Stage 4: Prison Island

As he ran through the forest, trying to get back to the water, Shadow couldn't help but think of how Tails had acted. He had no idea who Tails was aside from being my friend, and thought there was no way Tails could know him all that well from before. They seemed to have so little in common. Yet Tails had invited him to help out, chatted away with him, and generally just treated him about the same way he seemed to treat me. Shadow wouldn't admit it if you had asked him, but he was kinda touched by the gesture. Tails reminded him of something he didn't quite remember, but he knew was good. He wondered if that was the Maria he always saw getting shot.

"Hey Shadow!"

Shadow was snapped out of his little reverie by that voice: deeper, but feminine somehow. Soft. He looked around, trying to get a sense of where he was. He found himself in a harbor lined with thick trees and few boats. Off behind him, Eggman Landfill, and further off, some old ruins. Ahead of him, a wide expanse of water and an island in the distance. He couldn't locate the source of the voice until she landed in front of him, smiling. The first thing he noticed was the first thing everyone noticed, the perfectly rounded heart on the chest of her catsuit. But then her wings, her white hair, her teal eyes. He knew her.

"Rouge?"

"I didn't expect to see you around here," she sauntered up to him, looking him over. "Have you lost weight?"

He glowered at her. "I wouldn't know. I can't remember anything."

"Poor baby." She reached up and brushed his cheek with her hand. He wanted to take comfort in the gesture, to let it remind him of something, but he felt too threatened by her. There was more to her than there was to me. He couldn't trust her, even as she promised, "I can probably help with that."

He reached up and brushed her hand away. "How could you help with my memories?"

"I'm going to the ruins of Prison Island to try and find some clues to your past. We think there might be more of Gerald Robotnik's records there."

"We?"

She grinned. "I hired some help. Come on, Shadow. We'll get you squared away."

Shadow crossed his arms. "Aren't you more worried about the aliens?"

She looked a little surprised for a moment, but then she grinned. "And who do you think is the key to dealing with them? It isn't your little blue lookalike, if that's what you think."

He grinned and stepped toward her, and she started walking, smiling as she looked back.

"Everyone keeps mistaking me for him. Are they colorblind?"

Rouge chuckled. "Who all was it?"

"Tails… Eggman."

"Did Tails see you at first?"

Shadow thought about it, looking up, trying to remember. "No…"

"Did Eggman?"

"He was using some kind of pod with a video camera and a really small screen."

"There you go. But you do look very similar. I wouldn't be surprised if people make that mistake even if they see you full-sized." She lead him over to a small motorboat. "All aboard. And wear a lifejacket; as far as I know, you can't swim."

He climbed nervously onto the boat, something about the water stretching off onto the horizon unsettling him. A life jacket was hanging there, and he slid it over his arms, fastening it carefully over his chest. Shad has never really cared too much about preventing destruction, but he thought it'd be kind of dumb to break something he might need to survive. He was surprised at how easily it fit, and how little he felt his spines pulling at it when he moved. Now that he thought about it, everything fit him kinda funny. His boots felt too loose, too low up his knee. His bracers felt too loose. She was right: he had lost weight.

"Am I really losing weight?" He pondered aloud.

"Enough that I'm glad I packed a picnic lunch. Maybe after we find some of those records we can go sit in the ruins of the Security Hall and reminisce about old times over some bananas."

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "You're the second person to mention bananas today. Tails…"

The bat grinned, leaning forward. Shadow tried to fight the pull of his eyes toward Rouge's chest; it was easier to see her hands move if he kept his eyes on hers. "Did he now? Foxboy called my boss about you. Said you stole his chaos emerald."

He chuckled, tilting his head back. "Stole? He lost it. I found it. And I told him where I was heading. When I'm done with them, he can borrow one."

She got up and started the boat. It began to pull away from the dock, an Shaow's stomach lurched a little at the movement. "And why would he need it?"

"I don't know. He's some sort of genius, isn't he? I'm sure he could duplicate it for his purposes, or something."

Rouge laughed. "You're starting to remember, Shadow. Tails made a fake emerald once before. But why not just let him have the real thing?"

"I need the emeralds to learn about my past. Black Doom seems to know me."

"Black Doom?"

"The aliens' leader."

Rouge nodded sagely. "I haven't seen him. Tell me what he looks like?" Shadow described him, carefully, and she frowned. "Hmm. Sounds sort of satanic-looking."

Shadow shrugged. "I guess he is." He looked down at the water, thinking about just why Doom's image seemed so familiar, but something about the sight of it caught his eye. It seemed almost yellow, and he could smell… something coming out of it. It reminded him of blood. "Rouge, what's wrong with the water?"

She raised an eyebrow, and peered over the edge of the boat. "I guess blowing up an island does terrible things to the water quality…"

"Blowing it up?"

"Ask Eggman about that."

Shadow had no intention of asking Eggman about anything, so he looked out at the water and tried to think about something else. Something told Shadow he couldn't trust the guy. At the same time, something told him he should. Given how familiar he found everything about him, and how low an opinion of him Tails seemed to have, Shadow was more inclined not to. He tried to focus on the churning of the waves, but he only found himself getting seasick. So he looked off at the horizon and suffered in silence.

Just when he thought he couldn't take anymore, the boat slid up to a raised metal platform sticking out of the water. There were tons of them here, little platforms and launching pads… Far off, he thought he saw what looked like the launch pad for some kind of rocket. Trees and long grass stuck out of the metal… and aliens were crawling everywhere.

He leapt out of the boat and into action.

Shadow combed the island for hours, finding a chaos emerald, but little in the way of records. What he did find was in the form of little memory sticks and discs. He had to shoo some detectives away from them, but it wasn't too hard, all things considered. The aliens hardly got in his way, especially with the more high-powered weaponry he found there.

When he found Rouge again, she was sitting inside a building in a cell on the floor, cross legged, looking up at the walls as she sipped something out of a thermos. The door was wide open.

"Rouge?"

"Oh, hey Shadow. Come look at this."

He stepped into the cell and felt his jaw fall, gaping. The inside of the cell, with only a small bench for furnishings, was covered floor to ceiling in writing in white paint. Equations, measurements, diagrams…

"What the hell is this?"

"Gerald Robotnik's final project. He created you, you know."

Shadow sat next to her, crossing his legs. He regretted it instantly, but getting back up would let her know he considered her a threat. "I don't remember him… but Robotnik… is that why Eggman looks so familiar?"

She nodded. "That's one reason. We worked with him, too."

"So what's this?"

"Tea?" she asked.

Shadow started to decline, but then he considered. He hadn't had anything to drink since at least Westopolis, and his stomach still wasn't quite settled after that little adventure on the boat. He gave her a little nod.

She pulled out another cup and poured him some out of a thermos, handing it to him. He took a sip, and despite the bitter taste, the heat felt good going down his throat.

"I'm a thief and a spy, not a scientist. But sometimes you have to take apart computers, break into them, to get into vaults. This reminds me of some of the manuals I had to study to do that. Or at least, that wall does." She motioned to another wall. "I've only seen data like that in Gerald's other records… the ones dealing with you, the Biolizard, and Maria."

"Who was Maria?" Shadow asked, starting to yawn.

"Your best friend. The girl you were created to save. The girl in whose memory you tried to destroy the world."

He nodded. "It makes a certain amount of sense." Then he took another sip. "Why are you telling me the answers? No one else would."

"You deserve the truth," she said, grinning, but something in the twitch of her smile made his heart catch in his chest. He could almost remember now… watching her connive and thieve… watching her contact someone mysterious when she was supposed to be working for Robotnik. He yawned again, and then looked down at his cup.

"Want some more tea?" She reached down beside her…

The memory swept over him like a wave of nasuea… hiding near the landing site for weeks, waiting for his revenge.. picking them off, one by one. But even the ultimate life form couldn't last forever. The bitter taste of water as he choked it down… the sleepy feeling that followed… the soldiers coming out of nowhere when he finally lay down to sleep… The pod…

He lept to his feet, splashing the cup at her face. As she screamed, he turned and ran, the crack of gunshots and the heat of bullets whizzing past him as he turned a corner. He ran as far as he could until his legs wouldn't obey him, and crawled a little more as the darkness overtook him. The last thing he heard was a buzzing voice as a cold hand picked him up.

"TARGET ACQUIRED. MOVING TO SAFE LOCATION. STEALTH MODE ENGAGED."