"What was that?!" I say, whirling around whilst my eyes darted in every direction.

"Did something hit us?" Maria gasped fearfully.

"I'm not sure. Let me check..." Gerald said quickly as he yanked out a small computer screen from his pocket. Tapping it furiously, he searches for the source of the Clack!. He swipes his fingers across the screen several times, then gasps and blanches.

"What is it, Grandfather?" Maria asked, biting her lip in anticipation of his answer. Gerald whips his head up, and fixes us both with a steely, yet worried gaze.

"Shadow, you have a pair of air shoes that I made for you. Put them on. The both of you need to head for the launch bay immediately." He said, pointing at a pair of shoes next to my bed. With his other hand, he already dances his fingers on the screen.

"But why?" I ask, nervously pulling on the said white, red, and black shoes.

"Don't ask questions. When you get to the launch bay--" A spray of loud, rapidly paced sounds rings out above us, cutting off Gerald's sentence. Glancing his eyes upward, he speaks at twice his previous rate. "When you get the launch bay, program one of the escape pods to land on Earth."

"Earth?" I question, having never heard the word before. What could Earth be? Looking past Gerald, I see the planet through the window. "Oh! The planet is called Earth?"

"Yes." Gerald says curtly. "Now run, and whatever you do, don't let them catch you. You must escape." Another painfully loud rapid succession of noises sounds, this time closer. "You must go!" Gerald insists, and I see fear in his eyes. "Go! But, wait." With a sudden reach into his coat, Gerald pulls out a shiny metal object. Reaching forward, he stabs it into my ear. A rush of information floods me, just like when I was created. Before I can even say "Ouch!" or gather my senses, he is yelling at us again with renewed urgency. "Go! Go now! I'll try and stall them! Go!" I grab Maria's hand, and immediately start for the door. Something from the new ear device tells me to turn left, and so I drag Maria down the left corridor with all of the speed I can safely muster.

Stumbling behind me, Maria's gasping breath coupled with the pounding of our shoes on the floor help to drown out the sporadic Ratatat! sounds from above. As we sprint the length of the hallway, a door opens only 10 feet in front of us. Reacting only by instinct, I dodge the door as well as the men coming out of it.

"Wha--? Hey!" One of the two shouts. "Don't let those..." Seeing me, he gasps. "What in HELL is that thing?!"

"It must be one of Gerald's prototypes!" shouts the other. "Shoot it before it escapes!" Running while looking back, I blanch as they both raise their corresponding weapons. Aiming at me, one starts to pull his gun's trigger. Skidding to a halt, I turn about and send several Chaos Spears at the floor in front of them.

"Yikes!" One of them yells, and the other freezes in fear. Shaking himself, he lifts his wrist to his mouth and shouts to a band on it. Rounding a corner with Maria at my heels, I hear him voicing a warning about a dangerous monster heading down the fifth corridor on the third level. Swallowing hard, I run faster. Why do I get a bad feeling that these guys won't be very nice if they catch us? As the Ratatat! sounds again occur, I realize that they are gunshots. I guess that's why. Coming to a halt before the door marked "Launch Bay," I punch the access button. The door whooshes open, and I yank Maria inside behind me. Catching her footing, Maria hurries towards the pod with me in tow.

"Get in, Shadow. I'll program the destination." Pressing her palm against the control panel, she presses the "open" key. Pushing me inside the clear tube, she then withdraws. I can't help but notice her hand lingers on my shoulder... Drawing a breath, she hits the "Prepare for Launch" button. The door slides around and closes, and the chamber starts to pressurize.

"Maria?" I say, my eyes big. "Maria, why did you close the pod?! You have to get in too!" Opening her eyes, she sends me a sad smile.

"No, Shadow. I'm not going with you." She says gently, her smile tinging with tears.

"What?!" I exclaim. "Maria!!! What do you mean you're not coming?! You've got to come!" My voice breaking, I choke on my words. "You have to escape! You have to get out of here!"

"Shadow, if I leave with you to go to Earth, I'll be putting billions of people in danger." Maria explains, her eyes moist.

"No, you won't!" I urge, and my whole body starts shaking. "You're cured now! If you stay here, you'll be captured!"

"Shadow, I have to take my cure every twenty-four hours, and if I don't my NIDS will come back full force. You know that NIDS is extremely contagious, and...without my cure, you know that I'll..."

"No!" I plead, pressing myself against the clear material, trying with all of my might to reach through it. "You can't...I won't let...You can't stay here!"

"Shadow, if I go with you, I will not only...die, but I will be risking the lives of everyone on that planet." Settling her azure eyes on me, which are now filled with tears, she now possesses a strength behind them I had not previously seen. "I can't let myself do that. Besides..." She now turns her eyes towards the door. "Maybe they will let me continue taking my cure, and then I can go down to Earth and find you."

"Or maybe they won't, and you'll die up here!" I am trembling constantly, and I can barely see past the film of tears in my eyes. Desperately, I call upon the few arguments I have left. "I can't let that happen! I swore that I would save you! I—I promised you that I would cure you! That I wouldn't let anything happen to you! You were going to live a life in which you would never have to fear!"

"Shadow. I know you don't want me too, but...I have to stay." Maria bites her lip in a vain attempt to prevent her tears from spilling over. "All of those people down there deserve a chance to be happy. If I go with you, I will risk taking away that chance. I can't do that to them..." Her vivid blue eyes stare into my crimson, and she hiccups as she tries to stop crying. "You're the only one who has the power to help the people down there be happy! That's your true purpose. Not to cure me, or to be a weapon, but to be a protector, a guardian of Earth! Of the innocent people on that planet! Everything else is only a job you're expected to do, but this is purpose for which you can TRULY live for! Earth will not go away, or change, not if you protect it."

"But..." I beg, "I need you... You are my purpose, an innocent girl with a horrible fate that you don't deserve... I live for you."

"Then carry my wish to the planet with you. I wish for everyone to have a chance to be happy on that planet, no matter who they are. Promise me, Shadow, that you will try...because you are the only one who can succeed. Promise me this wish."

"I--" my heart breaks, and my fists clench, "I'll do it. I promise you. I will fulfill your wish."

"Thank you, Shadow." Maria says gratefully, walking over to a control panel. Tapping a few keys, she then grasps a large lever on the wall. "Now, let's--" Whoosh! The door rushes open, and several men run through. No! Not the men!

"Freeze!" one shouts. "Don't move!" Seeing me in the clear tubular pod, and then Maria grasping the lever, he gasps. "Step away from that lever, girl!" Maria tilts her chin upwards defiantly, and does not otherwise budge, the steel in her eyes matching that of Gerald's. Maria!!! No! Don't--!!!

"No." Maria states, and as she starts to pull down, the man pulls his gun and fires. Bang!

"MARIA!!!" I scream, and the man stumbles back into his comrades with surprise. "NO!!!" NO!!! She can't be—SHE CAN'T BE!!! NO!!! Maria is gasping and blood sheets down her side, but she still stands. Clenching her hands around the lever, she glances at me. "Promise." She mouths, and her eyes are huge with agony.

"Shadow..." She whispers, her breath leaving for the final time. As she collapses, her hands still tight on the lever, she yanks it home. NO!!! MARIA!!! The last I see of her is her hair, floating above her as she strikes the floor. The rest vanishes in an instant as I am rocketed out into space towards the planet.

This is not the end! Shadow: Awakening has at least one more chapter coming. Explanations: The ear piece that Gerald stabbed into Shadow's ear is an information communication device. Such is how he later makes Shadow a little...wacky (it's still there). Shadow clenches his toe claw to turn on his shoe jets due to a sheath his claw fits into that connects to the jets, but his foot can stay relaxed because his talons are independent to his feet.

Okay, I don't know about you, but I'm sobbing. Literally, as I write this, I am crying my eyes out. Maria has been shot, and she has died, dedicating her last breath to the friend who gave her hope so that he may give people on Earth happiness. Sacrificing her own life because Shadow's means more to her. Because other people's happiness, not her own, is her wish. In case you didn't read the title, or in case you don't get it, Maria is the True Guardian of Earth in this chapter. Do I have to explain why? I think we can all understand why. For anyone who has ever watched their best friend, animal or human, die in front of them, this goes out to you. For anyone who has ever lost anyone, I hope I did a good job with this. I watched my dog Tuxedo die in front of me after weeks of deterioration, and I kid you not when I tell you it was one of my teacher's comments (I got the comment two days after, but it was sent on the fateful day) on how much she cared about what happened to the characters in this story that gave me the courage to continue (with my story, because reality hit me in the face pretty darn hard). I hope this chapter is representative of the agony of losing someone you love, so that people can identify with Shadow in it. Thanks, Mrs. Brinkley.