Shadow of a Doubt

Chit Chat

Silver texted the group that he found Maria as they walked back.

When they got to the house, the other four were waiting at the back door.

Upon seeing the two emerge from the trees, Blaze and Amy ran over. They crushed Maria in a big hug.

"Oh my gosh! Maria! Are you alright?" Amy asked.

"Yeah! You disappeared so fast!" Blaze chimed in.

"Sorry. I was just a little overwhelmed. I had to get away to clear my head."

"Does that mean you remember everything now?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Sooooo?" Blaze prompted as the girls released her.

"I don't really want to talk about it. I don't have any family left or anywhere to go, if that's what you're wondering." Maria rubbed her arm, looking at the ground.

The two other girls shared a look, then Blaze said, "Of course you do. You always have a home with us."

"Really?" Maria perked up.

"Of course! We don't want you to leave." Amy gave Maria another hug.

"Thank you. I love you guys."

"We love you too." Blaze smiled.

"Now if you all don't mind, I would really like to change into some proper clothes." Maria said pulling away from the hug.

"Oh! Right. We'll be out here."

"Back in a minute." Maria walked to the back door, passing Sonic and Shadow on her way in. She did her best to look indifferent as she made eye contact with them.

Once Maria was inside, the others grouped together to talk.

"So what's the deal, Silver? Who is she?" Sonic asked as they all turned on the white hedgehog.

"Maria the Hedgehog. I don't know too much more. Her whole family is dead and she has no home to go back to." he reiterated.

"We got that. Anything else we should know?" Shadow asked.

Silver gave him an odd look that none of the others quite understood. "No. She'll open up in her own time."

"As long as you know she isn't being deceptive at all." Sonic shrugged.

"No, she's telling the truth. I've seen enough to know that."

"That's good. So, she has no friends or anything? Not even a house somewhere?" Blaze asked.

"Nothing." Silver shook his head.

"That's horrible! Maria's so sweet; she doesn't deserve that." Amy said, taking Sonic's hand.

"At least she has us now." Blaze said.

The glass door slid open, and Maria popped her head outside. "If the guys are staying for lunch, I can make us some tomato soup and grilled cheeses." she called out to them.

"That would be wonderful, Maria. I'll come help you." Silver answered, and followed her inside.

~!~

After lunch, the six of them sat in the living room chatting. Amy was talking about work with Blaze chiming in. The two couples cuddled up on either couch, while Maria and Shadow sat in the matching chairs on either side of the room.

It was nearly two o'clock when a knock came at the door.

"Come in!" Amy called out.

Tails walked in, looking excited. "Hey guys! Maria! I finally got a match on your DNA!"

Silver and Maria shared a panicked look.

Without thinking, Silver vaulted the couch, tackling Tails to the floor. Putting one hand over the foxes mouth, he used the other to hold a finger to his lips, signalling shhhhh. Tails nodded.

"What the hell, Silver!?" Shadow stood up and walked over to the two on the ground.

Silver rolled off of Tails, saying, "Don't worry about it."

"Sorry, Tails. I remembered everything this morning, and I'm not ready to talk about details of my past at the moment." Maria apologized.

"So no one knows except you and Silver?" Tails verified.

"Yeah, for now."

"Okay, got it. Then, on an unrelated note, I made you up a tamper-proof cell phone." Tails said, taking Shadow's offered hand to stand up.

Shadow helped him back to his feet and Silver got up on his own. Once he was up, Shadow punched his shoulder.

"Ow!"

"Tamper-proof?" Maria asked.

"Yeah. I make it so Eggman can't meddle with them. I also put everyone's numbers in it, so you can text me and the others right off the bat." Tails pulled a light blue cell phone from his bag and handed it to her.

"Texting. Right." Maria said quietly to herself, taking it from him and putting it in her pocket. She would play around with it later, alone. No need to show off her unfamiliarity with current tech.

Tails joined the group for a while, and he told them of his newest experiments and inventions. Around three o'clock, things tapered off. On their way out, Maria pulled Tails and Silver aside. The three stepped away from the house and away from prying ears.

"Tails, is there anything I should know that you found using my DNA?" Maria asked.

"Okay, so, you're about 24 years old physically, right? But I found that your DNA was similar to Shadow's in some ways, so I'm thinking you might be immortal or ageless, like him." Tails started.

"That sounds about right."

"I'm assuming you remembered you are Maria Robotnik, but your DNA is only a 79% match to your human body, with the rest being hedgehog components."

"Right. Anything else?"

"Well, your body seems to be radiating chaos energy at a level higher than Shadow. Do you know why that would be?"

"Yeah. I'd tell you guys, but the less you know right know, the better."

"I'll take your word for it. Is there anything else you wanted to know?"

"Yeah. You're the techie one of the group, right?"

"Yep, why?"

"Do you know what happened to all the ARK's logs and surveillance footage? I'd like to take a quick look through them if they're still around."

"Oh! Yeah, I have copies of all that on a hard drive at my place. If you want, you can come by any time to take a look."

"Would tomorrow work for you?"

"Of course."

"You can come along too, Silver, if you're not doing anything." Maria turned to the white hedgehog.

"Sure." he replied.

"Then it's a plan."