One of the worst feelings in the world is having to doubt something you thought was unquestionable.

Edwards Manor, 3: 30 PM

The day was bright and sunny; too sickly perfect for the mourning inhabitants of the Edwards manor. Everyone was gathered in Gregory's small garage room since early morning; waiting for the moment when the young mistress would return home. But that moment never came….

Several long hours passed, full of loud heartbreaks. There was no pain quite like losing a friend and a family member… through the long hours, the inexorable truth of the situation had finally descended down upon everyone.

Grandpa Gregory was sitting hunched over scattered papers, his face buried in his hands. His shoulders were shaking as tears trickled between his fingers and into the mess of papers on his desk. Ella stood silently by his side, offering comfort and support, though her efforts seemed to go to waste as the broken old man ignored everything around him.

"….Why?" Elora's voice shattered the painful silence of the room. She was sitting on Gregory's bed, her face buried in her hands. Fresh tears glistened in the glow of the sunlight that spilled in through the opened curtains. Every once in a while her body would shake with the force of trying to suppress a coughing fit, only to end in a quiet sob.

"Shhh, calm down now, you'll make yourself sick, dear." Laura said softly as she rubbed Elora's tense shoulders gently. Elora's tears continued to fall as they did from the moment she learned that her best friend was….gone.

Knuckles sat by Elora's side, gently rubbing her back, while softly murmuring something under his breath. Tails and Cream sat close together on the floor pillows, both their eyes teary and red. Amy was sitting motionless on the second bed by the window; wide jade eyes staring past the floor. And Sonic….

The blue hedgehog was sitting on the windowsill, his back turned to his friends and seemingly ignoring everything around him.

Peace was rendered impossible to everyone as the grief continued to ring through the room. It was painfully loud, not only the sobs but the anguish as well. Amy looked across the room at Elora, feeling her eyes on her. For the first time, Amy saw real pain in her eyes, relevant without restraint. There was so much agony there…so much. She had held onto some small amount of strength, some kind of hope….now she couldn't find it in her to hold on anymore.

"S-Sonic…" Elora addressed the blue hedgehog for the first time, voice wrecked with wracking sobs. "Don't do this to yourself. It wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known. No one knew she was there…."

Sonic's mind was elsewhere, he didn't hear her.

Knuckles felt his throat tighten at the tragic sound of his human friends anguished wails. He found himself wanting to comfort her more. It was so ironic, because once upon a time, he wouldn't have cared less only because she was human; a human just like Dr. Robotnik- a treacherous human being who only brought pain and disaster everywhere he went. He thought all humans were like that; dangerous and rotten to the core. But now, when he witnessed what true humanity really was, he realized how wrong he was in his assumptions.

After learning the truth, he wanted to be a little more than just comfort for her.

He wanted to be her friend…her protector….

Her guardian.

But he didn't even know what to say to her…

Something snapped inside of Knuckles when Elora let out another painful whimper. He suddenly stood up and shouted across the room.

"Will you stop moping already so we can go and beat the living daylight out of Eggman and that black hedgehog!" the echidna glared angrily at his blue friend and team leader.

Sonic remained quiet and his lack of response only angered the echidna more.

"Are you seriously just going to sit there and do nothing after what happened to Sierra!?" Knuckles roared out. Tails and Cream flinched visibly at his harsh tone while Amy sent him an angry glare.

"Knuckles, please…" Elora murmured softly as she gently touched the echidnas trembling fist.

When Knuckles was met with silence once more, he was prepared to straight on lash out when suddenly the blue blur spoke.

"I don't think Sierra is…gone." Sonic finally spoke up, his back still turned to everyone.

Knuckles blinked, his anger cooled down slightly. "I would like to believe that she is alive and safe somewhere, but how is that possible?"

Sonic tilted his head slightly in Knuckles' direction. "The black hedgehog-Shadow-I think he saved her."

"You don't say." Knuckles said dryly. "You really believe that? Tell me one good reason why would he do such a thing?"

Several long minutes passed before the blue blur spoke up again. "When Shadow and I first met, Sierra suddenly arrived and ended our fight." Sonic said in a forced calm tone. "Shadow reacted strangely upon seeing her and Sierra herself looked surprised to see him. Back on Prison Island he said their meeting was brief…but obviously something happened. "

"That's your reason!?" The fire in Knuckles' eyes blazed dangerously. "Are you really that naïve, hedgehog. He works for Robotnik. He fooled the police into thinking you were the thief and got you arrested. He stole the Chaos Emerald and gave it to Robotnik. Do you actually think he would go out of his way to save some random girl with whom he briefly crossed paths before!?"

Sonic looked towards Knuckles, his eyes were narrowed and the usually bright emerald color of his eyes was a shade darker. "Will you just sit down and listen for once, knucklehead. That's not the only reason why I think he saved her."

Before Knuckles could interrupt Sonic continued. "In the middle of my fight with Shadow on the island, Rouge contacted him through his communicator. She said she was locked inside the vault with the Chaos Emerald."

For a moment Knuckles stood there, genuinely stunned. Among all the things he was prepared to hear, this was not one of them.

"No," Knuckles shook his head, trying to make sense of it. "That…that can't be. Why would she…."

"I don't know why she was there. All I know is that she found the last Chaos Emerald. My Chaos Emerald." Sonic smiled slightly. "If Rouge pretended to work for Shadow to get to the last Emerald, then there's a big chance that both she and Sierra are safe."

"Safe? If what you're telling me is true, then both of them are with Robotnik right now. How is that safe?" Knuckles shot back.

Sonic closed his eyes and let out a tired sigh. "It doesn't matter if they're with him right now. What matters is that they are alive and we have a chance to save them."

Upon hearing that, Knuckles appeared to mellow down a bit. His expression became less angry and settled to a quiet grimness. "And what if they're not? What if both of them died on that island. What then?"

"I'll take a chance," Sonic said slowly as he walked over to stand before Knuckles. "I….I just need you all to trust me on this one, okay? I know that everything looks messed up right now, but have a little faith in them…and in me."

It seemed no one knew how to respond, as if all were waiting for someone else to go first. It was a rare moment of confusion and doubt among them all. Finally, Sonic broke the silence with a sigh and turned away from his team, disappointed. "I'll do it, with or without you," he said and departed from the room.

The silence lingered gloomily.

Everyone was lost in themselves and their own thoughts. Everyone had their own opinion and their own sight on the current situation, but among the various differences, one thought crossed everyone's mind.

They wished the last couple of days never existed.

….

Sierra felt horrible.

She couldn't breathe, never mind everything else. She couldn't breathe. It was too hard, too painful.

Her chest hurt, everything else felt numb.

"Sierra!" Rouge's voice shattered her sick trance. She tried to open her eyes but the blurry and spinning room made her head hurt, so she kept her eyes tightly shut. A cold shiver ran down her spine; she was freezing.

"Sierra!" Rouge cried out again, but Sierra ignored her. She didn't want to open her eyes, she didn't want to speak. She only wanted the sickening feeling to go away.

"What's wrong with her?" Rouge demanded to know. Shadow stood a few feet away and watched them with cold yet surprised eyes.

"Hey, answer me!" Rouge said sharply. "I asked what's wrong with-"

"She got Chaos Poisoned." Shadow answered bluntly.

"What?" Rouge snapped angrily, giving Shadow a fierce look.

Shadow watched the suffering human with a hard facade. There was no emotion in his eyes, only a cold stare. "Chaos Energy is a powerful and unstable force. It affects everyone differently. To humans it may as well be the same as being exposed to a large amount of radiation. Between the three of us, humans are the most fragile beings." He explained in a low, soft voice. His eyes never left Sierra's shivering form.

"W-what do you mean?" Rouge asked hesitantly.

Shadow's sharp eyes met Rouge's puzzled ones, "She should be dead right now."

Rouge gasped silently, her eyes became wide with worry. She looked down at her sick human friend and then back at Shadow, silently begging him to explain everything to her.

"You and….I, we're different from humans. Unlike them, we have Chaos Energy in our blood to protect us from any deadly side-effects that Chaos Control can cause. Humans don't have that protection … Chaos Control is deadly for them. "

Chaos Energy in our blood? What is he talking about? I don't have, I can't have…..Someone like me can't have…. Throwing her thoughts aside, Rouge pinned Shadow with a sharp glare, "Sierra survived Chaos Control, didn't she. She's alive!"

Shadow closed his eyes and chuckled, "The only reason she survived Chaos Control, is because she has Chaos Energy in her blood."

Rouge shook her head in denial. "That's impossible. How can she have Chaos Energy in her blood?"

Those blood red eyes were now looking at the bat with an expression she couldn't quite read. Rouge wanted to turn away, wrap her mind around what the last two minutes had brought, but couldn't do that either. Everything was just so confusing and unclear.

"I don't know how and why she has Chaos Energy inside her. I only know that she has it." Shadow told the bat sharply. "I can feel it more strongly now…."

The room around them went very quiet. Silence fell across the room like a thick, heavy blanket. No one spoke. Neither the hedgehog nor the bat had anything more to say to one another and only Sierra's painful breathing filled the silence.

Despite his sharp words, Shadow seemed to be bothered by Sierra's poor state. It looked like he wanted nothing more than to leave the room as soon as possible, but something was keeping him from doing so. It wasn't worry, he was sure of that. He had no reason to worry about the girl. She was nothing to him, just another thorn in his sides just like Dr. Robotnik; utterly useless. Perhaps it was pity that he felt.

The longer he stood there watching her sufferings the more he wanted to take the pain away just so he wouldn't have to look at the pitiful sight any longer.

Shadow slowly kneeled down besides Sierra and with slight hesitation touched her head with his gloved hand. A bright flash of light appeared in his hand and he slowly ran his glowing hand over Sierra's head. For a few, painfully long moments, nothing happened, but then suddenly Sierra's rapid breathing slowed down and her body relaxed visibly; she fell into a peaceful slumber.

Rouge sighed with relief. For a moment, she had feared the worst. She feared that the large amount of Chaos Energy would end up killing Sierra and then she would have had to face her friends with the news of Sierra's death and the truth that it was she who took the human with her on her reckless mission.

Rouge was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't even notice when Shadow stood up and silently went towards the door.

"Thank you." Rouge said quietly.

Shadow stopped. He hesitated at first, but after a moment he sighed and tilted his head in Rouge's direction. "I stabilized the Chaos Energy in her system. She is well now, but the fever will come back. I can't heal her completely. " With that said, he left the room.

Rouge looked down at Sierra and smiled; a small sad smile. Everything was alright, at least for the time being, they were safe.

Nothing made much sense to the bat since she met Shadow the Hedgehog.

Who or what was he? That was the question hanging in the air.

"I don't understand," Rouge mused quietly to herself. "I thought only the chosen Chaos Guardians have Chaos Energy in them. And if so, what about Sierra and Shadow? One of them is a mere human child, while the other is a possible human experiment. It doesn't make any sense…."

Rouge sighed in frustration and decided to look around the room to clear her head.

It was dark and empty. The walls were made of some kind of metal, highly resembling the inside of one of Robotnik's bases.

That's it! Rouge jumped to her feet in realization. Shadow took us to Eggman's base! Of course, why didn't I figure out this sooner.

Rouge glanced at Sierra and then at the door. She had to find a bed or someplace warm and comfortable where Sierra could rest so her fever wouldn't return any sooner than it should.

Quickly Rouge ran to the door. On the other side she expected to find the control room, the one she was previously in when visiting Eggman's base and meeting Shadow for the first time.

But she was not prepared for what she saw on the other side of the door.

The room before her was magnificent. Not as in grand or luxurious in design, but beautiful in its simplicity. The room was empty; there was no furniture, no plants, and no wall decorations. The lights were off, but the room wasn't bathed in darkness. The giant window, stretched across the room, filled the empty room with dim, yet majestic light. Outside was nothing but black emptiness, but the dim light came not from the sun, but from a bright and bluish planet below.

Rouge slowly moved forwards until she stopped in front of the window. She saw a giant blue and green planet down below her, she saw shimmering lights which she knew were stars, and she saw the faint outline of what were probably satellites in the far distance.

She saw space.

They were not on planet Earth anymore.

…..

Sleep was a funny and rather temperamental thing.

Sierra could fall asleep in front of the TV or during a boring math class, but whenever her fatigued mind needed sleep the most always seemed to be the exact time she could not force it to shut down. Needless to say, when she finally managed to drift off to sleep her dreams mutated into a Sonic/friends/Robotnik horror, and the strange images of Shadow faded to the back of her mind.

At some point the nightmares became too hideous to allow her to remain asleep. She sat straight up with a gasp, forehead beaded with a sticky film of perspiration, hands fisted in the sheets. With an icy feeling deep within, Sierra threw back the covers and swung her legs over the side of the bed. And sat there, trebling like a leaf on a cold autumn day.

She was freezing, freezing from the inside. She felt as if a bucked of cold water had been dumped down her spine. Her hands were ice cold but her cheeks were burning hot. Her head felt light and fuzzy; she was undoubtedly sick.

With memories still broken and unclear, Sierra looked around the room for any clues of where she might be. The room was dark, but the door was wide open and light coming from the hallway made it less scary to be inside alone in an unfamiliar room.

The room was plain. Four white walls framed a decent sized space. The floor was carpeted and a set of shelves held at least two dozen books. There was a closet and a beautiful hand-made desk. But what really caught Sierra's attention was the dust that covered every part of the room except for the bed, thought even the bed had dust on it if you look at it closely. Someone must have brushed it a little before laying her on the bed so she wouldn't get dirty.

How thoughtful of them, Sierra thought as she slowly stood up. And almost fell back down as her legs gave away.

"What the…" she murmured, confused. Her feet felt as if they were weighed down by cinder blocks. Sierra gasped and tried to force her tired muscles to move. She managed to reach the door, but had to stop to catch her breath. She felt weak, and sick, and tired, and miserable, and all she wanted was to sleep. Sleep for a very long time and then wake up knowing that everything was alright and well. Everything was alright. Alright….

Everything was far from alright.

With a small, pathetic whimper, Sierra stumbled into the hallway. The lights were too bright and she had to close her eyes because they began to hurt. After a few minutes of standing still, Sierra slowly began to walk down the hall with one hand lightly touching the wall for support. The hall was long and deadly silent. The walls, floor and ceiling was made of some king of metal and for a brief moment Sierra thought if she was abducted by aliens and was now wandering the metal halls of their ship, but at that moment her broken memory came back to her and she remembered what happened before she fell unconscious.

Shadow the hedgehog saved her and Rouge before Prison Island exploded. He teleported the three of them somewhere….safe?

Suddenly it struck Sierra like lightning on a stormy day. She opened her mouth and slowly shook her head. She was inside Dr. Robotnik's base. Shadow must have taken them to Robotnik's secret base. Of course, it was so obvious now.

With a grunt, Sierra quickened her pace.

Turning onto another empty hallway, a faint trickle of sound caught her attention like a hook snaring a fish. She turned her head, trying to determine its source past the myriad of warped echoes, and was drawn to the corridor branching off to the left. She turned the corner and started down the decrepit hallway, listening intently to the otherworldly sound. If she had to compare the sound to anything, she would have said it resembled a cross between a working generator and jingling crystals.

The corridor she had chosen had a wall-size door and it was opened. There the sounds reached their peak. Sierra slowly crept towards the open door and peered around the edge into the brightly lit room. Several blinks were required for her eyes to adjust to a different light. But when she could finally make out what awaited in the room, she wished she had never succumbed to her curiosity.

The room inside was enormous- secret military warehouse-like -enormous. The walls were an emerald green color. The ceiling was so high up that Sierra couldn't even see it. The room had no floor only a strange looking platform in the centre and a bridge that was connected to the entrance.

Sierra would have gone back to her previous thought about being abducted by aliens, if not noticing the proud figure of Dr. Robotnik standing next to a giant computer while the majestic Chaos Emeralds sparkled and jingled above his head.

Despite her weak state, Sierra was prepared to turn around and run, away from the strange computer room and away from Dr. Robotnik, but she was unaware that the sound of her heeled boots had alerted Robotnik long before she even reached the computer room.

"If you managed to make it this far, might as well come in and say hello, dearie." Robotnik's voice boomed through the room.

Sierra's eye twitched in pure annoyance and with a soft sigh she slowly made her way inside the giant computer room.

"Where am I?" she asked, slowly making her way towards the doctor.

Robotnik chuckled good-heartedly, obviously very amused by something. "And here I thought you had some kind of mad reason for tracking down Shadow and forcing him to take you to my base. But as it turned out, you have no idea where you are."

Sierra stopped walking midway through the bridge as reality finally crashed into her. She took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut. She was now Dr. Robotnik's hostage. Somehow that painfully obvious thought never crossed her mind.

"I'm…..inside you're base?" Sierra asked hesitantly, as if it wasn't already painfully obvious.

A smirk found its way on Robotnik's face as he crossed his arms and leaned against the control panel.

"Well…not exactly." He paused. "We are currently aboard the ARK: a space colony build by the United States government fifty years ago."

Sierra blinked slowly, her befuddled mind tried to comprehend the new information but failed miserably. She looked around the strange computer room again and suddenly Robotnik's words started to make sense.

"We're in space!?" Sierra yelped. She stood in the middle of the room, swaying slightly from her fever, and looking at Robotnik with wide, frightened eyes as if the thought of her being aboard an old space colony was absurd.

Robotnik chuckled and turned his chair towards Sierra. "Why don't you take a seat before you pass out in the middle of the room." He said, mockery joy in his tone.

Sierra frowned but didn't refuse the doctor's offer. She felt tired and weak, and if the doctor was going to explain everything to her, she might as well not be standing when he does.

Sierra slowly walked over to the offered chair and sat down, folding her slightly trembling hands in her lap.

Robotnik turned Sierra's chair to face the giant computer screen. "Now, I know how you got here, dearie, but what I would really like to know is why are you here?"

Sierra turned her head slightly in the doctor's direction. "I came to Prison Island to speak to Shadow."

Robotnik raised an eyebrow. "And why would you want to talk to that lab experiment?"

"…lab experiment?" Sierra asked, not sure if she heard the doctor right. The doctor grinned as he put his hands on Sierra's shoulders and squeezed them lightly.

"Oh, so you don't know?" He asked in a fake surprised voice.

When Sierra remained silent, Robotnik walked over to his big computer and started typing. The screen turned blue as the doctor typed out the word M-A-R-I-A. Soon file after file appeared on the screen, but only one caught Sierra's attention.

Top secret: Project Shadow.

Almost instantly Sierra's eyes were on Robotnik. "What is this?" she asked, confused.

"This is G.U.N.'s top secret file," Robotnik began, his tone slightly amused and condescending. "The file where Dr. Gerald Robotnik is talking about how he managed to create the Ultimate Lifeform, Shadow the Hedgehog."

"Wait…..what?…. Shadow was…. created? And by a human who is….." Sierra suddenly stopped as everything finally sank in.

"…my late grandfather." Robotnik boasted, grinning.

"But, that's impossible." Sierra frowned confused. "Technology wasn't that advanced back then…"

The doctor grinned. "Well, my grandfather proved that it was indeed possible. And look of the results, now we have a dark Sonic-look-alike on the loose."

"I…don't believe it."

Robotnik shrugged. "Believe what you like."

"It sounds absurd," Sierra pinned Robotnik with a sharp glare. "I bet Shadow is from Sonic's world."

"Hmm, you think," Robotnik's voice was laced with sarcasm.

A flat look was all the doctor got. He chuckled and turned to face the computer screen. A painful silence fell upon them and the doctor waited patiently for his guest to shatter the quiet. He didn't need to wait long.

"If your grandfather is from Earth, then that means so are you. Then how did you end up on Sonic's planet?"

The doctor took his time answering. "How else, dearie. Chaos Control, of course."

Sierra slowly turned her head in Robotnik's direction. "How….is that even possible?"

"At the age of sixteen, I stumbled on a magnificent green gem inside my grandfather's laboratory," the scientist said. "One touch was all it took to transport me to the rodent-filled planet called Mobius and turn me into what you see before you now."

Sierra's voice froze in her throat. She couldn't believe what she heard. Somewhere in the back of her mind she already knew that something like this was possible, but after hearing the doctor actually conform it, it suddenly became an absurd idea once more.

Robotnik crossed his arms. "Chaos Control changed my life. It took away my youth, more than fifty years of my life, but it gave me something else of great value; knowledge." The doctor turned around and pinned Sierra with a cold stare. "I have already paid the price for using the powers of Chaos. Have you? "

At that moment, Sierra felt like her whole world had just shattered into pieces. She could do nothing but stare at Dr. Robotnik like he was Death itself, and in a way he was, the only difference was that he wouldn't be the one taking her life, she herself already sealed her own fate.

Sierra looked down at her trembling hands and suddenly something simple as breathing became incredibly difficult for her. It all made sense to her now. The sudden fever, splitting headache, inability to focus, the constant waves of pain washing over her body…. She was deadly ill.

"W-what will happen to me?" Sierra asked quietly as she slowly wrapped her arms around herself. Her whole body was shacking like an autumn leaf on a cold windy day and she couldn't tell if it was from the fear or the fever. Perhaps it was from both.

"I don't know," Robotnik turned back to his computer and closed the 'Project Shadow' file. "Shadow said he stabilized the Chaos Energy inside of you, thus t stopping your fever, but his treatment is temporal. He can't heal you completely."

"Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to run after Shadow just to have a friendly chat with him." Robotnik said dryly and turned to leave but before going he stopped next to his chair to look down at Sierra's broken and shivering form.

"You make bad decisions, you pay the price. Some things just can't be taken back, sweetheart. Sorry." With that said, Dr. Robotnik left the computer room.

As the silence fell over Sierra, she let her sorrow free.

With shaky hands she covered her ears and finally broke down.

…

A few hours went by when Sierra woke up by the sound of soft footsteps approaching her. She sat up straight, alarmed and slightly disorientated but visibly relaxed when a familiar face came into view.

"Rouge," Sierra whispered quietly, relaxing back into the chair. Rouge looked baffled for a moment before she came to her senses and ran to Sierra's side.

"What are you doing here? I thought I left you to rest in one of the sleeping quarters." Rouge humphed at her.

Sierra blinked slowly and turned away, looking down to avoid Rouge's questing teal eyes. "I got scared when I woke up alone in a strange room. I came here to see what's going on."

Rouge's stern gaze softened almost immediately and she sighed loudly. "Sorry for leaving you alone like that, hon," Rouge tilted her head towards Robotnik's computer. "As soon as I gather all of the available data for Topaz, I'll find a way to take us out of here."

Silence fell between them and only the sound of tapping on the keyboard filled the quiet space between them. Sierra flicked her gaze towards the glowing computer screen for a brief moment. File after file appeared on the screen as Rouge searched for the one that held all of the secrets, all of the truth of a past long forgotten.

Finally the screen flashed red as the bat finally found what she was looking for: 'Project Shadow'.

"Perfect." Rouge grinned and went to open the file.

"Access Denied."

Rouge blinked, confused and tried again only to get the same result.

"Access Denied."

Rouge growled softly and slammed her fist on the keyboard. "I don't understand. This password should have worked…."

The bat tried again and again but was always met with the same 'denied' window. Sierra watched silently as her friend worked, feeling down to earth pitiful and useless.

Since her early childhood, since the day when her father raised his hand against her for the very first time, Sierra was considered a weak and scared little girl. As the years went by those statements only broke her more. She was doing everything in her power to be the strongest person she could be, the fearless girl among squeaking little girls, the independent leader among her peers….

And where have it gotten her?

Two steps from death, that's were.

Sierra sighed softly and shook her head. She decided she wasn't going to think about that too much. Only recently had she started to pull herself together. She wouldn't let a few moments of sadness and vulnerability take control over her.

"I don't get it! I've tried every possible code given to me and still this stupid thing won't grant me access!"

Sierra snapped out of her musings and focused her gaze on Rouge. The bat tapped her fingers angrily on the keyboard and cussed softly under her breath every now and then. Sierra watched as images on the screen flashed in and out, with the same 'denied 'word always present. She watched the same scene repeat over and over until a thought came to her.

"Try typing in M-A-R-I-A." Sierra said, suddenly remembering something.

Rouge paused at Sierra's words then slowly turned to look at her. "What?"

"I…saw Robotnik use that name to open some kind of file earlier. Maybe that's the password you need." Sierra's said, her voice laced with uncertainty.

Pushing away her amazement, Rouge turned back to face the keyboard and entered the new password. When the loading screen appeared both Sierra and Rouge held their breaths until the screen turned blue and the secret file of Project Shadow appeared on the screen.

"It opened!" Rouge chimed, her voice a bit too cheerful. "You did it, hon!"

Almost instantly Rouge began to open file after file, scanning and copying everything possible from old diaries to medical documents. At first, Rouge didn't bother to read through any of the old document; making a copy of the entire file was her first priority, but when she was halfway done she decided to give them a quick read.

What both girls found made almost no sense whatsoever.

"W-what is this?" Rouge whispered, teal eyes going wide in disbelief.

Sierra sat up straight in her chair as she ran her eyes over the documents on the screen. Some of them were to science-heavy for her to understand but some, the ones where Gerald Robotnik told about his steps in creating Project Shadow, she understood perfectly.

The truth turned out to be a mystery in disguise.

"I…don't get it," Rouge murmured to herself, disbelieve and confusion written all over her face. "Topaz told me every known detail about Project Shadow, but this tells a whole different story."

"Just proves that your government knows nothing about the ARK and its projects."

The sound of a deep voice booming through the empty computer room brought the two girls to complete attention. Rouge's entire body tensed as she whirled and stared at the doorway.

Shadow the hedgehog came further into the room.

"I should have known you'd be an imposter, a fake." The hedgehog said, a small smirk graced his muzzle.

"Look who's talking." Rouge muttered.

"What do you mean?" Shadow blinked, puzzled.

"Look carefully," Rouge showed the hedgehog what appeared to be an old science report written by G.U.N.'s scientists in the past. "Here are the plans for the biological development of Project Shadow. It says here that two Ultimate Lifeforms were sealed off inside the ARK fifty years ago…"

"That was the prototype. I was created after that."

"Really? Then how about this next part. It says that one capsule was ejected from the ARK." suddenly Rouge's cheeky smirk slipped off and an icy glare appeared in its place. "It was found and sealed off inside of Prison Island."

"So, let me ask you this, who are you?" Rouge asked.

"Rouge," Sierra murmured, slowly shifting her gaze over to the black hedgehog.

Rouge was silent for a moment before continuing. "How do you know that you're the real Shadow and not the prototype? Your memories may be unreal just as you are."

Moments passed in tense silence. No one said a word; there was nothing left to say anymore. An icy chill ran through Sierra at Rouge's bold words. She again felt like she should say something, but nothing came to mind. Once again, words failed her when she needed them the most.

There was no hesitation in Shadows eyes as he answered, "Even if my memories are fake, it's still all that I have left. And that is enough to fulfill my task."

For a moment, Shadow looked disappointed, hurt even, but the sadness vanished just as quickly as it appeared. His glare grew darker and at that moment Sierra wanted nothing more than to look away.

Shadow took a few steps back; his cold eyes lingered on Sierra and Rouge for a short moment before he turned around and left the computer room.

Dread settled in Sierra's stomach like a brick as she watched Shadow leave the room. The possibility that Shadow was artificially created was always there in the deepest corner of her mind, but she still stubbornly refused to believe in such a thing. But now…..

"Do…do you really think he's the prototype?" Sierra whispered, voice breaking.

It took Rouge a moment to reply, "I…I don't know."

To be continued….

A/N.: Hello my dear readers. I want to apologize to you all for making you wait for so long and all you got was a crappy chapter filled with…nothing really. I was super busy (still am) I had to rush this chapter, so it didn't turn out like I wanted it to be.

SORRY! ;,(

I plan on making the next chapter about the new Team Dark. Sounds interesting, no? ;)