Shadow the hedgehog.

The battle for mankind

❝HE WAS... THE ULTIMATE LIFEFORM.❞
|| WHEN HUMANS ARE SCARED, they do not think. Even when they create something with their own bare hands, they would kill it in an instant if it deemed more powerful. I was the product of research that was meant for peace, although I only brought fear. So many tests and experiments were done to me, so much scrutiny the professor had done at the cost for an answer. And yet... they were for nothing. I was for nothing. Because I was believed to be too strong. Too dangerous.
(Because I held a heritage that was not of this Earth's.)
I've never considered myself as one of those black aliens that the professor encountered. I will not deny that they are apart of me. That information will remain the same and it always will be so long as I live. What my creator did for the sake of science would be his mistake that he had died with–not mine. However, despite whose fault it is, it would still cause over fifty years of turmoil for me. The pain. The anguish. Those damned needles that dug into my skin so I could breathe life. These were the necessities that made me question the reason for my existence. To spite everything that made me, me. And for the beginning of my life, it was all I knew.
(It was all I was.)
❝SHADOW! LET'S PLAY MORE!❞
|| BUT THAT GIRL. Maria. If there was such a thing as a light to a person, she was it for mine. We were both trapped on that spaceship for different reasons. I was planned to be her cure. I was planned to be a cure for every other frail being just like her. And I can still remember how she treated me with such kindness. That bond we shared, the smiles and stories we would tell each other in the ARK...
I was not a lab rat in her eyes. I was... a friend. I am grateful to have learned what that meant thanks to her. And If there was anyone that deserved more the gift of immortality... it was her. If she could see someone like me with purpose, then she too could help save the world just as I could.
Hmph.
But of course, that would never be possible.
❝PLEASE PROMISE ME...❞
|| Guns. Violence. Death. That was what Earth had shown me. Though I knew nothing of this world, of what I was, other than being an "ultimate lifeform", the humans wanted to rid the "liabilities" they had with devising me. The professor had screwed up when he made a deal with Black Doom. He had the right intentions, sure, but they were still careless; blinding him from the damnation it'd bring. Unlike humans, there was no moral compass with the beings that co-operated in making me. All they wanted was destruction. They wanted anarchy, control, dominance over a lesser species. They had seen humanity insignificant just as I did. There was nothing that they fought for other than themselves.
❝SHOOT HIM!❞
|| On the day I escaped, when the humans decided they could have no more of me, Maria had died on the ARK. She was shot by her own people, leaving me simply left to watch as she was killed–this concept of humanity being the only thing I knew of on my way to Earth. This is what I learned man was. Diminutive and selfish creatures that would MURDER their own kind, so long as that's what it took to reach their goal. That image of Maria will be forever ingrained in my memory. She had saved my life in the exchange for her own. And I wanted to destroy every single narrow-minded fool that took her away from me.
Yes, this was how I truly came into this world.
(This was who I was.)
❝...MAKE A CHANGE IN THIS WORLD...❞
|| Months and months would go by, and the fear that people had of me would remain the same. If it wasn't for the professor's grandson, I may have been very well still stuck in the government's grasps–brooding my existence for an eternity. But even with lending my hand to this so-called Doctor Eggman, the motivation I had as my purpose never deterred. Maria wanted me to shape this world? So be it. I'd relieve them all from this realm so she rests peacefully knowing her promise was fulfilled. In fact, it was the destruction the doctor planned in which made me so eager to collect all seven chaos emeralds. For they would be the power to slaughter mankind, induce absolute mayhem and power the very cannon they formulated to protect themselves with.
❝THERE IS ALWAYS A REASON TO BE HAPPY.❞
|| But being in the dark for so long had made me naïve.
Just like my creator, I sought nothing but revenge for the wrongdoings of "bad humans". I was luckily able to meet other people, though; ones that were able to show me the course of what I and Maria actually promised. That blue hedgehog I met was annoying... and he still is. However, he and his friends led me out of the cage I put myself in after Maria's death. I was not made to kill off Earth. I was here to help it. And that was what she had always wanted for me, for this planet we spent ages wondering what was like...but I was too tunnel-visioned. So were many people after the Space ARK collapsed. The professor, the humans, even the aliens who returned fifty years afterward once they could again... I was taught to have hatred as a personality trait. Despite being raised by a girl who thought of nothing but love.
The first year of my true "life" on Earth, I had learned that the professor's scorn and resentment consumed him. He'd attempt to use the failed "life form" before me and slay the people who deemed to deserve its justice - as a parting message after he died. But I wouldn't decide to just stand there and let it do what I first thought I wanted, no. That wasn't Maria's wish. Nor was it mine any longer.
I sacrificed my life for the sake of mankind with the help of the doctor and that blue hedgehog.
I gave my life for the better of other people.
(Just like she did mine.)
❝SAYONARA, SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG.❞
|| I was dead to the world until the doctor, yet again, revived me from my ashes. I started to see his true aims after he made clones of my motionless body; choosing to discover my own path. I even met Black Doom himself, the very entity that helped create me once he was finally able to show himself when the Black Comet returned to Earth. I was swayed by his words, at first. He wanted to dominate and punish this planet, and I couldn't help but be curious about my roots. Because I couldn't remember anything after my blazoned "death".
The pieces eventually all came together in time, though. Maria would never be someone who I could just forget and I could never truly forget my real purpose of being here. I defeated and used that cannon the ARK had provided to blast Black Doom into oblivion. And I swore I wouldn't dwell on the past because I wanted to make my own future.
For I am Shadow the Hedgehog. The one true ultimate lifeform. And I made a promise to a friend that I would change this world. I won't let anybody else other than me decide my story.
❝THAT IS WHO I AM.❞ Even through
All the losses, All the betrayals,All the weakness I feel...When will it end?
When will things finally go right?
I don't know how or why
But I will try my best to be me and help those in need no matter what happens, I'm leaving the past behind me, it's time to look to the future.
———————————————
Shadow, the ultimate life form slowly awoke and realized that he was in Black Doom's arms. The dark hedgehog looked up at his biological father curiously and a bit confused.
Doom glanced down at the hedgehog in his arms before speaking, "If you're curious as to why I am currently carrying you, the answer is I found you out in space, you were completely knocked out. I thought I had killed you."