Fight Like I Always Have

Chapter 1 "Blurred Vision"

A vision blurred through Shadow's mind…the echoing voice of a life long friend as her last moments repeated in a muffled tone.

"MARIA!" He shouted, but all at once his voice got quieter until he couldn't speak.

Gunshots running through his mind playing in a loop with the shriek and terrifying scream. "SHADOW!"

The hedgehog woke up breathing fast paced as his heart matched it beat for beat.

"I thought I was passed this…" Shadow thought to himself. "I stopped the ARK Maria, what have I left undone?"

A robotic voice aroused Shadow. "SHADOW…? WHAT…IS…WRONG…?"

Omega?

His eyes darted back at it with his blurred eyes but sharpened ears. "Omega, how did you get here?" Shadow said still trying to see.

"…I WAS ASSIGNED TO PROTECT YOU SHADOW." Omega said in his robotic voice.

The grey red and black robot shifted himself side to side trying his best to seem normal.

As Shadow's vision got clearer; he noticed something very wrong.

"Omega?! What am I doing in here?!" Shadow said pushing against the glass.

Shadow the Hedgehog was laying in a pod; the very same one he'd been in when Maria had died…he didn't know why but he felt too weak to even break through the glass.

The room was dark around him, ill lit with a foul smell of metal against metal and steam rising in the air.

Shadow noticed his rings were missing and when he looked over himself he could see two chaos emeralds fueling the pod…keeping him alive.

"Omega, let me out of here." Shadow commanded.

The robot moved backwards slowly. "NEGITIVE…MUST…PROTECT…MUST…PROTECT."

Shadow tried moving but his limbs were so slow…he was so slow…

Omega's metal fists shook and laid down against his side…he was confused as to what to do.

"Even if it hurts, I need to get out of this thing." Shadow thought.

He grunted as moving his arms was painful, but he pushed against the glass none the less.

Smoke rose from the untouched air of the suspended animation chamber and Shadow lifted himself on his feet.

"Omega, what's going on? What happened to me?" Shadow asked.

"ACSESSING MEMORY…SHADOW THE. HEDGEHOG…WAS SUSPENDED HERE…FOR TEN YEARS AND THIRTY DAYS…DURING THAT TIME…DR. EGGMAN HAS FALLEN…AND I WAS SELF-ASSIGNED TO PROTECT YOU…" Omega said.

A quiet moment passed between the two of them.

"Are you saying Eggman is dead?" Shadow said as his eyes opened up in surprise.

The robot hesitated to answer. "MISSING…STATED TO BE DEAD BUT IS UNCONFIRMED…THAT IS ALL I KNOW…"

Shadow stood there consumed in thought…he looked over himself and noticed the bandage across his leg and the scars across his side. "Omega…I don't understand what has happened, how could ten years have passed? And if so why don't I know how I got here?"

"HEDGEHOG SUSTAINED DAMAGE…SHADOW WAS FOUGHT…SHADOW WAS RESCUED…SHADOW WAS SEALED FOR TEN YEARS…I HAVE NO MEMORY OR RECORDS OF WHAT HAS HAPPENED…I DO NOT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED…BUT I AM SURE…I WAS SHUT DOWN INTENTIONALLY AND YOU WERE SEALED HERE…INTENTIONALLY…" Omega struggled to say.

The robot looked very drained of energy, he was speaking in a monotone and all but something was clearly wrong with him.

Dust was flowing though the air and Shadow almost choked on it.

"I remember now…" Shadow said suddenly. "…but it might have been better if I had not…"

Shadow used all his strength to open the door to the dark room…outside he saw the night had come and he was standing in one of Eggman's old bases.

The base however was full of wreckage as the moon gave enough light to look back at it.

Old robots which were shattered lay on the floor, Emeral's model shattered to pieces.

Shadow wasn't going as fast as he usually did and it made him secretly…a little frightened, he'd never walked so slow unintentionally in his life…and the looming feeling haunted his thoughts and mind.

"Omega…how could all this have happened…"

End chapter