozen for around fifty years by GUN, none of the Legion did, which was strange, as the Legion had also been frozen in an ageless torpidity of sorts for a very long time as well. After being tricked by Dr. Robotnik, Gerald's son and Eggman's father, the Dark Legionnaires were trapped inside the capsules. The majority who were 100 roboticized were deactivated immediately after roboticization and left in the storage room. The last seven – Dimitri, Moritori Rex, Kragok, Kommissar, Juli-Su, Rykor, and Xenin – were somehow spared this mindless fate, though they did not know how or why. All were eventually awakened from their hibernation many years later in the future by Shadow, when he accidentally popped open the capsules during his battle with Robo-Sonic.
While Shadow had lain unconscious earlier, Juli-Su had taken the opportunity to admire his shoes. They weren't like anything she had ever seen before, and were probably the thing that intrigued her most about him, being from the technology-crazed cult she was from (and only Eggman and Metal Sonic seemed to know exactly how technologically enhanced and advanced Shadow was). Juli was also very very bored with sitting around doing virtually nothing.
'Damn, I want those shoes!' she had thought in envious frustration. She pulled up her robe a little and glanced at her own knee-high boots; they were heavy and metallic. The bottom of her boots were very similar to Robo-Sonic's feet – inline-skate like wheels with a jet at the heel, enabling her to boost forewords in a temporary high-speed dash without even having to move her legs.
'Outdated technology now…' she had thought of her boots, as she drew a gloved finger around the metal ring of one of Shadow's shoe's jet exhausts. She had contemplated several times of stealing the Air Shoes, but his frequent awakenings; muttering and sometimes screeching in agony, deterred her from that plan. …and there was also the fact that she wouldn't exactly have anywhere to go with them, and probably wouldn't get too far if she tried.
SCHOOMPH. Still sitting on the chair, her thoughts were broken as the door slid open and Eggman stepped through.
'Finally!' Juli-Su thought, exasperated, as she left the room, her cloak fanning out behind her before the door closed with another hiss. She didn't notice the figure watching her from the ceiling as she walked down the hallway towards the steps to the rooftop.
Some distance away in the base, Dimitri was about to set out on his solo mission. He was going after Guardian Knuckles personally, something that Kragok longed to do, but never spoke of in front of his only two superiors: Moritori Rex and Dimitri. The three stood in Eggman's aboveground control room.
Dimitri spoke, unearthly voice making Kragok grind his teeth, "In default of myself, I leave Rex in behest, and Kragok second to all intendancies."
Kragok bowed his head slightly in respect, trying to show gratefulness. Rex bowed his head, but even more slightly than Kragok.
"When I have… disposed… of that wretched, puny Guardian, I will return, sporting his spicules as a trophy. " he cackled softly.
Rex and Kragok exchanged a smirk, imagining the echidna's severed dreadlocks dangling from the long sleeves of Dimitri's cloak.
"Forgive me, Dimitri." Rex spoke, voice forcibly pleasant and very respectful, "...but why don't you take the two remaining emeralds while you are there?"
"Because my goal is simply to hunt down the Guardian… to prove he is powerless… weak… to strike the fear of defencelessness into the souls of our enemies."
Rex bowed his head again. Personally he didn't think it was an efficient use of traveling all that way, but said nothing more. Dimitri was not one you wanted to tango with, even if he was, by some strange coincidence, family to Rex and much of the living Legion.
Juli-Su stood on the rooftop and looked out at the desert sunset. A brilliant red and orange sky made her wince her eyes at the brightness. Having been born, raised, and lived most of her life in the dark, light was not something her eyes seemed to like. …but since this sunset was particularly beautiful, she stained her eyes and watched anyway. She pushed the hood off her head, deep ultramarine violet eyes reflecting the now red and purple sunset, and breathed in the dry air. She ran a gloved hand through her medium length, violet tipped hair to push it out of her eyes, then pulled her spines out from the back of her cloak. Three of her five dreads (actually very droopy spines formed by thousands of small quills – same idea with hedgehogs, except theirs are more rigid) were completely roboticized, and the other two were banded randomly and stylistically with metal. The these dreads were not roboticized in the same way that Kommissar's was… Juli-Su had the unique ability in that she was able to move those three dreads in a tentacle like fashion – she could extend and contract them to a limited distance, use them to grab or manipulate objects with the tiny retractable three-pronged claws at the end of them, or use them in any other creative way she could think of. They were strong in the sense that they could carry or push a lot of weight, but they could be easily crushed or wires cut, as they were not heavily armoured; they also weighed her head down quite a bit, which annoyed her to no end with frequent neck aches. She massaged her neck with one hand as the last sliver of the sun disappeared behind the horizon.
KA-THOOOOM! A very loud, low, and booming blast of sound attracted her attention to the other side of the rooftop. She ran to the northeast side just in time to catch a glimpse of a cone of sand moving very rapidly away from the base. She thought for a moment that perhaps Eggman had fired a missile at something. As she sat on the edge of the roof to watch, she saw the fury of sand arching back towards the base, making a tidal wave of sand shoot into the air. It started to return to the base, more slowly than it had gone out.
'Must be one of Eggman's robots… or… oh! It's that Shadow!' she remembered that Shadow was capable of supersonic speed, and it all suddenly made sense, 'He's skating on air! Sweet…' she thought as she watched as the black blur skated by far below, 'I still want those shoes…' but she didn't notice him glance up for a split second, as her attention was distracted by a footstep on the metal stairway far behind her. Juli-Su quickly shot to her feet, stuffing her dreads back into her cloak and flipping up her hood.
No one came. Thinking it may have just been her imagination, but curious anyway, she jogged back to the short stairwell. It was void of presence except for a slight breeze.
'Must be getting hungry…' she reasoned, blaming the noise on her empty stomach. She made her way down a few hallways, took the lift down a level, and entered the silent storage room / kitchen where most of the good food was kept. It was a medium-sized room, a little bigger than the medical lab. It was only inhabited by three (currently deactivated) Chef-Bots, since only Eggman and the living Legionnaires needed to eat periodically. The bots were responsible for the upkeep of the room, and most importantly, the preparation of food. The room was cold enough that you could see your breath fogging in the air if you exhaled hard enough; this was to keep the food a little fresher, not that there was much fresh stuff to be found. The room was well lit with fluorescent lights, and was the only room in the fortress she knew to be painted all white. The ceiling was high for no apparent reason, and had many thick cement pillars holding up the ceiling. Stuck to magnetic plates on many of these pillars were metal kitchen utensils like ladles, knife grinders, spatulas, prongs, tongs, and a large variety of (what else) knives. Along the walls were shelves of supplies; bags of dried food, cans of canned food, etc. There were three ovens, a large industrial dishwasher, a small walk-in freezer, and various other kitchen accessories staggered about on the many stainless steel counters. Eggman didn't mess around when it came to his meals.
Juli-Su walked up to one of the shelves and casually plucked a medium-sized, yellow melon off the shelf and hopped onto the counter. Sitting cross-legged she savagely chomped into it, rind and all, gorging herslef and thinking of how it would be nice if she could take a permenant vacation from the Legion. She bit into it again, sticky mellon nectar stringing from her face to the juicy insides of the fruit.
'Where would I go? What would I do to live?' she thought, shaking fruit juice from her hand, 'The tribe would never take me back now… not with these damned implants…'
…plunk…
She suddenly dropped the melon and stood up. What was that noise?
…plunk… …plunk… …plunk…
Juli-Su looked sharply behind her…
…plunkplunk… …plunk… …plunk… It was just a leaky sink dripping into its large metal basin. Feeling stupid for being so paranoid, she walked along the counter, bent over, and trurned the tap on to wash her sticky gloves and muzzle off. She had lost her appetite again anyway.
Then she saw something move very fast in the furthest corner of her eye. She whipped around, weilding one of her laser blaster pistols.
"Rykor, that better not be you sneaking around again. I'm watching the Ultimate Life, okay?!" she yelled impertinately, "I just needed to get a bite to eat…" Stillness and silence, except for the occasional puff of fog emitting from her mouth. She was pointing her pistol at the stainless steel dishwasher. When she moved her head back and forth slightly, she noticed that its reflective surface showed different shades of light. Kicking herslef for being so on edge again, she lowered her pistol, then wiped a cloak sleeve across her no longer sticky, but damp face to dry it off. She was supposed to keep an eye on Shadow, though she really had no intrest in staying true to her orders from Kragok anymore. Staying in that literally bloody room for hours while the Ultimate Life bled to death and screamed bloody murder was about as much of that bleeding hedgehog as she could take for one day. If Dimitri or even Rex had ordered her, she may have listened and watched Shadow a little longer, but nothing from Kragok was worth listening to in her opinion. Wearily, she turned around, then found herslef yelling… "WAAAA!"
SLAM! "Fffffu-ouch!" Juli-Su toppled backwards over the counter and landed painfully on her neck on the other side – had the back of her neck not been slightly reinforced with some wiring, she may have broken it right there.
"Ugh… umph… crap… that hurt…" she rasped as she started to get up, a little dazed from the suddenness of the attack. A dark figure had slunk up behind her and kicked her square in the chest, sending her sliding back over the counter, "Who the hell just did that?!" she demanded angrily, "That was way out of line!" she stood with hood down, cracked her neck and looked around, now holding a laser blaster in each hand. She gasped as she saw what appeared to be a bat wrapped in black coths scuttle expertly across the wall, making its way towards the door, "Oh no you don't…" she muttered as she opened fire.
BLAM! BLAM! Two separate, sound shots at the wall made the figure stop within feet of the door and fall to the ground.
There was a sharp mechanical whirr as Juli slid / rolled over to the door on her boots and kicked it shut in one smooth movement, both pistols aimed at the floor where she had seen the bat fall. …but the bat was waiting for her.
"YE-A!" she had grabbed a foot long, seraded knife in one hand, and in the other was a knife sharpener.
ZEEU! The knife zipped inches past Juli's face as she fell back against the door to avoid its path.
"HA!" cired the bat as Juli ducked her head to one side, just barely avoiding the knife sharpener that was now suddenly stuck in the solid metal door, inches from her head.
The was another mechanical whirr and what sounded like a spring toy being dropped as Juli's three dreads reached around and effortlessly flung the assasin away from her. The bat slid across the floor back-first and slammed into the shelf, making some contents fall off.
BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM! Juli was relentless, very angered now, shooting after the quick and nimble bat who had scampered behind a counter to avoid being shot. Metal surfaces sizzled as Juli advanced, still shooting along the counter where the bat was supposed to be. She became a little too preoccupied, however, as suddenly…
ZEEU!ZEEU! "AHHRRRAAAHH" Juli roared as she got a slice down her back, then another swiftly across the arm. The bat leapt back as Juli's dreads reached out again, this time trying to grab the dark figure by the neck. Finding her blaster cartridges thwartinglty empty, Juli cast aside her guns and flailed around for a new weapon before the bat could round on her again.
"Ha-HA!" Juli laughed as she whipped around, grinning evily as she held her two new blades up to the attacker, who was holding her blade up to Juli as well. They stood face to face for a moment, then Juli wondering why the bat was shaking slighly…
"That's right!" she quipped, "Shake in fear at my…" It suddenly dawned on Juli as she glaned at what she was holding, "Crap!" she was holding out a ladel and a spatula.
The bat, not being able to help herslef anymore, sprinted back a few paces and colapsed against one of the ovens, reeling with laughter.
Fuming with humiliation Juli threw them away and, thinking quickly, found something better. A drawer full of silverwear. The bat (who anyone other than the Legion would have recognised as Rouge by now) quickly came to her senses as forks, butter knives and steak knives zipped through the air towards her, many of them with enough froce to make them spark as they hit metal surfaces. Rouge ducked behind the sink, just as a huge butcher's cleaver unexpectedly sailed through the air and cut straight into the door of the oven.
A moment of silence.
"Who the hell are you!?" demanded Juli-Su, a steak knife ready to fly in one hand, five forks fanned out in her other.
From the cover of the sink, Rouge picked up a grapefruit that had tumbled from the shelf and rolled across the floor, and tossed it in Juli's drection.
ZWOO!PAT! The steak knife hit the flying grapefruit dead center, and it fell to the floor beside Rouge, impailed, and wondering what it had done to deserve having a knife stuck in it.
'Darn it…' thought Rouge, 'She has good aim…' then tittered, 'Oh well… still no match for the mysertious Rouge…' as she pulled a small, plumb colored ball from a pocket. She rolled this one across the floor towards Juli-Su, who noticed it too late.
POFFF! It exploded, filling the room with a plum-purple cloud. Juli-Su tried to find a wall to back against, lest this troublemaker try backstabbing her.
"HA!" Rouge flew towards Juli, a knife now in each hand, one thin and long, the other short and broad.
Juli jumped back and twirled, cloak and dreads fanning out, behind one of the pillars. She could just barely make out Rouge as the cloud slowly faded – she held the long knife foreward, high behind her head, and the broad one backhanded and out front.
Juli looked up at the pillar. All that remained was a small potato peeler, and medium sized, regular all-round kitchen knife; the kind that often appears as the weapon of choice for the madman in slasher movies. She grabbed the medium sized one and charged, fearless, towards Rouge.
CLANG! Metal on metal as Rouge blocked Juli's downward stab with the broad knife, then brought the long one down on Juli's robed shoulder, only to find that it wouldn't sink into her flesh after piercing through her cloak. The knife had hit one of Juli's cybornetic implants.
Juli grinned as she pushed Rouge back with her dreads again, tearing her robe from shoulder to waist in the process as Rouge drove the knife downwards.
Rouge lunged foreward for another try, swiping, tearing, fangs bared behind her mask as she tried to get a slice of Juli's flesh. Juli had her three dreads arched up, the potato peeler in one, butterknives in the other two as they whipped around, diverting every attack. She held the bigger knife in both hands ahead of her, preventing Rouge from getting too close.
Rouge managed to reach out and cut a wire in one of Juli's dreads, and it promptly went limp, making it useless. This distracted Juli for a moment. Smirking, Rouge did a high, artistic half flip as she leapt over Juli's head and landed in a flash. Caught off guard, Juli spun around to defend herself, but it was too late. Rouge shredded Juli's cloak as she left deep gashes in her arm, thighs, side, and even a few managed to graze her face. Juli-Su merely staggered back and fell against the door of the walk-in freezer, her blood dripping all over the floor.
Not seeing anything to loose at this point, Juli-Su went after Rouge barehanded this time, and tried to land a few punches. None hit. Rouge swiftly kneed Juli in the stomach, then before she could recover from the blow, opened the door to the freezer and high-kicked her inside. Juli-Su shouted profanity through the door as Rouge latched it securely shut. Juli came up to the small window, and banged a bloody fist on it, silient screams not penetraing the thick door.
"Sorry… can't hear you…" Rouge winked at her, holding up a small device –Rouge had stolen Juli-Su's stun gun (which she had conveineintly forgotten about during the fight). She turned on heel and ran off.
Juli-Su was eventually found, near hypothermic and terribly weak, by Moritori Rex on his way to check out what all the comotion was about in the armoury. Juli-Su told him what was happening, and he rushed off to alert Eggman.
She was to be severely punished. Her order had been to watch the Ultimate Life Form until otherwise noted, and she was deemed to have not taken it seriously. Not only that, but she had failed to take out and / or alert the base of an intruder in time, allowing them to escape with the Ultimate Life Form she was supposed to be watching, and valuable data on the Mechidna. Basically she had just screwed over Eggman's master plan, making everyone's lives a heck of a lot harder.
Now all the living members of the Dark Legion, minus Dimitri, stood in a circle around Juli-Su, who was on her knees, still badly battered. Eggman listened from a distance.
"EXPLAIN YOURSELF!" roared Kragok.
"Quiet." warned Rex in a drawl.
"Yes… please…" Kommissar rubbed her temple through her cloak – she was standing next to Kragok and had received the most of that vocal blast. Rex gave her a warning look, too, but she didn't notice.
Juli-Su just stared blankly at the floor, head bowed respectfully, not wanting to make things any worse than they were. She thought this was all terribly unfair, but dared not say anything just yet. She was awfully tired, sore, and cold anyway…
"We all know and saw what just happened, so there's no point in explaining it all over again, but I will say this: We must get the Ultimate Life Form back before GUN finds out that he is the authentic, and our data that was stolen is translated, analysed, and passed around. …else our plans become irreversibly complicated…"
Dr. Eggman nodded at them all from a distance, reinforcing this, "Shadow has been captured by GUN before… they happen to be very good at restraining and controlling him… and since he doesn't have an emerald, it's likely he will not be capable of escape without some help."
"Since this was your fault." Rex didn't even look at Juli as he said this, voice sharp and cold as icy daggers, "You will be the one to correct this… failure."
Juli-Su suddenly looked up, determination in her eyes, "Grandfather, I…"
"YOU INSOLENT LITTLE WORM! HOW DARE YOU—" Kragok spluttered as he furiously stomped foreword and prepared to strike her with his clawed arm. He was caught in mid-air by the back of his cloak, then pulled back to his place in the circle by… Eggman?
"I will have none of this." Eggman said sternly as he glared down at Kragok, "I allow you to run your operations the way you wish, but I will not tolerate punishments that cause harm to our own. It sets us back and gets us nowhere." his last word echoed slightly off the metal ceiling.
"Kragok. You are excused." Rex hissed.
Red eye burning with rage, Kragok slunk out of the room without another word. Eggman crossed his arms and stepped into Kragok's place in the circle, still very angry about the entire situation.
In a harsh whisper, Rex spoke to Juli-Su, but it looked more like he was speaking to the wall across the room, as if he denied her existence, "Don't ever call me that again. You are nothing to me."
Juli-Su narrowed her eyes and furrowed her brow in pure hatred under her hood. She had not meant to call him what he was… it had just come out that way. Rex continued in a louder voice, now, "In the absence of the great Dimitri, it is my responsibility to decide the punishment of the Legionnaire in question. After being treated by the Medical Bots, Juli-Su shall travel to the GUN fortress where the Ultimate Life and our data are being held. She will destroy the intelligence they collected and free the Ultimate Life… alone." he turned slightly to Eggman, "Surely you approve of sending her alone. It will be much easier for her to enter and escape undetected, if she only has herself."
Eggman simply grunted, "I leave it to you to decide what your Legionnaires' abilities are. If you think a single Legionnaire can do it, then I approve. Though I feel that if Shadow can't manage freeing himself within the next hour, we'll all be damned anyway…" he walked back to his computer, mumbling pessimistic thoughts.
"Your mission starts immediately." Rex grumbled to Juli-Su, tossing a holographic projector at her (it was simply a small black plastic plate roughly the size of a floppy disc that could project text and 3D images) as he and the other Legionnaires silently went to stand on the only exit to the room, the lift that would take them down to the main level. Kommissar was grinning broadly under the concealment of her hood – the chance that her stepsister would finally be killed was high.
Picking up the projector that had clattered to the floor at her knees, Juli-Su finally and painfully got to her feet as the lift descended out of sight, pushing her fury aside; there was always time for that, later. She looked to Eggman (who was now bent over the computer) for a moment, and said neutrally, "Thank you… for stopping him." and then started to leave, metallic boots clanking on the floor.
"Stop right there," he yelled back without turning around, "I have something for you…"
"Hum?" Juli-Su turned.
Eggman turned around, "Catch…" and threw a glowing object towards her.
She caught with two hands and looked at it, "A power ring?!"
"Yes." he leaned against the computer, "Use its energy sparingly and you should have enough for the entire journey…" he added in a mutter," provided there is an entire journey or Shadow doesn't take it from you…" he rolled his eyes, then continued with a louder voice, "GUN has taken him to a base a few hundred miles to the south. All the equipment you may need is in the armoury, and I see Rex has already given you the information."
There was a short pause as Juli absorbed all this and glanced at the two objects she was holding, "Thanks, but…" she raised an eyebrow as she looked to him, "You don't actually believe that I'll make it, do you?"
"That depends on how fast you can find Shadow."
"What?"
"You're wasting time." he explained, "Go!" and turned back to his computer.
Juli-Su gripped the power ring and walked quickly over to the lift, cuts and bruises stinging. As the lift descended, she leaned against the wall exhaustedly and turned the basketball-sized ring over in her hands – it would allow her to run and glide much quicker and for longer distances, or she could use it to power a machine. They weren't exactly common, either; the last time she had seen one was quite a few years ago, clutched in Dimitri's hands. Being such a young, low-ranked, and generally unliked Legionnaire, she normally wasn't aloud responsibility of such precious and powerful objects… those that she couldn't steal and conceal anyway. The lift stopped and she made her way to the medical lab as quickly as she could hobble on her tired, cut legs. She decided she rather liked Eggman.
At the medical lab, the Medi-Bots first cleaned Juli's wounds, cauterized several of her cuts shut with lasers, and then bandaged the rest. She refused painkillers, on the excuse that they made her curiously giddy.
After making her way to the armoury, she threw her torn cloak away and read the holographic mission statement and objectives message contained within the small disc she was given. It told her the exact location of GUN's base, the best way to approach it, and showed her a map of all possible entrances. After it had finished its pitch, she pocketed it for future reference as it contained a useful, though incomplete map of the facility.
As she started to shuffle around in the crates to find appropriate weapons (the weapons in the crates mostly consisted of things the Legion had raided or stolen from slain enemies), she remembered her broken mechanical dread. It took her fifteen minutes fidgeting upside-down and backwards in a warped mirror to solder the wires back together. Then after another long search, she found her pistols – someone (she suspected Kommissar) had buried one at the bottom of one box, then the other at the bottom of another box, not to mention leaving them without ammo. Juli-Su re-loaded them and stuck them back in their holsters on either side of her bandaged thighs, being sure to bring extra blaster cartridges for the guns this time. She also took a grappling hook (strapped to her waist), and by lucky chance she found a very interesting weapon. At first she thought it was the stun gun the spy had stolen from her – it was just a rounded rectangular metal box with two prongs coming out the top, attached to a cylindrical handle – but the second she gripped the steel handle, to her surprise a wavy blue energy beam shot out of the two prongs at the front. The blue energy instantly solidified and formed…
"A kris sword!" she grinned deviously as she admired the two-foot long, serpentine, blue blade as it sparkled and lit up her eyes, "I'm takin' this…" she put in down on top of a crate, and it instantly powered down in the absence of her touch, returning to its harmless looking state. A firearm would have been a much wiser choice as a backup weapon, as that was her area of skill, but she found its thin, wavy blade very appealing…
Juli-Su found a new cloak in a large locker. It was a little smaller than she remembered her old one being – it only came down to the top of her toes, and her gloved hands were exposed. She put it on, concealing her metallic implants and weaponry. After more searching she found the sword's counterpart – a sheath especially designed to hold the handle in such a way that you didn't get impaled each time you reached for it – and strapped it to her back on the outside of her cloak. She carefully slipped her arm through the power ring and let it sit on her shoulder.
Juli then went to the other side of the armoury were some hover-scooters sat resting against the wall. When the underground train couldn't be used, the Legion often used hovering transport to get from place to place. Firing it up, she was soon zooming up to the doors, down the hallway and out a set of double, heavily reinforced metal doors to the outside, where she flew rapidly off towards the base, looking almost like a witch on a broomstick as she eclipsed the moon, cloak billowing out in her wake.
Meanwhile, two GUN soldiers had placed Shadow's box in a tall, cylindrical, heavily reinforced room. They quickly left and bolted the thick, slightly curved door shut. The metal walls of the room itself could probably be broken with a few determined spin dashes or body slams from Shadow, but after the soldiers had left, a faintly visible force field powered up and lined the inside, something that Shadow could not defeat without help from an emerald. At the very top of the cylinder was clear window, where several lab-coated men and women plus some soldiers were watching the box. Shadow listened and waited. His ear twitched involuntarily, almost nervously, as a robotic arm penetrated through the force field and pointed itself at Shadow's box. He couldn't see any of this, but he could hear something robotic close by.
PEEOW! A bolt of energy shot out from the arm and vaporized the box and Shadow's restraints into thin air, almost giving him a heart attack in the meantime. Quickly coming to terms with what had just happened and thoroughly revved up, Shadow shot to his feet and seemed to teleport behind the arm (though it was really just his incredible velocity), out of its range. Before the probe could retreat behind the force field and into the wall, Shadow had severed a good third of it off and smashed it to pieces with multiple bouncing spin dashes. He then turned the cylinder into a tunnel of dark wind as he spun around and around along the walls, lifting the metal shards, silicone fragments, and bits of wiring into the air, scattering them everywhere, making them crash against the force field, and generally causing a sudden, terrifying mess. Shadow finally stopped and landed in the center, calmly, but with a deadly cold look on his face as he held a wrist up and rubbed it; those restraints had been rather tight.
'That actually felt good…' he thought of the mayhem as his wind died and the debris fell from the air into a neat circle around him. He then turned around, clenching and unclenching his fists, and gave a sideways glance up to the people peering down at him from high above. He despised humans… except for Maria of course…
Up at the window, the humans tried their best to keep their mouths from hanging open. None of them had ever seen the Ultimate Life or even any of his copies first hand before. Rouge, also present and not being very tall in comparison to the humans, climbed up onto the control panel (careful not to hit any buttons), and looked down into the deep chamber to see what they were gaping at.
Shadow's scowl increased tenfold as he caught sight of Rouge. Rouge simply looked passively down at him, wanting to be thoroughly convinced that he was the authentic.
Feeling a sharp pain just above his eyebrow, Shadow's left eye fluttered shut for a split second as a single drop of blood rolled off his head and onto the floor; his self-bashed in head was still bleeding slightly. Rouge was the only one able to see that small detail at such a distance and figured it out right away. Her heart leapt with joy – he lived! …but she held back that knowledge and enthusiasm for the moment.
"Well… what do we do now? He just obliterated our eight hundred thousand-dollar probe…" asked one of the male techs nervously.
Before anyone could reply, Shadow hopped from wall to wall as a black and red blur, then stopped on a dime with what almost looked like an interrupted cartwheel in mid-air, and hovered in front of the window, making everyone jump back, save Rouge, in alarm. He looked directly at Rouge, who found her eyes darting from his white crest to his eyes intermediately, incapable of withstand the piercing intensity of his cold hard stare for long.
Not being able to hold a hover for much longer than a half-minute, Shadow rapped the back of his hand against the force field in front of the glass, making it ripple with each knock, pointed at Rouge, pointed at himself, then jabbed a thumb sharply at the door below. With a sudden boost from his shoes, he did an agile back flip and let himself fall to the distant floor below with a sploot! as his shoes hit the force field floor, making it ruffle out around him for a moment. Standing up from his landing, he crossed his arms and waited.
Rouge said to her supervisor, eyes not moving from the spot where Shadow had fallen to the floor below, "He wants to speak with me… in person…" then she added, "Alone…"
Her superior approved, but was pessimistic, "If you think you can talk something out of him, go right ahead. Do you want a wire?"
"Nah…" she climbed down from her perch.
"Suit yourself…" he turned to a tech, "Can you bend the force field in so that she will be separated from that… machine?" he was still persuaded that this was in fact, a robot of some sort.
"Yes sir." the woman tech replied promptly as she fiddled with the controls.
Shadow had to leap back suddenly as the force field wall seemed to bend away from the door and create a seamless dome around it. Moments later the door opened and Rouge the bat stepped through. Before she even had a chance to open her mouth he spoke.
"Is this any way to treat a former ally, one who, might I add, has saved your life numerous times?"
"Well… I can find two things wrong with that…"
Shadow cocked his head to one side, arms still crossed.
"Former ally, and you only saved my life once." she huffed.
Shadow rolled his eyes and shook his head, smirking now, "So my fight with the Finalhazard went unnoticed did it? That saved everyone… I should have known the blue hedgehog would take credit for everything…"
"Wait just a minute mister!" she took on an angry air as she pulled the black silk from her pocket, "Get a load of this." and pulling its contents out, she tossed the ring towards the barrier, where it slid across the floor and bounced off it, spinning around for a moment before falling to the floor, each contact with the force field creating a small ripple. Shadow walked a little closer and peered down at it.
"Uh-huh! That's right! I have one, and Sonic does too. You and he created a force so powerful, that we figured these were all of you that survived. We kept them as a memory of you…"
Shadow kneeled down, staring intently at the highly polished surface of his gold band now sitting on the floor; it had been well taken care of. He pressed a hand up against the force field (which rippled at his touch).
"We were all, especially the blue hedgehog in question, very upset when we found you didn't make it back. We all thought our second heroic hedgehog was dead. I guess the force was just strong enough to pop those clear off you before you fell. …and since the fall didn't kill you either—"
Shadow shot a neutral look up to her, interrupting her sentence, then looked back down at the ring, "If you and Sonic each have one… What happened to the other two?"
"You'll have to ask him… if you ever get out of here…"
"Do they know yet… what I am?" he asked, giving a faint nod to the window above.
"No… they think you're one of the copies… you do know about the copies, right?"
"Yes."
"Yeah… see, I released your backup—"
"I know…" he interrupted again in a slightly annoyed tone.
She continued anyway, "—and at first I thought it was you, but then I quickly realised that it couldn't be… it just didn't make sense… the way it looked, moved, acted… it wasn't the same… it was more… empty… mechanical…" she looked almost weary as she fidgeted with the black pouch, "At the base… I recognized you almost immediately because of your missing rings… but… I didn't want to get my hopes up…"
"By the way… what the hell kind of greeting was that?! …back at Eggman's base?" he growled suddenly.
Rouge tittered and turned away slightly, "What's the matter, pretty girls make you nervous?"
"Pretty?" he raised an eyebrow, expression neutral once more.
"What! I'm not good enough for ya?!" she whipped back around, baring a sharp fang warningly, but her tone was almost teasing, "Or is that word to simple to be in your vo-cab-u-lary?"
Shadow stepped back from the barrier between them and narrowed his eyes a little as he gave her the once-over. Yeah… she was physically attractive enough… for a bat… that wore too much makeup… "Humph…" was all he managed to say. He had no interest in such things at the present, anyway. There were things more important to him right now.
"Whatever… I'll bet that's not even close to what you're thinking…" she hummed teasingly as she pocketed the silk and walked up to the barrier, picking up the band in the process – she was half right. They both watched it as she tossed it from hand to hand, ran a finger suggestively (thought honestly Shadow hadn't a clue what she was getting at with this gesture) along the rim, and then slowly slipped it around her right wrist; it was a tad too big for her. She admired her glimmering wrist with a smirk. This along with her tone annoyed Shadow; that band was his. He kept his mouth shut, though; he didn't want to start a big, verbal row just yet, as he was hoping to talk her into helping him escape. He thought of a bribe. It was a weak one, but a bribe nonetheless.
"Rouge… would you like me to tell you what the Eggman is up to?"
Rouge dropped her arms suddenly, the band slipping from her wrist to her palm, as she was caught off guard, "Wha?" her ears flopped down momentarily, "Why would you tell me that?! We're enemies, remember?"
"…which you're supposed to keep close, according to you." he smirked mischievously.
"…and just what's in it for you?" she asked suspiciously.
He simply held out a gloved hand, indicating his surroundings.
"Oh no… I can't let you go…"
"…but then they'll find out what truly I am, and probably put me in the freezer until the end of eternity. Then you'll have to figure out everything yourself. …and well…" he hesitated…
"Actually…" she thought for a moment, interrupting his desperate thoughts, "We have bigger plans for you this time…" and she stopped there.
Shadow's smirk faded to a look of faint concern.
"Now we both have information we want from each other… how's a trade sound?" she grinned devilishly.
"Fine…" Shadow swore mentally at several things, and then started suddenly, "Eggman is not interested in anything but stopping Metal Sonic and my clones. I agreed to help him… because…"
"Go on…" Rouge went up to the barrier and placed both hands against it, leaning her weight on the mostly transparent wall, and Shadow's gold band still dangling from one wrist.
"…because I rather detest Metal Sonic and the fact that I have duplicates…" then he added quietly, slowly turning his back to her "…and Eggman has documents I require…"
"Oh! Well, GUN probably has the same documents somewhere. Why not join up with us?" she smiled, again taking a seductive approach, "We can work… together… to bring down both Eggman and Metal Sonic… then you can… have access to whatever you please." she slowly ran her finger along the inside of the ring again; hinting or implying some obscure thought that Shadow just didn't understand. Since he was separated from her siren-esque aura buy the physical barrier, he couldn't seem to catch her drift.
"You don't know me very well… do you?" Shadow sneered over his shoulder, eyes darkening in disgust at the thought of working for GUN.
"Well enough, I'd say." she flicked an ear, dropping her air as she saw her efforts falling on numbed senses, "Well enough to wonder why you went back to Eggman's side in the first place. Ugh… even Sonic and his band of goodie goodies would have been better…" she flapped her wings, "…and how do I know you're not lying?" she asked suspiciously, but very carefully.
"You just said yourself I'm not a good liar. …and I'm being pretty generous in trusting you, don't you agree?" he countered. Shadow came up to the barrier, looked each of her white gloved hands over, then placed one hand against her's that was wearing the band – their hands only separated by the near invisible force field. Rouge was slightly taken aback and excited by this uncharacteristic gesture. Shadow clenched his hand, as if he had grabbed the gold band, and suddenly an unexpected memory was jogged and he had a brief flash of a vision…
"Wow… you look perfect, Shadow!" Maria's voice called out adoringly, "Are you all set?" she was wearing a beautiful powder blue, lacy ballroom dress. It was high in the front and low in the back, and seemed to make her float as she strolled up to him. The location was unrecognizable.
"Yes…" Shadow felt strange and silly dressed in human's clothes – a sparkling white tuxedo with powder blue bowtie. Even more uncomfortable were his slicked back quills – he felt he had completely lost any authority or intimidating impression he formerly held without their twisted, sharp look. He didn't even have his Air Shoes… just some plain, shiny black shoes. He felt he appeared weak… unimposing…
"They're all waiting for us, c'mon!" with a white-gloved hand she grabbed his and she caught a glimpse of his gold-banded hand, "When and where did you get these?" she gasped in awe.
"The Professor put them on me this afternoon… I don't know why…" he looked aside, still self-conscious with his attire.
"Well… I think they make you look very stately…" she ran her hand over the surface of the glimmering gold ring.
He flashed back to reality and let his closed fist slide from the barrier.
There was a long, uneasy pause as both translated completely different meanings from his gesture, the ring symbolizing two entirely different things for each – unlike Shadow, Rouge's thoughts were simply lewd.
Shadow went back to the original topic… why he was disgusted by GUN…
"GUN killed Maria." he said neutrally, voice almost in a whisper.
"There was an accident on board the ARK, and she died. There was no evidence that she was killed by our organization." Rouge defended, rather professionally.
"Where you there?" Shadow abruptly bristled, voice taking a very very dangerous edge as he felt his spines twisting up and out.
Seeing she had hit a nerve, and kind of freaked out by his ever radiating spines, she decided not to argue with that, "Uh… no…" she said quietly.
"Then shut it!" he snapped.
That stung Rouge more than it appeared to; she lifted her nose in the air indignantly as he continued.
"GUN shot her down. Murdered her. …then covered it up by saying it was an accident. She was trying to protect the ARK… harbour me… resist against GUN's dominance, and so they killed h-her…" he struggled to keep his fury fuelled as he was interrupted by a lump in his throat. He swallowed hard, composing his dangerously smooth voice before continuing, "They tried to kill me as well, but Maria saved my life." then he added quietly, quills slowly relaxing back into place for a moment, "It was all supposed to be the other way around."
Rouge's ears drooped with anxiety, "…but your memories… there isn't even proof that they're real… that incident could have been injected into your mind, you know. I'm pretty sure I've told you this before."
"Then why does GUN seem to think that the ARK event happened?" the tone of his voice rose again, even angrier than before, "…and the Professor's diary… and the fact that I relive moments with her, especially that fateful day, every day, every night of my endless life as if it just happened… It's proof enough for me…" he raised a fist and jabbed it against the wall, knuckles first, "Even if Eggman doesn't have those files – and I believe him when he says he does – I can't just flip him off and take the chance that he doesn't…" he lowered his fist, "If I don't get those files from him," he looked at her very seriously, "My past will be unknown to me, lost to me, forever. …and I will have to live with that forever…"
Rouge thought it over as she warily eyed the sharp, now very rigid, spines framing his head in a shocking display of black and red. When she had been spying for GUN for the files on Project Shadow, all she managed to find was a jumbled mess of encrypted documents and information on the Biolizard – Shadow's prototype. She never did get all those encrypted documents figured out, and what she did decrypt was irrelevant on the subject of Shadow. There honestly wasn't much known about the Ultimate Life, never mind anything about his lost memories. GUN did know how to contain and control him however, as they knew enough about his strengths and weaknesses to do so.
While Rouge did support GUN for the fact that it was the only interesting occupation that would pay her in jewels, she did not want to see the true Shadow to his end.
"Well… you have your reasons I guess…" she sighed, stepping back from the force field with another flap of her wings, "…and I have mine…" She actually believed him based on what she had read in Gerald's diary and, to her, Shadow's disturbingly uncharacteristic, over-emotional displays, but didn't want to drop her guard so easily, "I won't let you out of here, no way… I'd be fired and imprisoned for that… but I will give you a fighting chance…" she winked, "I'll lead them down the wrong path until you can figure out your own way to escape."
"I'm listening…" his anger seemed to fade as his raised spines slowly fell back.
"I'll tell them you're a clone, and they may just put you in a lower security room. No force fields." She started for the door, adding, "…but no guarantees…"
Shadow crossed his arms again, "Rouge. Wait."
"Hum?" she stopped in mid-step.
"I gave you my side of the story, now what about yours? What are they planning on doing to the real Shadow when and if they capture him."
"Oh, sorry…." she turned around, "Yes… um… you're not going to like this…"
"That wouldn't be a surprise… Like it or not, let's hear it."
"They want to reprogram you… uh… wipe your memory again? They want to channel your power into GUN's forces. Take your free will… Brainwash you to work for them…"
Shadow didn't like this; he'd be damned if he let them do it to him. He'd sooner submit to Rouge or take his own life – even if the latter meant breaking a vow to Maria – before working for the organization that killed his soul mate of sorts, and ultimately ruined his, even back then, fairly pitiful life. After all that thought, he asked, "How?"
"I don't know, not my department… but I'll find out and be sure come to visit you again." she gave him a sidelong mischievous look, "You sure you don't want to take sides with me, even just for a while? I could get you a lot more… comfortable accommodations…" she raised the ring to her mouth and grasped it gently with her fangs.
Shadow gave her the cold shoulder, not at all moved, and still not quite catching her drift.
She lowered the ring, "Alright then… Good luck Shadow." she sighed disappointedly, and then left the room, taking his gold band with her. The force field bent back into its original shape when the door closed.
'Tough customer…' she thought.
'Crass woman…' he thought at precisely the same time.
Shadow walked over to a wall and abruptly sat against it, closing his eyes. If he wanted to make a daring escape, he would need to pick his moments very carefully, time his efforts flawlessly, and that would require a lot of energy. So he sat silently… biding his time, conserving his energy… and puzzling any who happened to look down in the cylinder to watch him, as he contemplated what GUN might try to do to him. How would he escape without an emerald?! GUN wasn't taking any chances so far… and unless Rouge was actually going to help him, he doubted GUN was going to slip up anytime soon. What if… what if… what if they actually took the few memories that he had left… what if he was forced to forget Maria completely?!
'Maria…' he thought, trying to get a clear picture of her beautiful eyes in his mind, willed to see her face before him like he had in the vision, 'Maria… I… please forgive me if I must take my own life… I know that it's not what you wanted, but… if I were to forget you…' he opened his eyes and looked up at the bright light at the very top of the cylinder. He thought of the sound of rain, but it only made him sadder. How he wanted to speak to her… just one more time… one more time…
Grass seemed to sprout all around him… a maple tree shot up behind him… the walls disappeared… he found himself looking at the sun in a blue sky…
"Shadow." a soft voice in front of him.
"Maria?!" Shadow jumped to his feet and stared ahead. It couldn't be! He thought he must be hallucinating… but he was awake, senses alert, he could feel the warm wind blow through his quills, smell the sweetness of summer air, and he could see the grass rippling all around… her…
He walked, almost in a trance, towards her. It was so real… he couldn't believe his eyes, yet couldn't deny what he saw and felt. She was sitting on her knees in the grass, a lacy powder blue dress flowing all around her, blue eyes shining, golden hair flowing in the wind, and a bright aura all around her. He dropped to his knees close in front of her, his own eyes wide with shock as he stared, riveted, into hers. She stared back, smiling sweetly, then reached out and stroked one side of his face. At her touch, as he felt the smoothness of her hand reach up and caress his head, he could feel a tingling in his eyes… they were tearing… he held the tears of joy back… it was so real… but it was impossible… he caught her familiar scent and swooned with joy. He as if he would melt; it was a dream come true.
'If this is what awaits me in death… if this is death… then I welcome it with open arms…' he thought, not knowing what to feel anymore… just to feel was good enough.
'Shadow you mustn't give up…' Maria's voice was in his head. She did not open her mouth, but the words came loud and clear into his mind as she withdrew her hand.
"Maria… what's happening?" he asked, blinking the tears back and not allowing them to fall.
'I have come to visit you… from the other side…' she explained. Shadow always liked her for this… she never ignored or dismissed his questions, always straightforward, 'Please do not take your own life, no matter how helpless you may feel…'
"…but Maria… if I forget… everything you've taught me… our time together… I may do terrible things for GUN… to this planet…"
She nodded understandingly, 'Shadow… I've been watching you… you're much stronger than you've been giving yourself credit for lately… your will is stronger than you may feel it is… it was you after all, who willed me here…'
Shadow's eyes widened further in surprise, tears no longer pooling in his eyes. Maria nodded slightly.
'If you want to hold on to the memories you have, the dreams you cherish… simply hold on tight, never let go, and no one and nothing can take them from you. Remember that…'
"Maria… why do you want me to live… why do you want me to… suffer in this god-awful life?"
'Shadow…' she leaned forward, dress crinkling a bit, and took hold of an ear, massaging it gently, 'Please understand… I don't want you to suffer! I would never wish that upon anyone… It's simply that you haven't lived yet… you have not yet fulfilled your purpose… lived a full life…'
Shadow fell to his hands and knees, gaze hardened at the ground as he tried to cope with several overwhelming emotions at once, "What is my puropose!? What do I have left to do?! You, the Professor, the ARK all gone… the catastrophe stopped… what more?! What… more..? I don't want to live like this! Maria I just want to die!"
'The catastrophe has just begun…'
"Wha…?!"
'I am always watching you Shadow… always…'
He felt his head being stroked as he waited for an elaborated answer, but when he looked up to see Maria…
BANG! All he saw was a metal rod coming straight at his head, then blackness.