Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Shadows of the Heart ❯ Chapter 2

Note: I know that this is not what actually happened at ARK but I wrote it like this for dramatic purposes.

Disclaimer: I don't own Shadow and I don't own Maria. The only thing that I own is the story!

Chapter 2: Beginnings

~The Present~

With a loud groan I slid to the ground, sighing softly to myself. My eyes traveled back to Maria, her carcass strewn on the ground a couple feet away from me. The pool of blood surrounding her had grown--now drenching her long blond hair that I had loved running my fingers through. Her icy blue irises had rolled back in her eyelids, only allowing the whites of her eyes to show. The other aspects of her outward appearance were ghastly. Her skin--pale as the white snow, her lips--a dark blue and open wide in a seemingly never-ending scream. A single tear fell down my cheek, causing me to flinch. The Ultimate Life must not cry; he can't. Crying is for the weak, a sign of insufficiency that a being such as myself cannot posses. I wiped the moisture away, smirking slightly as I did so but the tears kept coming, relentless and sorrowful in their entirety. Why was I becoming so weak? Why am I experiencing this strange emotion called sadness? The Ultimate Life would not feel this way so why was I? Perhaps, I was not the Ultimate Life at all…

Sob after reckless sob wracked my body, consuming my thoughts, consuming my soul. I closed my eyes in an attempt to rid myself of the terrible sight. Deep in my heart I wished that I could just open my eyes and everything would be all right. I wished that when I opened my eyes I would see Gerald's colleagues going about their business, various experiments being carried to and fro by robots, and in the middle of it all I would see Maria with her bright smile and cheery eyes that would make my heart tingle with joy. But, it was nothing like that when I opened my eyes. All I would see is destruction-- bloody corpses strewn in the corridors, computer panels smashed and broken in, and GUN soldiers walking through room after endless room searching and killing anyone that might have survived this catastrophe. I was not really a religious person or anything but I started to pray. Maybe someone out there would hear me and end this aching in my heart forever. Then suddenly it came to me. My beloved once told me that thinking about the good times you had with someone will take some of the grief away when they die… Maybe it would work… Just maybe, it would help me. I did not know much about my creation or the years surrounding it; they were just a myriad of tests and experimentations that I would rather forget. I don't think my life actually began until I met her that fateful day. It's quite amusing to me to see how rude I was to her then. Little did I know then that the little girl that I scuffed would be the one that I could not live without later in my life. She was amazing to me; she could warm the hearts of the coldest of souls who did not let anyone into their inner being, someone like me. With a sigh I clenched my eyes and let the memories of the past drift back into my mind…

~The Past: April 19, 1942~

NOTE: The feelings in this part are Shadow's feelings in this time period. They do not reflect his feelings now.

"Hello there mister hedgie!" a cheerful voice whispered next to me. I opened my eyes, allowing them to adjust to the bright lights overhead. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see a small child around the age of 3 with a huge brown teddy bear in her small arms. She was tiny with shoulder length blond hair that was pulled up in two ponytails. Bright blue eyes quite like mine gazed at me and her rosy lips were curled up into a wide grin that seemed to consume the lower part of her face. She was wearing a gauzy white nightgown that stopped at her wiry ankles and showed her tiny feet.

"What do you want?!" I snapped, giving the child an indignant look. What did this scrawny little kid want from me? Her eyes reflected a hint of surprise as she backed away from me, a pitiful look of horror on her face.

"You're a mean hedgie mister!" she whimpered, turning around and running smack dab into Gerald Robotnik, my master. His wrinkled face generated a look of concern and anger towards the little girl.

"What are you doing here granddaughter?!" he shouted, grabbing the girl's arm. "What have I told you about snooping?!"

"I'm sowwy Gwandpa." She replied, tears in her eyes. "I just wanted to see the hedgie."

"He is dangerous! Do you know what he could've done to you?"

"No."

"Let's just say that Mr. Bon Bon wouldn't enjoy not having a certain pig tailed little girl around him." Gerald whispered soothingly, patting the brown bear on its head. The child turned around and looked at me, making me feel compelled to snarl at her. I laughed gleefully as she turned around and ran out of the laboratory, dropping Mr. Bon Bon in her escape. The Professor glared at me for a second, pursing his lips together.

"I swear you are a tough little one…" he growled, turning to his assistant that was entering some data into a huge computer. The assistant was a slender woman with long black hair and olive green eyes. I sometimes called her `Olive', only to be slapped in the face by her.

"The subject is ready Professor." The woman uttered in her monotone voice. "Shall I prepare the chamber for him?"

"Yes, yes…" The old man rubbed his chin thoughtfully, nodding in affirmation.

With the push of a button on the control panel, a long glass tube that was a couple of feet away from me opened, its glass door sliding to the left, allowing access for a person that would have to be about 3 feet tall.

"X, go into the chamber and just stand there for a second would you?" `Olive' inquired, giving me a stern look. Without a second thought I stood up and glided towards the tube and went in, my brown quills hitting the top of the opening in the process. The chamber was small and humid, making beads of sweat drift down my fur. I could only see my reflection since the glass made the rest of the laboratory blurry. I took a moment to study myself. Sky blue eyes, dark brown fur, huge gangly hands and feet, I was not anything to look at but the Professor took great interest in me like I was some sort of prized possession. He spent most of his time injecting me with foreign liquids and taking flesh samples out of my abdomen and chest. I think that he was testing me to see if I was worthy of something big, something that would change my life forever. I was a lonely being who didn't see anyone else except Gerald and his favorite assistant `Olive'. No one else came to visit me in my lab; I guess that they didn't care. Year after year of lonely imprisonment had turned my heart cold; I guess that's why I shunned that poor girl that only came to see me. Maybe if I was nicer to her we could've been friends or something of the sort. Nah, I don't socialize with beings of the human nature…

The chamber door finally closed, sealing me out from the outside world. I could hear a clonking noise above me as if someone was putting something on top of the tube. Soon the clonking noise stopped and then there was silence. Suddenly a bright white light engulfed me and my feet started to rise off of the ground. Searing pain coursed through me, making me squirm in agony. The pain was growing unbearable as it reached my eyes, burning them beyond belief. I managed to take a look at myself in the glass and I saw myself going through some sort of metamorphism. My brown fur was growing, turning a jet black color, the muscles in on my body were becoming defined, some of my quills were turning upward and being marked with a crimson line. I was also becoming taller and more aware of my surroundings. All of this change was scaring me, what was I becoming?

All of a sudden, the light faded and I fell to the ground in a huge heap. My mind was still buzzing with the pain and realization of what just happened to me. The chamber door opened once more and I saw the Professor look at me through half lidded eyes. His crinkled face showed great happiness and joy as he helped me up and carried me to a long mirror that was located next to the gurney that I called my `bed'.

"Magnificent!" I heard Olive scream behind me. "Our experiment did work!"

"The powers of the seven Chaos emeralds are great indeed. Now that we know that it can have this kind of effect on a specimen we can use them for other things. But for now, I am greatly overjoyed to see that I have created a superior being that will soon rid the Earth of all evil!"

Huh? Was he talking about me? My head tilted to the side as I looked at myself. I did not notice that I had grown a tuff of unruly white fur under my neck as I was changing nor did I notice that I had crimson marks on my arms like I did on all of my quills. It was strange to see that I had changed so much in a short period of time but I was enjoying every aspect of it…

"X is not a proper name for such a being." Olive stated, walking over to me and placing a small hand on my shoulder. "From now on this being will be known all over the universe as Shadow, the Ultimate Life."

I hope you like it! ^^ I wrote this about 4 months ago so the details might not be that um...detailed... I do think that my detailing skills have improved since then...