ii. Uncomfortable Reunion
Three days later, Gerald finally got up the nerve to awaken Shadow. He had seesawed back and forth between a desperate need to awaken the hedgehog and reunite, however incompletely, with his "youngest son" and a - fear? revulsion? certainly a distaste - for interacting with the being that had, even indirectly, led to Maria's death.
It wasn't Shadow who killed her, it was GUN. It certainly wasn't his fault that he was created - that was my doing. It's not fair to blame him, he would have saved her if he'd had any way to do so, Gerald told himself firmly. But it won't be the reunion I might have hoped for. If the commander thinks I have any personal interest in "the subject" he won't let me near him again, ever. So be cool, Gerald. Convince the soldiers that this is merely another Chaos rat, or lizard. Deep breath. If I don't do it now, I never will. Gerald reached out and hit the "Wake" button.
Gerald had poked around in the computer files a bit more over the last three days, looking for info on what, if anything, had been done to Shadow after landing. Apparently GUN had met the pod as it landed and immediately triggered the stasis lock remotely. (Stasis lock was a feature intended for those times when a pod could not be opened in a reasonable amount of time, or if the occupant was known to be injured; it overrode the automatic waking functions of the pod that were supposed to activate about 30 minutes after landing.) More interesting though had been the order to delete all records of the pod's recovery, including invoking the Secrecy Act on the select squad that had performed the rescue operation. Officially the escape capsule launched from Gerald's laboratory was untraceable and had never been recovered. A note in the file indicated that this was to preserve the "integrity" of the ARK's Indestructible Seal - if the ultimate soldier were linked to the Project: Shadow from the ARK, the "accident" might be called into question. As far as anyone outside would know, Shadow the hedgehog, the Ultimate Life-form and soldier, would be created and born on Prison Island.
Well, they may not like the soldier they get, thought Gerald grimly. Shadow's not likely to take orders very readily from the ones who murdered his sister. (Which may be to my advantage.) Gerald paused, cocking his head slightly. He felt like he'd heard a voice, whispering at him. He shook his head slightly - there'd been stress and then some in his life recently but he was NOT going to start hearing voices now. He stepped away from the control panel and stood beside the stasis bed, now positioned vertically so the occupant was standing within it. He'd set it for a slightly delayed awakening, he needed Shadow's brain as alert as possible if they were going to pull this off. He saw the eyelids twitch, and a slight shift in the muscles as they tried to move against the stasis field. The brain was awake, but the body was being released more gradually. "When the subject awakens," he said loudly to the watching guards, "he will probably be rather confused. Kindly do NOT shoot him unless he actually attacks anyone; remember that this experiment can be dangerous if angered, and we wish to keep things calm." His eyes never left the hedgehog's face as he spoke, noting another twitch of the eyelids, and the mouth. He'd cued as much as he dared. Now he merely watched as the rest of the stasis field shut off and Shadow opened his crimson eyes.
The eyes blinked once, twice, and focused. After a moment, the hedgehog stepped out of the bed and startled Gerald by dropping to one knee, head bowed and one fist pressed to his chest. "I exist to serve you, my master. Command me as you will."
Gerald nearly gave the game away at that point, the only thing that kept him from demanding "What are you talking about?" was the slash of pain in his heart and mind as he recognized the pose: Shadow playing the Knight to Maria's Queen as they rehearsed a school play, "I exist to serve you my lady, command me as you will." And Maria, as regal as she could be, "Then rise, good sir knight, and bring me the golden tail-feather of the Arabian phoenix to prove your worth and loyalty."
He caught himself and brusquely ordered the hedgehog to rise, and sit on the examination table in the room. Which was a fair height for a dokan-sized individual, but he dared not assist him. Shadow had no problems hopping up on the table however, and Gerald turned to take a surgical mask from the counter and put it on. Offering more masks to the soldiers, he announced, "There are certain elements that Project: Shadow requires to maintain healthy function. Anyone staying in the room for the next twenty minutes must wear a mask to avoid the fumes from the chemicals." As he'd expected, the escort, after a momentary exchange of glances, decided they could guard the entrance just as effectively from outside the door.
Gerald chuckled to himself as he turned back to the counter and flicked the switch on a small canister. Shadow, of course DID require certain elements to stay healthy - the same ones humans did. The canister actually released a large amount of water vapor, a few puffs of tinted talcum powder, and a bit of perfume - not that a surgical mask would have been any good against vapors in any case. The canister switch also triggered a tape he had prepared, of his voice interviewing and instructing a computer-generated Shadow-voice that would be fed directly into the security lines; nothing actually said in the room would be recorded until he cut it off. He kept his mask on for the security camera; it gave veracity to the "vapor" excuse, and it prevented anyone noticing that what the camera 'heard' was not what his mouth was actually saying. Fortunately Shadow's back was to the camera.
The most important question first - well, second, he thought as he moved back towards the hedgehog. Tell him where he is first. "You're on Prison Island, Shadow. The military stasis-locked your pod on landing and brought you here, where I was already being held because of the Gizoid .
"What happened on the ARK!?" His voice wasn't loud, but it was intense.
Shadow curled up on the table, as if to hide. Gerald found himself clenching his fists, feeling the urge to attack the hedgehog and beat the answers out of him. (It is his fault, Maria would still be alive if he hadn't run for the pod like a coward.) Gerald blinked, startled by his uncharacteristic rage. That and the barely-heard whisper were enough to jolt him out of it. He looked around in spite of himself. Where did that come from? "Shadow," he said softly, returning his attention to the hedgehog, "please, I need to know what happened after I left the ARK."
The black-and-red form shivered but remained curled into a tight ball. "Professor," a voice whispered.
"They can't hear us at the moment," Gerald reassured him. "They think they can, but it's not really us. Just don't look towards the camera as you talk."
Another silence from the huddled quills, then, "Father.
"I– I'm so sorry, I failed, I– I couldn't stop them. They shot her, they–" Shadow seemed to shrink in on himself even further if possible, then suddenly relaxed slightly. Apparently having gotten control of himself he started over, still quietly but much more coherently.
"Only a couple of hours after you left, there was an announcement that something was wrong with the colony. One of those, 'Please don't be alarmed, this is only a precaution' sorts of announcements, only in this case the precaution was to evacuate everyone on the ARK. They never said why. They evacuated the school first, then by sections, saving the research and medical areas for last. W- we had been told to go to the medical wing because– because– We had been told to go to the medical wing. We waited until all the rest of the people were evacuated, I think only the researchers and doctors and the resident patients were left. Then, the soldiers that had evacuated the civilians started shooting everyone who was left. I saw that they'd killed the doctors in the lounge and I took– took her and ran, I thought if we could get back to the lab, we could take the escape pod and be safe. But when we got in the hall..."
Suddenly the dark form uncurled, and Shadow was looking at Gerald with tear-filled eyes. "Oh, Father...we got to the last hall before the observation room and they found us; they were after me, I think, but they shot Maria. We kept going and while I locked the door she started to set the controls and yelled at me to get in the pod. I'm sorry, I should have sent her in and set the controls myself..."
Gerald swallowed hard and placed a hand on top of Shadow's head, all the reassurance he dared give while the cameras watched. "I know Shadow. Go on."
"The soldiers shot the door until it opened, Ma-Maria... was at the controls. The told her to stop and she did, but then she tried to run for the capsule and they–" the hedgehog buried his face in his hands. "They killed her," a barely audible whisper. "I tried to go help her, but the- the capsule had shut and I couldn't get out." He suddenly brought his head up again, his face full of grief and self-loathing, and yelled " I COULDN'T GET OUT!!" Looking down at his hands, he continued more quietly, "Maria made me promise, to make them happy. Then the capsule dropped out of the ARK, and that's all I remember.
"I'm sorry Father, I was supposed to protect her and I...failed." He wiped a hand across his face, blotting his tears.
"No," answered Gerald a bit shakily, "you did everything you could do. If you'd stopped to argue over who was going to set the controls, GUN would have caught you both. You know ...she...would have argued. And those soldiers had been told to kill everyone who knew anything about you. There wasn't anything else you could have done." He turned away from Shadow to look at the monitors on the wall. "I think...I think I'd better put you back in stasis, Shadow. I'm sorry - I'll get you out as soon as I can - but they want me to turn you into a proper soldier, and if they think I care about you they won't let me near you again. They've already ordered me to make the Gizoid a weapon, I couldn't bear for them to make you one too."
There was silence behind him, then a near-whispered "If you must, sir." That wasn't like Shadow, he should have argued the point, but it did make things easier. Gerald checked the 'alternate dialogue' playing for the security cameras, heard it was at a good point and cut it off. "All right Project: Shadow, that's enough. Return to your stasis bed."
His face expressionless again, Shadow slid off the table and marched across to the bed, which had returned to its horizontal position. Gerald thought he detected a slight pleading in the hedgehog's eyes as he reactivated the stasis, before they slid shut in response to the fields, but he honestly didn't know what else to do. What he did know was that any 'work' he did on the Ultimate Life-form would be with Shadow in stasis; while under surveillance he could not give the hedgehog the comfort they both needed, and it would not be possible to work together without releasing the tension somehow.