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2024-11-30
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2025-01-16
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3/?
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Just Like You

Summary:

Over half a century after the GUN Raid, Maria wakes up on the Ark, looking exactly the same age as when she had died and no longer sick. Unfortunately, that's not the only thing that has changed about her.

AKA my Black Arms Maria AU

Notes:

Only for this chapter, unreliable narrator. She's not lying exactly, but she is omitting a lot about what she's going through :)

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Dying had been just as horrifyingly painful as Maria had always envisioned it, but at least it had been fast. No slowly feeling her life slip away in a bed, no suffering until someone decided to stick a needle in her and just let her go: she had simply gone from worrying about making sure Shadow would escape to laying on the floor as warm blood pooled under her, and then she had been dead.

Being dead, on the other hand, had been extremely peaceful. Mostly because it hadn’t been… anything, really. From her point of view there had been alarms blaring as they ran through corridors bathed in red light, Shadow screaming through the thick glass of the escape pod as she drew her last breath, and then just nothing. Not even darkness, no, just unawareness, like she had been deeply asleep.

And then she woke up some amount of time later, still laying on the cold floor in what she could only assume was a huge dark puddle of coagulated blood. There were no alarms blaring anymore, but the emergency lights were on, giving the whole base a reddish tint. She groaned weakly while pulling herself back onto her feet. Everything was hazy, like in a dream, or a nightmare.

She walked out of the room and into empty corridors. It was eerily quiet, in a way that felt less like a storm had passed by and was finally over and more like an abandoned house or a cemetery. It felt dead.

It was at some point during her aimless walk through the Ark that she realized that… she didn’t feel tired, and she wasn’t struggling to move or breathe. For the first time for as long as she could remember, the bone-deep exhaustion she was so familiar with had left her. There was still something that seemed to tingle uncomfortably right under her skin, all along her body, but it was a far cry from the usually debilitating symptoms of her illness.

She let herself smile tentatively for a moment, jumping up and down twice and then running down the corridor until she reached a crossroad. They had done it! Her grandpa had fixed her! She looked around herself, anxious to share the news with someone, and suddenly realized how alone she was.

Oh… the GUN raid. Memories came rushing back, overlapping one another as panic rose inside her chest. A sharp pain ran through her body, seemingly reacting to her emotional state and forcing her to fall down on her knees, fingers dragging on the floor.

“Shadow! Grandpa! Anyone!” She screamed, even though she knew they weren’t there. She was alone. She was alone in a forgotten base in space, far away from anything living. Tears blurred her vision, and an unknown, thick, inky black heaviness overtook her.

 

—

 

Maria had done more than her fair share of fainting in her short life, so the feeling of dizziness and disorientation wasn't new to her. Yet it was the first time she'd fainted and woken up in the same exact place, and on the floor no less.

She shouldn't be surprised, though. She was alone. Nobody could've seen her fall, let alone pick her up and bring her to bed. She got up with a grunt and immediately found herself getting nauseous. Right, she hadn't eaten in… in… who knows how long. Suffice to say, she felt like she was starving.

Her trip to one of the kitchens aboard the Ark only revealed that she had been unconscious much longer than she'd expected, before waking up in the escape pod room: saying that all the food was spoiled would've been the understatement of the century. It didn't even look like food anymore.

At least the greenhouses still worked. The automated processes of the base had kept going like his grandfather had instructed, tirelessly keeping it habitable for its lone occupant. The plants were overgrown, but it was easy enough to find some fruit and devour them as fast as she could chew them. Only then did she sit down on the greenhouse, stomach settling now that it was no longer empty.

That's when she noticed her dress, so utterly drenched in dried, dark blood that it would've been impossible to tell that it used to be light blue. There were huge rips on it, just at chest height. Gunshots echoed in her head as she remembered her life fading away to the sound of muffled, desperate screams and blaring alarms.

The energy pushing and pulling through her body spiked as she trembled in fear and pain, feeling the black heavy feeling from before weigh on her. No, no, she couldn't faint again. She had too many questions, too much work to do. No one else was here to help.

Maria drew her knees to her chest and lowered her head, blonde hair covering her face like a curtain. She took a deep breath. Then another. She didn't feel like she belonged in her own body, but crying about it wouldn't help anything.

She stood up, the uncomfortable, painful feeling still snaking under her skin, and kept going. She was going to take a shower, get changed, and then she would figure out how long it had been and how to get off this damned space station. And then… she would find her brother and her family.

And that was final. Maria was a Robotnik, after all. And Robotniks never give up on their plans.

 

—

 

So. Good news and bad news.

The good news was that as the days passed, she grew more and more confident that her NIDS had been, if not eradicated, then at least greatly lessened. She was no longer dying.

The bad news about that, is that she kept getting this horrible, oppressive sensation bubbling under her skin and spreading through her body. Once she'd looked into a reflective surface as it was happening and… and… well, it must've been a very vivid hallucination. Pain could cause those, couldn't it? She hoped they would know how to fix this on Earth. But hey, at least it was only sometimes instead of all day every day.

There was more bad news though. According to the space station's central computer, it had been over half a century since the GUN raid. Which should be impossible. She looked just as young as she had been on that day. More importantly, would that mean that her grandpa was dead? What about her parents?!

She had gotten no more work done after that discovery. The inky heaviness had taken over for the rest of the day, and she'd let it.

The last one of the bad news was that the communication system of the Ark had been completely fried and all the escape pods had either been used or were very broken; so she couldn't send a distress call to ask someone to come and get her, nor could she get down on her own.

But at least this gave her a clear goal. Something to fix, to focus on so that she could ignore everything else that was wrong. She could work with this.

From then on she spent her time reading every book she could find on transmissions and computers, working on the communication system, and sometimes, when she would get particularly frustrated with her central goal, working on other broken parts of the Ark to improve her current lonely life.

 

—

 

Wake up.

Study.

Fix.

Eat.

Work.

Sleep.

Weeks passed by, the monotony of her routine interrupted only by the cyclical return of the painful, smothering feeling. The loneliness hurt more than anything else, though. She felt like crying all the time. Even if she did send a message to earth… Would anyone listen?

Wake up.

Study.

Fix…

Pain. Ink black darkness.

Sleep.

Then finally, almost unexpectedly… the communication system blinked to life.

Chapter 2

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Tails had woken up very early that day. Not for any life-ending, world-shattering reason, but simply because he’d been working on a new project, and he was excited to get back to it. If he played his cards right, he could work for two or three hours before Sonic woke up and realized he wasn't in bed.

He just couldn't help it, though! He had had this idea for an implosion device that could destroy a badnik without breaking anything or injuring anyone around it, and he was really close to figuring it out. He sneaked into his workshop with a yawn, still partially asleep but very excited, and turned on the lights.

Then his eyes were drawn to his computer setup, alerting him of an oncoming distress signal. It was coming from the Ark of all places, and it was accompanied by no audio or video, just one line of text:

“Trapped on board. Please come get me.”

Tails stared at the message for a long moment, confused by its existence. Not only had nobody lived on the Ark for more than half a century, but he also knew that Shadow had been there not too long ago, investigating something right before Sonic's birthday party… and everything that had happened during it.

Shadow hadn't been very talkative about what he'd found on board (but then, when was he ever?), but Tails was pretty sure he would've mentioned it if someone was living on the Ark.

Better call him. If Tails had picked up this transmission, GUN must've done so too. And if this turned out to be important, he'd rather tell him about this before they did.

 

—

 

Logically, Maria understood that getting a spacecraft ready to go and sending it up to a space station must take time, so she had no reason to despair just yet. Emotionally, on the other hand, every minute that passed made her more and more nervous. Shouldn't someone have at least replied to her message by now? She wasn't even sure anyone had received it.

She spent the first few hours after sending the distress signal sitting right next to the computer, anxiously waiting and checking for any sign of life. Then she got too frustrated to keep staring at the screen, so she decided to wander to her bedroom and pack what she wanted to bring back with her on Earth. Clothes, obviously, a couple of photo albums, and her notebooks. Then the excitement of getting the communication system finally fixed and the stress of waiting for a reply suddenly caught up with her, and she fell asleep.

She woke up some time later, panicked about having missed something, and she rushed to the central control room as fast as her thin legs could carry her… but nothing had changed. Her distress signal was still being broadcasted on repeat, and no one was answering.

The thoughts that she'd been trying to ignore to keep going came back with a vengeance, hitting her harder than ever. Was nobody coming? Had the world moved on without her? Maybe this had all been for nothing, and she was destined to stay trapped on the Ark, always seeing the Earth from the observatory but never able to step foot on it again.

The loneliness was crushing her. She missed Shadow, and grandpa Gerald, and her parents she hadn't been able to see in so long, and even the researchers and scientists that used to walk through these corridors.

Maria let out a sob and crumpled down on the floor. She wanted to tuck herself into a corner and disappear. This time, when the painful heavy feeling started overtaking her, she was too tired to even deny what had been happening to her again and again since she'd woken up. Her body kept… changing shape. She stared helplessly as her limbs twisted into inky black formless tentacles and her body became foreign and hard to control.

She had stopped fighting it when it happened. It just made it hurt more, and she never managed to stop it anyway. Maybe if it took over, the despair and disappointment would hurt a little bit less.

…Then she heard steps echoing down the hall, followed closely by voices. Someone had listened to her and they were coming to help her! But she couldn't let them see her like this. Not when she looked like this creepy, unsettling creature!

The steps were coming closer. Unable to walk, Maria crawled backwards until her tentacles latched onto the metal wall behind her. She hoped that maybe she could flatten herself in a corner to hide, and then when she was left alone she could try to turn back into herself before talking to them. She could do this, she just had to be quiet.

 

The door opened, and a very familiar shape entered the room, walking along the narrow suspended bridge, only illuminated by the blue-purple lights from below the walkway and the glow of the computer screens. For a moment she almost wondered if she was seeing things, if her desperation was making her believe that her little brother was there, but it was real!

Before she could even decide what to do or say, Shadow's eyes scanned the room and rapidly landed on her.

“Why are you still here? Black Doom is dead.” He spoke in a low, harsh tone.

Maria had no idea what he was talking about, but it was clear he hadn't recognized her, and she couldn't really blame him for it. It didn't help that she had never tried to speak while in this form, so when she tried, a weird garbled noise was all she managed to produce.

“Who sent the distress signal? Was that you?” Shadow spoke again, voice sharp as yellow-green energy sparked from his outstretched hand. He was so… different. He hadn't aged a day, obviously, but the way he carried himself, the way he walked and spoke, it made him seem so stiff. So angry.

She wanted nothing more than to shout that it was her, to look like herself again so that she could hug her brother as hard as she could. But it was like she was frozen solid to the wall, and she couldn't stop any of what was happening. She could only shake with fear and unshed tears, curling up her oddly-shaped body even tighter around itself.

And then… the threatening energy around Shadow fizzled out. He leaned his head to the side, hand dropping back to his side, and then disappeared in a flash of light. He reappeared almost immediately next to her in mid air, grabbed her, and then there was light again, enveloping everything and blinding her. For a moment she had a weird sensation of weightlessness and vertigo, and then she was back on the ground, right next to Shadow. He let go of her and took a step backwards.

“Black Arms don't shake. They don't hide, even from me.” He spoke coldly, hands balled up into fists. “So… what are you?”

Begging her misshapen body to cooperate, Maria extended two tentacles to cup the sides of the hedgehog's face like she used to, desperately hoping he'd understand. Shadow almost recoiled, but then he slowly brought a gloved hand up to one of her formless appendages and stared into her currently shiny, solid-colored eyes. For a moment, it was as if time was standing perfectly still.

“Maria?” He finally whispered, voice so low and unsteady it was barely audible.

Everything faded to black once more.

 

—

 

Shadow was so overwhelmed, he didn't know what to feel first. He'd gone from anger at the possibility of the Black Arms still being a problem, to utter confusion, to a whirlwind of emotions he couldn't even begin to identify. After Maria had fainted, her body had started to unconsciously morph back – slowly, painfully – into the young girl he remembered. Even in her sleep she kept gritting her teeth and grunting in discomfort as she got back to her true appearance. It would've been gruesome to witness for anyone else, but Shadow had been on the other side of it.

His only concern was Maria, still hurting but alive right in front of him, cradled in his arms. He had so many questions, but they could all wait. Nothing was as important as keeping her safe next to him.

“We'll be fine. I'll take care of you.” He mumbled, carrying her out of the room. Even though she was taller than him, he had no trouble carrying her. Outside, Rouge seemed to be back from her sweep of the Ark.

“Nothing on the east side, Sh–” She blinked as she got closer. “Is that…?”

“Yes. I don't know how yet, but she is.” He squeezed Maria a little tighter in his arms, almost afraid she was going to suddenly disappear. Again.

He shook his head, trying to clear his head. He wasn't in the White Void anymore and she wasn't here because of a time anomaly. This time he would make sure they could stay together.

“Call Omega, tell him to head back to the spaceship.” Shadow said, clearing his voice to keep it steady. “We're leaving.”

“Right. What are we going to tell GUN?”

“Black Arms trap? I'm sure you can invent something. Just… just don't mention her.”

“We’ll keep her safe, don't worry. Anything else?”

“No… wait, yes. Could you go to her room and maybe pick up some clothes for her? I'll give you the coordinates.”

“Of course, dear. Leave everything to me.”

Rouge put a hand on his shoulder, and even though he would never admit it out loud, it helped him settle just a little. He trusted his team. They were going to bring her home, and GUN wouldn't be able to do a damn thing about it.

Notes:

Hope you liked this chapter as well!

Chapter 3

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Sometimes during her long time alone aboard the Ark, Maria dreamt of being rescued. She dreamt of someone bringing her aboard their spaceship, telling her that everything was going to be fine, they were going to reach Earth soon, and then she would go live with her family again. And when she had dreams like that, she would always try to stay asleep as long as possible,trying not to shatter the illusion that she was just resting while she waited to land on Earth.

So when she started to hear voices around her as she returned back to drowsy consciousness, her first instinct was to keep her eyes shut tight, to keep believing she'd been rescued for just a little longer.

Without the use of her eyes, her other senses picked up on what was happening around her. Whatever place she was in, it had a subtle rumble to it, so it must be a vehicle of some sort. She also knew that she was laying down, and her head was on someone's lap. Shadow’s lap. She didn't need sight to recognize him.

One of his hands was moving up and down her shoulder with slow, soothing motions, and he was speaking in a soft voice to someone else, probably to avoid waking her up.

“–unheard of. We've seen stranger things.”

“That’s true,” A feminine voice conceded from somewhere a little farther away. “I'm just saying that we need to consider all options.”

“I know…” Shadow’s hand stilled for a moment before resuming its repetitive movement. “It's hard to be objective.”

“That's what we're here for.”

They were quiet after that, and the motion from the vehicle and Shadow's comforting presence lulled Maria back to sleep.

 

—

 

The second time Maria woke up, she sat up in a hurry, bedsheets getting tangled around her as she did so. She was in a room, laying in bed, and that's the extent of what she could see, since it was completely dark around her. Well, there seemed to be a feeble ray of sunlight poking in between a pair of heavy curtains, but it only made the darkness around it feel even more impenetrable.

This was definitely not the Ark, her sleep-addled brain offered.

Maria blinked.

She wasn't on the Ark! She hadn't been dreaming, someone had actually rescued her! And if that was true, then…

“Shadow?” She called out, voice hoarse from disuse. Except for when she'd occasionally read out loud or hummed to herself aboard the Ark, she hadn't spoken since she'd (apparently) come back to life.

Something immediately moved beside her and, now that her eyes were growing accustomed to the low light, she saw her brother’s slightly glowing red eyes from beside the bed as he stood up. This sight was so familiar to Maria, so unbearably nostalgic, that her eyes immediately began filling with tears. A sob escaped her, and suddenly she was being hugged, warm arms covered in soft fur pulling her close and squeezing ever so gently.

“I missed you so much.” Shadow whispered, his voice laced with fear and worry.

She tried to tell him that she'd missed him too, that she was so happy to see him, but her throat felt stuck, like it was full of glue. Her chest felt tighter and tighter as the tears kept coming, and she quickly realized that her panic was making her lose her form once again. She pushed him away and pressed herself back against the headboard, afraid to hurt him or contaminate him somehow. Rationally, if her last clear memory hadn’t been a dream, then he must’ve seen her like this before, back on the Ark. Unfortunately, this didn’t help her racing heart settle in the slightest.

“It's okay, Maria. You’re–” Shadow climbed on the bed, one hand outstretched towards her, and she instinctively let out a distorted sort of growl, surprising both of them.

She hadn't meant to do that, but… nothing about this was okay. How could he be so calm? Why wasn't he scared or repulsed by her? She definitely was. She was afraid, and in pain, and angry at her body for having found a different way to betray her. It was so unfair!

Shadow, for his part, did retract his hand at her warning noise, but remained on the bed. He sat down, half turned away from her, legs dangling off the side of the bed.

“That's fair, it's okay if you don't want to be touched. But I can't leave you alone, so… I'll just stay here.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes as Maria pressed her hand against her half-morphed face as if she could just force it to go back to normal like she was made of playdough. She could feel her skin unnaturally tough and slick under her fingers. Slowly, with great effort, she felt something shift enough inside her larynx to allow her to speak.

“You’re not… freaked out?” She mumbled, her voice almost unrecognizable.

Shadow turned to look at her, look right at the horrible, ever-shifting monster she currently was, and gave her a faint but sincere smile.

“By you? Never.” He stared down at his gloved hands for a moment, with one of those pensive expressions he sometimes wore back on the Ark, close to the end. Then he looked back up at her. “Can I show you something?”

Maria nodded with no hesitation, not wanting to push her luck with her voice. Then Shadow took a little breath as if preparing himself and his whole body shifted, completely rearranging itself until he looked like a black and red squid with a sinewy texture, his many solid red eyes staring at her. He looked exactly like what she was struggling to hold back, but the transformation had felt practiced, much more fluid and less painful than hers.

More importantly, though, they looked the same. Shadow could somehow do the same thing she could since she'd first woken up alone on the ship. In spite of her fear and her physical discomfort, it made Maria breathe a little more easily: she wasn't alone. In front of her, Shadow got back to his original shape in one fluid movement, only letting out a little grunt of effort.

She wanted to ask him since when he could do this, how it had happened, and about a couple more hundred questions, but she felt so drained, and getting comfort from her little brother - now that she knew she wasn't going to accidentally hurt him or scare him away - seemed like a much higher priority.

This time she initiated the hug, crawling slowly in front of him and then squeezing him with all her strength. It couldn't have been particularly comfortable, and yet she could feel his body relax as he rubbed her back slowly.

They stayed like that for a little while, in silence, just enjoying each other's presence. Then he slowly let go and stared at her intently, hands on her shoulders like he could barely believe she was real. Maria gave him a wobbly smile.

“Thank you for saving me.”

“I’m sorry you had to be there alone–”

“It's not your fault.” She said, almost cutting him off, because as much as she wanted to reassure him, she really didn't want to talk about her time as the only inhabitant of the Ark. Instead she looked around the darkened room, focusing on the ray of sunlight coming from the window and landing on a soft-looking carpet.

“Where are we?” She finally decided to ask, because even though she didn't really care where exactly on Earth she was, the thought of finally being back on the planet still didn't feel real, and she needed him to confirm it somehow.

“Central City.” Shadow replied. “I share this apartment with a couple of… friends.”

Shadow hesitated on the last word. Not because he didn't consider the rest of Team Dark close friends (although one could say there was an even better term, like family, but that one felt a bit too heavy for everyone involved), but because he wasn't used to saying it out loud. Just as expected, though, he was immediately rewarded by a small but delighted smile from Maria.

“Would you like to meet them?” He asked, and she was out of bed before he could even finish his sentence, her steps a little wobbly but excited. Shadow was secretly pleased that he still knew how to cheer her up. Even with everything that had happened, she was still so uniquely and irreplaceably… herself. Chaos, how he had missed her. It was like half of his soul had been ripped off on that day half a century ago, and now it was slowly, carefully being sewn back together.

As Shadow led her out the door, the siblings held hands and silently vowed that nothing would tear them apart again.

Notes:

Hi, sorry for the wait, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Next up: some introductions followed by hard conversations >:)

Notes:

If you wanna chat, you can find me @robin-the-robo on Tumblr.