Puzzle Pieces (Shadow The Hedgehog Love Story)

Chapter Three

    I woke to bright lights fastened in the ceiling. “You’re awake.” I heard Shadow say softly. I slowly sat up and looked at myself. The blood that was once on me was gone, and my clothes were changed.
    “Mph…” I curled up still feeling tired. Moments later I yawned softly.
    “Are you alright. What did they do to you.” He asked softly.
    “The leader said to beat me or do something worse until I spoke. One of the men thought it would be awesome to try and rape me ssoooo I killed them all.” I smiled to myself. He growled and got up. With his fists clenched he began walking away; with my ears lowered I mumbled, “Sorry… I shouldn’t have told you.” He grunted, clearly unhappy. I got up and went over to him, grabbing his arm gently to keep him from walking any farther.
    “Don’t touch me.” His voice was dark and cold, completely uncaring and spiteful. I slowly let him go and looked at his face; I was unable to think of anything to say and had no true knowledge of what to do. “I thought you were hurt, I thought something bad did happen to you…” He shook his head before speaking once more, “You absolutely disgust me. Stay away from me. I never want to see you again.”
    “Shadow I- ungh…!” I felt a sharp pain split through my head; consequently I gripped it tightly becoming unfocused of my surroundings, and of where or what I was doing. I found myself lost, floating around images, words coming at me from all angles suddenly; I was unable to make any sense of it all.
    Images of humans, Shadow and the others, along with other unknowns filled my mind. Memories…? Was all I could conduct with the chaos streaming behind my eyes. I attempted to understand, I pushed myself to comprehend what all of it meant, but I was unable to take it all in.
    After some amount of time, I came back to reality, the hectic mind games ceasing. “Hey. Cathy can you hear me?” One of the doctors that was quite familiar with me was crouched down beside me.
    I looked at him and slowly nodded. I glimpsed around and realized I was still in the same room as before. Abraham was watching the incident. “What’s going on…” I spoke softly.
    “We are wondering the same thing.” The doctor spoke, then glimpsed back over his shoulder at Abraham before returning his gaze to me.
    “Did you remember something?” Abraham asked without emotion, or tone in his voice.
    I shrugged and looked around a little bit. I realized I was curled up against a corner in the wall. I slowly pulled myself up off the ground; walking to the door I muttered, “I’m going out for some air…”
    I Chaos Controlled on to the roof of the G.U.N base and slipped into another ball. Keeping my knees tucked in, I began thinking of the images and words that had invaded my mind. So I was on… Earth? Was it… And I loved Shadow The Hedgehog… Come to think of it, those emotions for him have arisen from deep within me… So I suppose I still love him. But he hates me… I felt tears threaten to show themselves. What’s wrong with me…? I should stop thinking about that for now. Earth, I was born human so how did I end up here, how did I end up a hedgehog? Why? How can this make any sense? What about that weird place in space… ARK? I think that’s the word that was associated with it. I was a hedgehog on there too. I remember scientists and I remember this blond girl… and I think Shadow was there too. Everything is so fuzzy… I groaned softly. Should I speak of this…? No not yet. I should find out more first. Perhaps I could pull out Shadow’s file and see if I can draw any conclusions from it… I can’t believe I was so stupid to make him hate me… I felt something hot running down my face. I gently touched my finger to it and looked at it. Water… I’m crying…
    “I thought I told you to not show yourself around me.” I heard a dark voice say.
    Shadow… I clenched my fists feeling the tears getting heavier. I shook my head and burrowed it into my knees, hoping for cover from my quills. “I didn’t know you were up here…” I muttered, trying to keep my voice under control.
    “Humph…” He grunted. I hugged my body closer, I felt vulnerable, I also hoped he wouldn’t hurt me. After a moment of silence he questioned, “Why are you crying?”
    I moved uncomfortably, “Who said I was crying?”
    “Why can’t you just answer the damn question.” He growled.
    I just shook my head a little, beginning to feel tired again. “I don’t wanna talk about it… I don’t fully understand it.”
    “Are you feeling guilty?” Snide was evident in his voice.
    “No… This is something entirely different…” I spoke softly, really not wanting to speak anymore. “If you hate me why are you talking to me now?” I muttered a little trying to change the subject, or perhaps even to shoo him away.
    “The boss insists we still work together, and he insists that we take care of one another.” He sighed.
    “And I suppose he is going to give you something good for it?” I muttered.
    “Humph… Either way, we are essentially “resetting” whatever this is back to how it originally was. Two strangers who neither like nor hate one another.” I felt his glance dig into my very being. We sat there in silence for a bit until he sighed. “I’m… Shadow The Hedgehog, the Ultimate Life Form… Who are you…?” He tried to force it out with normal tones, but I could tell he hated this.
    “… You can call me Cathy…” I muttered, feeling ridiculous as a faint uncomfortable smile formed. We sat there in silence, neither of us knowing what to say, or do. I slowly began to think of the memories that flashed through my head. “Hey… Shadow… What’s ARK…”
    He gave me a stern look, “How do you know about ARK?” He growled lowly.
    “When you were with me earlier, I sorta… lost awareness? I guess.” I did not know how to explain what happened when I was not watching myself. He nodded swiftly. “Well… Um, don’t tell Abraham this, or anyone else for that matter, but I think I began to remember things… I haven’t been able to remember anything since I woke on this planet, and, well… I remember weird things, and I don’t know how to make sense of it, or what’s going on, but there was something about ARK, I know you where there since I remember you being involved with it, I just… I don’t know…” I looked away feeling stupid, childish.
    “Humph.” He folded his arms. I slowly laid down and sighed, covering my eyes to try and hide any signs that I was previously crying. I realized at this time that it was dusk.   
    “That symbol…” He muttered sternly.
    “Hm…?” I sat up and looked at my body. To the right of my left hip bone a tattoo was boldly coloured with crimson red and shaded with black. “Oh that… What about it? It’s been there since I got here…” I winced and gripped my head seeing flashes of memory involving the tattoo. It was then that I realized it was Shadow’s symbol, or rather the Black Arms symbol. I only got it to represent Shadow though.
    “What are you remembering?” His voice snapped me back to reality.
    “Huh…? Oh… I…” I felt my face burn, realizing I was blushing.
    “Are you blushing? Or are you ill?” He felt my forehead.
    “I’m not ill or blushing.” I pulled away before speaking once more, “I got the tattoo knowing well of what it was. I rather not talk about it.”
    “Humph.” He grunted and looked at where the sun had set. Silence ensued the both of us, however the surrounding area had some noise. Some metal clanking sounds, a few whispers of soldiers, and some day birds chirping away before they settle in for the night. I just simply laid back once more, my hands behind my head and watched the sky, waiting for the stars to begin to show.
    I noticed Shadow glimpse at me from the corner of my eye before he looked up to see what I was looking at. “I like the stars… They’re amazing… I want to see as many as possible one day, and I want to see what planets look like from space. I also want to explore space as well as other planets too I suppose… I doubt that will happen though.”
    He remained silent for a little bit, “So you want to see lots of stars and planets huh…?” He muttered quietly.
    “Yeah…” I sighed out softly.
    He sat up and looked to the roof of the G.U.N. base we were sitting on; he appeared to be thinking. “You said you remembered something about ARK correct?”
    “Yes… Why?” I sat up some, curious as to what was going through his head.
    “Well… You can see Earth from there as well as lots of stars… As long as you don’t wander away from me, I’ll take you there, but only this one time…” He seemed unsure of this idea.
    “Okay. I won’t wander away. I’d probably get lost without you anyways.” I looked at his face, trying to gather more information from his body language.
    He grabbed onto my arm then said, “Chaos Control!”
    I looked around and realized we were somewhere far from G.U.N. We were on ARK, and there was a large window with the view of Earth right in front of us. “Oh wow…” I muttered seeing Earth glow, “It’s so pretty…” I walked towards the window to get a bigger better view. I soon looked around to view any stars or other planets, or even the moon from this view. “This is incredible!” My tail wagged happily, “Are there more views like this on here?” I questioned, then looked at Shadow. He stood next to me looking out the window seemingly melancholy.
    “Yeah, but this one is the biggest, and the most incredible.” He faced away from me so I couldn’t see his face, but he continued to look out the window.
    “Are you okay…?” I asked gently, I then suddenly felt another sharp pain in my head. I gripped it grunting a little bit. Memories of this place infested my mind. For a moment I broke away from it all, feeling myself drop to the floor, but the memories quickly grasped me once more. The scientists, Professor Gerald Robotnik, Maria, Shadow, and G.U.N., all of it was returning.