July 15 2024

Tail's Lab

If you asked how Tail's day was going to go, he probably would have told you that he would either be working on an invention of some kind, or he would inevitably be pulled into some kind of world saving adventure.

What he would not have told you is that Shadow the hedgehog would be knocking on Tails's door, impatiently looking for Sonic. But that's what happened to tails, when he answered the door holding his Miles Electric.

Tails looked at Shadow a bit confused. "Wait, so let me get this straight, you just remembered that there might be a second Ultimate Lifeform out there, and now you're asking me and Sonic for help finding it?" Tails asked.

Shadow just nodded impatiently. "Yes, Tails. I can't trust GUN with this information, and you and the Faker are the best bet I have at finding her." He said, catching Tail's use of it and stressing her.

Shadow may be a lot of things, but trying to call another Ultimate Lifeform an it is something Shadow wouldn't stomach. Tails seemed to get the message. He put up his hands in a pacifying gesture. "Right, sorry, her. I have to ask though… Shadow, are you sure we should even try?" He asked hesitantly.

Immediately chaos energy started sparking around Shadow, and Tails quickly amended his statement. "I mean, if she's still around, she clearly has been lying low for all these years. Frankly, us finding her isn't exactly necessary." Tails said hurriedly.

Shadow calmed himself down, and had to admit he may have had a point. Still though, "Last time I saw her, she was in stasis, frozen until released. There may be a chance she was never released. Besides…" Shadow faded out.

I want to see if there really is someone like me. Was left unsaid by Shadow, although given by the sympathetic look Tails was giving him, he figured it out anyway. Tails sighed. "Alright, alright. I'll contact Sonic and we'll help you with finding her. No promises we'll have any luck though. Besides, we'll probably get GUN involved anyway, because if we can't find any traces of her on Earth, we'll most likely need to head to the ARK and search for clues there, and that involves stealing one of their spacecraft." Tails said, shrugging.

Shadow surprisingly just smirked, "Wouldn't be the first time I've done that." He muttered, and Tails looked at him in surprise.

He what?

Suddenly, Tails's communicator started buzzing. Tails looked at Shadow, who was back to his usual 'no nonsense' face, and clicked the communicator on, setting it to its highest volume so Shadow could hear.

"Hey bud, what's up?" Sonic said, his voice kinda strange. "Well, you are not going to believe who just showed up." Tails said, a smile entering his voice. Sonic just laughed, "Well, I could say the same for me. Can you come to Restoration HQ? We'll swap stories there." He said, before the line clicked off.

Tails looked at Shadow, concern flashing through his face. "That was weird. Sonic isn't much for talking, but that was abrupt, even for him." He said. "We should probably go check that out." He finished. Shadow just nodded his head, before abruptly grabbing Tails.

"Wait what-" Tails started in surprise, before Shadow teleported them both away using Chaos Control.

July 15 2024

Outside Restoration HQ

Blaze was pacing nervously, which concerned Sonic a bit.

Sonic was just checking out everything in Restoration HQ when Blaze suddenly appeared right outside. This in itself wasn't that unusual, but her apparent panic certainly was. Sonic was at her in an instant, prepared to hear the whole spiel about how she needed his help to stop some kind of catastrophe in the Sol Dimension. What he got instead was her panickedly asking for Shadow, which was certainly a first for Sonic.

Sonic had no clue where Shadow could've been, so he decided to placate Blaze by promising to ask Tails to help look for him.

"So, you're gonna tell me why you're asking for Shadow specifically?" Sonic asked for like the third time. Just like the last few times, Blaze just shook her head. "No. What I need to tell him is for his ears alone. If he permits you to listen, then I'll tell you." Blaze said again. Sonic knew it was a long shot. But seriously, this was weird to the blue blur.

Sonic can admit that he might not be the most humble guy around, but this was honestly a first for him. Something that clearly had someone in a panic, that being Princess Blaze, and he was getting shafted for someone else? Again, that alone wouldn't be that out there, but he was getting pushed aside for Shadow?

Well, Sonic did always enjoy surprises.

Suddenly, Shadow and Tails appeared in a flash of blue light, before Tails stumbled to the ground. "I-I forgot you could do that…" Tails said, feeling a tad sick. Sonic turned to look at Tails with a raised eyeridge.

"Well, I can confidently say that you had me beat in the surprise guests department buddy." Sonic said, cheerfully surprised. He then turned over to Blaze. "Man, that was easy huh? Here's Shadow for ya." He said, before holding a hand out to Shadow.

Shadow just looked at Blaze suspiciously. "You were looking for me?" He asked. Blaze quickly nodded her head, looking flustered for maybe the first time in her life. "Yes, yes I was. It's important." She said, looking like she was about to break out in a sweat.

Shadow turned to look over at Sonic, who was helping Tails up. Sonic saw the look and just shrugged, before giving a gesture clearly saying, 'this is your show bud, I don't know anything'. Shadow just turned back to Blaze, and gave a 'go ahead' grunt.

Blaze looked back at Sonic and Tails with a strange glance, before asking Shadow, "Do you care if they are here or not? If you let them hear what I'm about to say, they will definitely get involved in something that probably isn't their business." She asked quietly. Shadow just grunted in surprise. He turned to glare at Sonic, who just gave a cheeky smile, before he sighed.

"They would get involved regardless. Just tell me what you need." He said, "Besides, if it's as urgent as you make it sound, we'll need Tails's help anyway." He said, not so subtly emphasizing 'Tails'. Sonic just threw him a mock insulted look, before coming closer to hear whatever Blaze had to say.

Blaze sighed, a little glad that it wasn't just going to be her and Shadow, before she explained everything that happened when she went back home. Shadow listened closely, his eyes widening with all the events. Sonic's smile turned into something serious, and Tails immediately started typing something on his Miles Electric. By the end of it all, Blaze was out of breath and Shadow was giving the closest approximation to shock as he would ever give.

"So, this cat that looked like you was called Project Blizzard?" Sonic asked, for once without a smile. Blaze just nodded. Shadow turned away, before muttering, "Project Blizzard, the second Ultimate Lifeform designed to incapacitate me if I ever went rogue." Sonic looked at him in astonishment.

"Say what? Shads, why have you never brought this up before?" He asked, to which Shadow turned back to him, scowling. "Because before about a few days ago, I forgot she ever existed." He said bitingly, to which Sonic just held up both of his hands. Then he looked confused.

"Wait, a few days ago?" He asked. Shadow sighed, before explaining the dream/memory he had. Sonic wanted to laugh at the idea of a Shadow who ever felt bad about breaking rules, but he kept his snickers to himself.

"Huh, that's interesting… What about the third lifeform, Protocol Reincarnation? Shouldn't we also be wary of her?" Tails asked, still semi focused on his Miles Electric.

Shadow just shook his head. "Whatever Protocol Reincarnation was, they were made to be far weaker than either me or Blizzard. Besides, while I didn't understand the notes at the time, after learning more about the ARK's technological terms, I learned that she never had a form of consciousness. Frankly, I don't think Protocol Reincarnation was truly alive. And as the original note about both Blizzard and the Protocol stated, she was never meant to be used." He said bluntly. Blaze winced.

Blaze cleared her throat. "About that… There may have been something I left out of the past explanation." She said quietly and hesitantly. For once it was Sonic who looked at her with a critical eye. "Pretty bad time to be keeping things from us Princess." He stated.

She just nodded. "I'm aware, Sonic. It's just what I'm about to tell you is hard to put into words…" Sonic just nodded sympathetically. "Nah, I get it. Ok, tell us Princess."

"Marine didn't just find Project Blizzard. She also found another pod with a blond quilled hedgehog, just as you described with Project Reincarnation, and…" She stuttered to a stop. Shadow gave her a look that clearly said 'hurry up'.

Blaze sighed, seeming to prepare herself for what she was about to say. "And Blizzard treated the other lifeform as a form of charge, obviously protective of her. The Reincarnation woke up, and she seemed shocked to see her own form…" She explained quietly, to which Shadow suddenly got a very bad feeling.

"I asked her what her name was…" She paused, obviously hesitant to say what she heard.

"She said her name was Maria Robotnik." Blaze finished quietly.

Everything just stopped.

Shadow's mind went blank. He couldn't hear anything. His eyesight went blurry. He couldn't see anything. Chaos energy started violently crackling against his skin. He couldn't feel it. He couldn't feel anything. It felt like he couldn't breathe.

"Protocol Reincarnation. I sincerely hope I never have to end up using it, but it never hurts to have some kind of insurance, does it not?"

For all the people on that planet…

Please Shadow, I beg of you…

Give them a chance to be happy.

Sayonara, Shadow, the hedgehog…

MARIA!

"SHADOW!"

Suddenly, the Earth felt like it was moving again. Shadow started to feel again, started to feel and hear again. Because of this, he suddenly realized he was on his knees, the chaos energy releasing from his body leaving scorches on the grass under him. He felt hands on his shoulders.

"Shadow! Are you alright!? Hey, it's gonna be ok!" Sonic said, clearly starting to panic. Shadow looked up at his face, and saw pain on Sonic's face. He looked over to Sonic's hands on his shoulders, his arms getting electrically burned every second he was in contact with Shadow.

Sonic smiled through the clear pain. "There you are. Just breathe, ok?" He said cheerfully, despite the grimace he was holding back. Shadow quickly started trying to calm himself down

Little by little, the chaos energy dissipated, leaving nothing but scorch marks behind. Sonic pulled Shadow up, his face a pained facade of a smile. "That's it, yeah. You good Shads?" he asked.

Shadow just slowly nodded, before turning over to the burn marks on Sonic's gloves and arms. Sonic noticed the look and flinched a bit. "Yeah, your energy got me pretty good Shads. Didn't stop me though." he said, his smile surfacing. Shadow just shook his head at the idiot's antics.

Shadow admitted to himself though that he appreciated what Sonic did.

Shadow turned to start at Blaze, who looked a tad panicked. "Take me to her, now." he said menacingly. Not a request, but a demand.

Blaze looked at Sonic and Tails, to which Sonic was getting berated by tails for doing something so stupid. "What about them? Are we just leaving them here?" Blaze asked.

Yes! Shadow so wanted to say. However, if this "Reincarnation" truly was Maria, he couldn't afford to take chances. "...No. We take them with us." he said, which Sonic heard.

He and Tails walked over to Blaze, standing next to her, getting ready for her to teleport them all to the Sol Dimension. Before Blaze could start however, Shadow roughly grabbed her hand.

"If you're lying to me, Princess, then it won't matter how many dimensions you run to, or how many people you hide behind. I will find you and make you regret it." Shadow said quietly into Blaze's ear.

Blaze went pale. Blaze knew that she was brave. She had faced down possible death before with barely a frown in the past. What Shadow said chilled her to the core however. Not because it was a threat, but because it was a promise. A promise, she was sure, that he would deliver on no matter what.

She nodded quietly, showing Shadow she got the message, before using the Sol Emeralds to prepare the teleportation. Shadow slowly let go of her arm, before crossing his own.

I'm coming Maria.

And I promise…

I will not lose you again.

No matter what.