Author's Note: This chapter picks up shortly after Shadow first crash lands on Earth, right after Maria was killed on the Space Colony ARK. Shadow is still discovering his powers, the only of which he knows being Chaos Spear, Chaos Fire, and spindashing. The 50-years-ago Commander of G.U.N. is Jonathan Nefario, a fancharacter of mine. The chapter POV can be seen in the chapter's title, this one being Shadow's.

I open my eyes.

Ugh...What...? Shaking my head in a vain attempt to clear my mind, I sit up, sunlight streaming through the clear tube I'm in. 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 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!!! It's not fair! None of this is fair!

She was a girl who never did anything wrong to anyone, but she still died. She suffered her entire life from a disease she didn't deserve! Then someone comes along and shoots her for trying to help me! And I couldn't stop them, not with my powers, not with anything! My chest is tighter than should be possible, and I can't stop the racking sobs that tear through me as I huddle in the corner of the pod. And now... She's gone, and Gerald's probably gone, too. All Maria wanted, all Gerald wanted, all I wanted was to live in peace and to use me as a cure for her, but people attacked anyways! What fairness exists in this world that allows something like that to happen to people so undeserving of their demise? Nothing this awful should be allowed to happen! How is this allowed to happen?! Why can't the world be fair?! Letting conscious thoughts slip away from me, all I can hear in my head is Maria's voice as she told me her wish. All my ears can hear are my gasping breaths, and my occasional sobs. My face is soaked with my tears, and my fur is wet with the ones that have fallen.

!Whoosh! I start back to awareness as my brain is yanked from its numb state.

!Shffshhh! I whip my head around, looking for the source of the sounds.

!!Clank!! !!ClankClankClank!! Something metal--clamps perhaps?--is 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 as I smack into the other side of the pod. Glancing downwards through the tube, I see through blurry eyes the ridge of granite stone, 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. The letters G.U.N. arch over a large seal, and I somehow know what the letters stand for. "The Guardian Units of Nations"? My heart pounds 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! The knowledge of who now holds me in their grasp is enough to send me into another fit of crying, but I try to clear my eyes as the pod is dropped onto the metal floor. "Gah!" I let out another yelp as I lose my balance and tumble forwards.

"Alright," says one of the people standing around the pod, "we have one job to accomplish. Neutralize Codename Project: Shadow. Since that capsule is made of crash-resistant material, this will not be an easy task to accomplish without releasing the creature. Our best bet is to drill a miniature hole into the chamber and pump in a neuro-toxin. Doing such will put Codename Project: Shadow out of commission permanently." Wait, what?! Is she saying that they're going to kill me? My limbs shake in fear as several humans dressed in strange clothes with helmets drag over a large machine. Pressing my ears flat against my skull, I growl as they approach in a meek attempt to scare them off. None of them stop, and I gulp as they bend over the tube. How do I get out of here?! My thoughts are frantic as I run the possibilities through my brain.

!Whirrrrr! A rapidly spinning metal object is making its way slowly through the clear material. My eyes widen as I realize I only have moments to escape. Pulling back my fist, I aim for the metal rod, hoping to break apart the pod.

!Wham! I hit the spot, but nothing happens. Voices fall on my ears, but I don't register them in my panic. I aim again, and throw my entire body's force with the punch, bracing my legs against the material beneath me.

!!Crack!! The pod cracks, and I jump into the weak spot with all the strength I can muster.

!!!CRASH!!! The entire side of the escape pod shatters as I spindash into it, and I use my momentum to carry me away from the pod. Uncurling in midair, I can see the faces of people below me. Everyone is looking at me with a mix of terror and anger, and I blink the last of my tears from my eyes as I land crouching on the floor.

"Wait!" I cry out as nearly everyone draws a gun, but no one halts in their movement. I duck in a useless effort to protect myself, and the bullets hit me. My breath comes in short gasps as I search for the pain of my wounds. All I feel is the dull force of the impact, and I wonder when my body will register the bullet holes. Cracking open one eye, I glance down at my body with apprehension, fully expecting to see my small frame torn apart. I'm... I'm not wounded?! My eyes are wide with shock as I see no damage to my form. The humans in front of me are yelling now, and many are backing up as they see I'm still standing. How is this...? Am I bulletproof? The word sounds in my mind, and memories from Maria's death nearly cause me to collapse. Why is the world so cruel?! If I had just gotten in front of her, I could have--?!

A door opens to my rear, and I start to turn, but before I move more than a few inches...

!!Pyshew!! The pain explodes from between my back spines as I collapse and immediately destroys all thoughts, save for one.

"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" I scream in agony, in pure, mindless agony. "GAHHH!!!" My back feels like it's being ripped apart, like it's on fire with the hottest flames. My brain is muddled, numbed with the pain. No thoughts have meaning compared to it.

I hear the newcomer ask something, but I can't make sense of the words. Someone else responds, and this continues for who knows how long. Every second is a year with the agony racking my body. With a gasp, I wrench my mind from the abyss of unconsciousness yawning beneath me only to make sense of my blurry vision and see a tall, sharp-eyed man sneering down at me. In his hand rests a strange gun, and he snarls at me.

"Ah. So that shot didn't finish the job. Well, I'm sure this one will be more than sufficient." Stepping towards my writhing form, he raises his weapon in aim. Staring up in dread, somewhere in my core I know that this is the end. "It is quite a pity I am obliged to end this monster's misery; it would have been so satisfying to make it suffer for all of its crimes. But a quick, clean erasing of Project: Shadow is expected of me, and I will fulfill my duties. It really is such a pity; this weapon showed so much promise... If only Gerald had kept his nose in his own work and not looked for help. Then those billions in funding wouldn't have been put to waste." A smirk breaks out on his face as my tear filled eyes widen even more; as I slowly process what he said through the pain. "How grateful you should be, weapon, that your death gets to be exciting. Neuro-toxin is hardly a fitting end for something that's caused so much trouble. You have brought more than a share of trouble to the table, and now..." The strange man trails off, and I shake as blood loss starts to render me unconscious. I notice with some detachment that his uniform marks him as a Commander, one of the highest possible rankings.

"Now I get to clean up your mess." A twisted, insane smile rests on his face, and I flinch as he laughs. "Haha! Goodbye and good riddance, Project: Shadow." The last thing I have time to wonder is why he emphasized my name. His finger twitches on the trigger, and everything goes dark.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.........Ugh......Wha--......What happened? I open my eyes and see that I am in a chamber. Starting, I see there are people outside tapping on large machines. They wear the same lab coats as the scientists I originally awoke to. I'm... I'm still alive? Groaning, I drag myself up. A person is next to me, affixing a complicated-looking piece of technology to the tube. When he sees that I have awoken, he jumps and I see a sliver of wire fall onto the floor. The man does not notice, but tightens a few screws and quickly moves away.

"Okay, activate the system. Time to put Gerald's freak into suspended animation." Orders one of the humans. Wait...what? NO!!! I survived all of that, and now I'm going to be suspended in stasis?! For how long?! A strange liquid pours down on me, and my legs and feet immediately start to go numb. No! As my body fades from grasp, I have only one thought. Maria... Then all consciousness disappears and I feel a strange...tearing. My mind, stretching far behind my body. At first not paining, but then eventually agonizing. Forever...agonizing... For all eternity... I know somewhere in my detached mind that if I could, I would be crying from the pain. I can also somehow tell that I'm not quite dead, but not quite alive. This horrible state, in which I have no thoughts, only the barest of ideas, lasts an indeterminable amount of time, but it feels like eons have passed already and that eons are left to go. The notion of despair would be welcome to me, as opposed to this awful emptiness.

Then...the pain slowly fades... My body is fuzzy and gray in my mind, and slowly coming back to me... I hear someone outside, but I have no idea who... Maria...

I open my eyes.