Shadow: Awakening

Shadow: Maria's Wish?

I open my eyes.

Ugh...What...? Shaking my head in a vain attempt to clear my mind, I sit up while sunlight streams through the clear tube. Clear tube... No, escape pod... But why...?

"*Gasp!*" I snap to full awareness as my memories return in droves. No... No... No... She can't really be gone... No! She just CAN'T be dead! My breath crackles through my parched throat; I start to hyperventilate. Biting my lip as hard as I can, I try to focus on a pain I can deal with. Unfortunately, it doesn't work.

Stars... Maria... Maria... Why? Why did you have to be so selfless? Why didn't you let me protect you? Why? My eyes flash open; I hadn't even realized they were closed. Why, Maria?! WHY?! Clenching my drowsy muscles, I shake as I review my memories of her martyrdom. Watching them through a screen of reality, I feel like something is...different. As I remember our mad dash through the ARK, I observe my mistakes and feel awful. If only I had run faster... If only I had destroyed those men when I had the chance... If only I had convinced Maria to come with me!!! I remember clearly the race to the Launch Bay, but everything beyond Maria locking me into the escape pod is blurry and unsure. What did she tell me? My self-guilt soars through the atmosphere as I realize that I can't remember what Maria's wish was. How COULD I let myself FORGET her DYING WISH?!?! I'm the biggest failure in history! ARGH!!! My frustration is higher than I knew it could be, but I can't recall her words. It's like something is blocking my memories... Shaking myself, I decide that there is only one thing to do. Maria was killed by those men... l think she wanted me to make them suffer for killing her. I know she mouthed something to me... Was it "Avenge."? As I consider the possibility, I can feel fires blazing in my hearts. My entire chest soon burns, and then my body follows after.

That must have been it. What else could she have wanted? She was a girl who never did anything wrong to anyone, and she was torn from this planet...Earth...at birth so that other people would be kept "safe." No one gave any thought as to what they were condemning a child to. They could have let her live in an area where no one else lived. Somewhere where she could have a semi-normal life without harming anyone. There must have been something they could do about her NIDS...It wasn't her fault that she had a disease! But they punished her for something she couldn't control anyways. They came to the ARK...Why? It must have been to kill her. To capture me, her only hope. She was cured! She could have lived a normal life and gone back down to Earth, but THEY just COULDN'T LET HER!!! So they got RID of her, and tried to do the same to me! I'll bet they killed Gerald, too! Snarling into the empty color that is my eyelids, I find my purpose. They'll PAY for what they did to her! I'll hunt down her killer MYSELF and make her murderer SUFFER the SAME as SHE DID! No, WORSE!

Whoosh! I start back to awareness. Shffshhh! I whip my head around, looking for the source of the sounds. Clank! ClankClankClank! Something metal...clamps perhaps...was gripping the pod between several mechanical digits. What the hec--?!

"What the?!?!" I yelp as the pod is ripped from the rocks in which it crashed. Thrown forward, I twist and let my back and head spines take the brunt of the impact. Glancing downwards through the tube, I see the ridge of granite stone at which I had slammed into only a short time before. The impact was so great, it had knocked me unconscious. Looking upwards through the clear material, I see an enormous ship. A circular logo is blazed on the bottom of it. My stomach twists itself into knots as I read it. G.U.N. arches over a large seal, and fine print lies straight on the lower edge. "Guardian Units of Nations" is what it reads. My vision turns red as I see a hatch open on the ship, and I roll onto my stomach and raise to my hands and knees as the pod is placed inside.

"*Gasp!*" The world freezes around me as I see the soldiers inside. Those uniforms... These are the same people who killed Maria! That same logo was on her murderer's jacket! Rocking onto the balls of my feet, I brace myself as the pod strikes the floor.