Chapter 2: The tragic fall of PHD Ivo Robotnik

Thank you for so many kind and friendly reviews. It is so kind of all of you, and I'm really happy that several people realize just how awesome of a character Maria is.

Now here are some further notes I have for this story before I continue:

1. This story takes place 50 years in the distant past. It is stated in Sonic X that the ARK incident took place 50 years ago, and the clothes that Maria is wearing are clearly very old fashioned, since they are not like the ones worn by Chris and the other humans in Sonic X or by Tom the doughnut lord in the Sonic movies.

This means that most of the Sonic characters do not exist yet, and that the technology level of the Earth is less modern.

2. Shadow has not developed a hatred for humanity yet. He only started becoming bad after Maria died, and her grandfather Gerald tampered with his memories to make him think it was his goal to destroy the world and take revenge for Maria. This is why in the first chapter, Shadow is not nearly the edgy, violent and rude character he is usually known for being.

3. The reason I wrote this story is because I wanted a character who needed to use their mind and intelligence to overcome their issues, and who can't just use speed or strength to brute force their way through everything the way Sonic and his gang can do.

Maria is an ill human with no superpowers, but she does have high intelligence like the other members of the Robotnik family and must therefore work off that.

4. Some fans of Sonic pair Tikal the Echidna (The female Echidna trapped in the master Emerald) with Shadow the hedgehog. This may seem like a weird choice for a romantic pairing, but it actually makes perfect sense in context.

Both Tikal and Maria share the same English voice actress (Rebecca Honig) and both have a similar stance towards avoiding violence and protecting nature. Therefore Shadow would see Tikal as a very close substitute for Maria, and would love hearing her voice everyday.

5. People complain that Chris in Sonic X is rubbish because he isn't strong or fast like Sonic or his friends. But he is still far more physically capable than Maria, and doesn't have a lifelong illness stopping him. Helen is also much more popular than Chris, but she is wheelchair bound and hence can do even less than he can.

Maria and Helen are far more well liked than Chris despite both being less able than him.

Chris is also just as kind as Maria. If Shadow did not see so much of Maria's kindness reflected in Chris then he would not have joined Sonic to save the Earth from being destroyed by the self-destructing ruins of space colony ARK. Keep in mind that Shadow is a very solitary and antisocial person who doesn't even like Rouge; the closest thing he has to a partner who assists him on his missions.

Sonic also chose freely to go with Chris at the end of Sonic X season 2 instead of going back to his own world right away. Chris didn't force him to do anything. Sonic could have just ignored Chris and hopped right on through the portal back to his own world.

Since both Sonic and Shadow view Chris favorably, it stands to reason that Chris cannot possibly be a villian or even a mean character.

Chris is also derided for being a wealthy spoiled snob who can't enjoy his servants or his fancy mansion.

Yet Space colony ARK was also a very amazing place full of the latest technology and luxuries, and Maria had several servants waiting on her. Maria still wasn't content with her luxuries and still wanted to go to Earth; a different world to the one she lived on. Not different to how Chris wanted to see Sonic one more time in Sonic's world.

If Maria can be praised for trying so hard to get to Earth despite her handicaps, then Chris should also be praised for trying to go to Sonic's world.

Both Maria and Chris were mostly abandoned by their family in favor of paid servants. Yet as we can clearly see from both Chris and Maria's examples; servants and caretakers are not a substitute for familial love. Gerald spent most of his time working on a cure for Maria, while Chris's parents spend most of their time working on their jobs to give Chris more luxuries.

All of them just wanted the best for their children, but went about it completely the wrong way.

Also Chris didn't try to arrest Sonic when he came to his world like every policeman was trying to, and also went with Sonic to save Cream when she got locked up in a maximum security prison.

6. Eggman is for the most part a greedy, evil, scheming villain who cannot be trusted. But there are times he has worked with Sonic to save the world, or that time when he tipped Sonic off about the Metarex; saving his life. There are clearly redeeming qualities in the mad scientist.

Meanwhile, Shadow has done some fairly unsavory and less than ideal actions which are clearly not those of a hero. He has probably killed several innocent humans and animals in his search for revenge; depending on which routes on the Shadow the hedgehog game you take as being real.

It makes little sense therefore for Maria to only forgive Shadow but not Eggman. Depending on which version of Sonic you look at, Eggman's kill count and the amount of destruction he caused overall may actually be lower than Shadow's. This doesn't make Eggman a saint or Shadow an irredeemable jerk; but the point still stands.

In fact in some versions of Sonic; Eggman is more reluctant to actually kill anyone than Shadow is. Case in point; in the episode "a new beginning", Eggman forces a missile he launched at Tails to self-destruct so that it doesn't hurt Tails after he realizes that killing Tails will mean he has to live with the guilt of killing Tails for the rest of his life.

This one moment in the show proves that while Eggman is very eager to fight Sonic and his friends, killing them is another matter entirely.

With all this said, on with chapter 2.

P.S: In this story, I've decided to make the Robotnik/Eggman family Italian. As one of my best friends pointed out; Dr Eggman's real first name Ivo sounds a lot like Uovo which is the Italian word for Egg. Furthermore; the clothing and the facial features of Dr Eggman, Gerald and Maria look very poshly Italian; as well as Eggman's idea of ruling the Eggman empire (Italy is where Rome is, and the Romans really wanted to rule a massive global empire).

Ivo's point of view.

I stared dumbfounded at the telivision screen. My heart was in my mouth and my mind was a canvas of total white nothingness. Everything and everyone that I loved and cherished had all been disintergrated in a fiery explosion that had shaken the very foundations of the universe itself.

The smug and spoiled news reporter standing beside the photograph of utter carnage had no emotion. It was clear from his vacant expression that the lights were not all on upstairs for him. He didn't know the heartbreaking tragedy of losing the one relative that truly loved you when you lived in a family of brutal cretins not worth the space they took up on planet Earth.

In fact he was practically grinning ear to ear as he recounted the dreadful tale of how Space Colony ARK had been stripped clean of everything of value abroad by the "responsible and dependable" humanitarian agency named "G.U.N", before being blown up with the use of thermonuclear devices whose destructive potential aped Fat boy, Little man and Tsar bomba combined.

My grandfather Gerald's rich collection of inventions would all be taken back to their laboratories for further analysis, and he would be escorted straight to state pen pending his trial; which I sincerely hoped would end with the moldy old codger being torn limb from limb for his unspeakable crimes against humanity.

I had never forgiven him since the day he confiscated Maria away from me, and never let her near me ever again. He deserved all he had gotten for slandering me in every way he could; dragging my good name through the mud and making sure every backward hick in his wicked crew developed a searing hatred of me.

They danced the heartbeat of the world as they sang songs that depicted me as the most heinous and unforgivable villian to have ever lived. They clapped and cheered and jeered when grandfather told them stories of how my mum and dad beat me with a broom, and smashed me over the head with a chopping board in my youth whenever I displeased mum and dad in the slightest.

Cousin Maria deserved better company than those feindish ruffians, who had brainwashed a generous and carefree young girl into seeing shadows where there weren't any and into thinking of me as nothing more than a putrid monster that shouldn't be touched with a one- hundred foot barge pole.

She had fallen for their slanderous lies, their perfidy, their deceitful facades. At first she continued to speak highly of me as she always did when we were kids, but over time even this eventually stopped.

I was able to know all this and more because of a hidden camera I had implanted during one of the few trips I took to that ugly pile of rusting debris floating out in space. I had entered the Space Colony staring down the barrel of thirty rifles, and strictly ordered not to make myself visible to my cousin Maria lest my presence make her uncomfortable and make my hosts trigger fingers itchy.

But when it came to subtelty and top-secret espionage; no one trumped the proud and magnificent Ivo Robotnik's sneaky fingers and quick wits. It was a simple matter to bug the entire ship while their backs were turned. It was through this crafty system that I was able to observe my lovely cousin's growth all these years that grandfather kept her away from her beloved home and from me.

She had grown strong, vibrant and pretty. A slender figure with long and silky hair of sparkly gold just like her mother; and my Aunt Meredith. A thin and colorful face with small hands that were always talking even when she was silent in thought just like her father; my uncle Huberto.

Both my compassionate aunt and uncle had been kind to me during the few visits they paid to my house during my formative years, and both were dead. Killed in a tragic road accident which coincidentally involved a black and white Armored Personal Carrier bearing the G.U.N logo proudly on its left door. It had been driving at top speed and bowled both of its hapless victims right over in broad daylight as it sped right over a big red light during a quiet day when the roads were as desolate as a wasteland.

G.U.N made an official statement that it was a mistake that was made only because they were forced to rush one of their professional agents to rapidly resolve a domestic disturbance in the neighborhood. Allegations that were made against the mighty organization which might as well be considered the modern day equivalent of Hitler's secret police were quickly broken up, and never addressed in detail. No official investigation was ever conducted for this case.

I was 8 when Aunt Meredith and Uncle Huberto stopped coming to coddle me and spoil me rotten, while mum and dad briefly stopped abusing me to put on a show for their valued and cherished house guests. G.U.N claimed that they died in a total accident, but I had always believed otherwise. No matter what honeyed lies spilled from the balmed and glossy lips of these so called "devoted peacekeepers of the united nations"; I knew that they could be trusted about as far as you could throw one of their ten-tonne battle tanks.

Now this explosion had blown up cousin Maria, and with it my last shred of human sanity. That was the final straw. I was going to move somewhere so far away I could brag about it. I would rather tear out my brain stem, walk out into the nearest four way intersection and skip rope with it than going on living as I was now.

This time G.U.N claimed they only carried out such an attack because grandfather Gerald had become in their fancy words "a wanted terrorist felon possesing weapons of mass destruction". Well I would show these bozos what a terrorist was. I would show them all.

"Doctor. What's going on. Are you quite alright?" A friendly mechanic voice sounds from a nearby corridor, as my first fully automatic and self-aware robotic creation of yellow titanium pops his head from the doorway by the corridor. My magnum opus. The Adam of my labors. The first completely robotic, fully machined butler capable of performing the most advanced human tasks better than even the most well-trained flesh and bone human being.

It had all the qualities that anyone could want from a human servant.

Decorum

Excellence

Carefulness

Obedience

Entertainment

So I called it Decoe. My first real friend after cousin Maria. The first member of my empire which I was going to build to prove everyone who doubted me wrong. To get back at my awful parents, the jerky jocks I was forced to go to school with and the hypocritical world that needed a competent ruler with an iota of intelligence.

"She's gone" I uttered weakly, still in shock from the awful news about my cousin's sad expiry.

Decoe looked puzzled. He had only been finished a few days prior and had never heard of Maria yet.

So it was unsurprising for him to ask in a completely innocent manner. "What do you mean, Doctor? What is upsetting you."

But I was not thinking clearly and took this question as a challenge. I breathed in all the air I could gather into my lungs and raised both arms into the air.

"SHE'S GOONNEE!" I shrieked with a loudness that made the glass on the windows crack into smithereens, and the room shake.

Then I broke things. Many things. I kicked the lamp off the table, smashed the telivision broadcasting the sad news of Maria's death with a golf club and pushed a shelf of books over so that it spilled its contents onto the floor in a messy heap.

"AHAHA AHAHAHA!" I loudly laughed as Decoe watched on in shock and awe, unsure how to react to the situation of a master who'd gone completely mad and was not specifying any specific orders to carry out. Such was the flaw of golems, specifically iron golems. They did not do anything they were not told by their creator to do.

"Doctor. Please calm down. Give me an order and let me cheer you up." The yellow "iron golem" Decoe pleaded, his circuits clearly not responding well to my deafening tantrum as he very nearly short circuited.

Then all my anger evaporated into deadly calm. All my heated passion into cold iciness. I had compunctions and restraint before about what I was about to do next, but now there was no reason to hold anything back.

What I previously regarded as an immoral crime that would break Maria's golden heart in two, was now justified revenge. I was not going to become a despicable criminal by making my next choice, but rather an avenger. The dark avenger.

There was nothing evil about an avenger who paid evil unto evil. If the Earth couldn't accept a harmless, compassionate and sympathetic humanitarian who was so eager to see past all its glaring flaws and problems, then it certainly had no place for a misunderstood ugly pariah such as myself.

"I order you to help me build the Eggman empire." I coolly stated. "And we'll start by building the Flying Egg-bot I drew blueprints up for two days ago."

"Roger Doctor. Myself and Bocoe will have your wonderful device up in no time."

The age of incompetence, innefficiency and unproductivicty for mankind was at an end. For soon I would show everyone who they might fare under a competent, rational ruler with IQ 300 and 20-20 vision. My all seeing eye would soon encompass the entire planet.

Cousin Maria would be revenged, and celebrating my achievments as she looked at me from her rightful place in the heavenly Cosmos that she fervently believed people went to after they passed away.

Maria's point of view
The escape pod's air was not properly sterilized for me unlike the air that flowed through ARK. It had plenty of oxygen, but it would still harm my lungs without the aid of the medicine that I had just taken.

This was the most likely reason grandfather left so many pills here. He really was a wise seer of foresight.

I finally dried my tears and started to carefully consider what I would do when I actually got to Earth.

I certainly couldn't waltz back into my home town of Milan and expect to be welcomed with open arms. G.U.N's influence was expansive, and they were as ubiquitous as locusts. Hungry locusts that were very eager to completely consume the harvested fields of all life, vitality and joy.

But I still needed to get back there quickly. I needed to find Ivo if he was still there, and to find out where he had actually gone if he was no longer there. I had lost one of my beloved family members today, and losing two would completely break me.

The glorious view of planet Earth was quickly coming into view. The green forests, the blue sea and the long white clouds that I used to love watching in my lazy afternoons. Soon I would be back to my home planet which I had missed so dearly. It had been so long that I had began to feel as if I had never really been there, like my fond memories of Earth were just a dream.

It was painful that Shadow wasn't here to hug me with his fluffy quills and comfort me with his soothing voice. Grandfather was equally gone. Seeing the recklessness and sadism in the earlier G.U.N agent's behaviour did not give me high hopes as to how they would deal with my beloved grandpa.

I wanted to cry, but my outburst from earlier had dried up all my tears. My hands and feet were bruised from kicking up the metal door that was still tightly barred shut, and I had to start planning ahead if I was going to make sure that their generous sacrifices in order to let me escape alone were not wasted.

I took stock of how much food and water was stowed abroad the cabin that was now barelling to Earth at a speed almost as fast as light itself. There was enough freeze-dried tinned food for about a fortnight; if I rationed it conservatively.

The bottled water was less abundant. It would only be enough to stave off dehydration for less than a week. This was due to the biological fact that the human body got thirsty far more quickly than it got hungry.

When I ran out of the water; I would need either a clean natural source such as a river or spring, or a manmade source such as a hopefully cleaned tap.

A similar rule applied for my food. When the last tin of soup had been eaten; I would either have to go hunting (I hated animal cruelty but sadly it was sometimes necessary for survival), or find some food.

This was easier said than done however. G.U.N were bound to have agents everywhere searching for me high and low. If I was going to have even the ghost of a chance at reuniting with the beloved cousin who I always considered as more like a brother with how highly I thought of him, then I needed to keep my wits about me.

A Robotnik's most valuable weapon was not their strength nor their charm. It was our keen intellect, and the ability to percieve details that others would neglect. Neither the sword in my hand (if I actually had one. One thing this escape pod did not contain was an armament of any kind) nor the sword in my mouth was going to do me any good against an elite police force that had locked down the entire planet from suburbia to city hall. The sword in my mind was how I was going to get through all of this alive.

I needed to be smart and think everything through. I needed to be one step ahead of those evil soldiers. I needed to go fast and not get caught.

But first I needed to actually make it to Earth. So I said a final prayer for grandfather and Shadow, before closing my eyes and counting the seconds quietly to soothe my jangled nerves until I fell into a much needed sleep.

Cousin Ivo. Please hang on. My best friend Shadow sadly couldn't make it so I can't show him to you, but at least I will be back for you just like I said I would.

...

Thank you for reading. Please review if you like this story and want me to keep going.

I made it so that Maria and Eggman met briefly before Maria had to go to ARK. This way, they had time to build a relationship and to interact with each other before being separated.

There will be other exciting. changes to the timeline introduced by Maria survivng instead of being killed, which we will get to soon.

Kind regards.