Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Shadow walked to Commander Tower’s office. He had just finished his report of infiltrating a sect of terrorists about to explode some buildings or something. Shadow didn’t really care much for details, and the only reason his report took five hours to complete was because he had to describe everything everyone said to him at what time and why, in order to justify his “excessive use of force” as G.U.N. called it.

Shadow found that quite stupid. They had given him a task that would be difficult for a whole team of people to pull off, and he’d done it in half the time. Now they were whining that a few would be mass murderers ended up deprived of a few limbs. Shadow hadn’t even killed anyone this time. Besides, what did G.U.N. know about regulating their use of force?

“Agent Shadow,” Commander Tower said as Shadow entered the room. “I’ve received your report.”

“Your thoughts?” Shadow asked.

“You’ve improved,” Commander Tower said.

This took Shadow off guard. He was the ultimate life form. There was no need for improving on perfection.

“To be completely frank,” Commander Tower continued. “I had deemed it impossible for you to complete a mission without causing an explosion, killing someone, or both. But, you have managed to keep all perpetrators alive, and keep collateral damage to a record breaking
minimum. Good work. I’m…proud of you.”

“Be proud of Avery,” Shadow said. Avery was the secretary that debriefed him for most of his missions. “It was her meticulously detailed report that made the whole mission possible.”

“Well… yes. I’m proud of her too,” Commander Tower looked rightfully confused as he lost some of his professionalism. It wasn’t in Shadow’s nature to compliment people. “But that’s not why we’re here. We have another mission for you. It hit’s a bit… closer to home for the both of us.”

Shadow stiffened. He did not like possibilities of what that meant.

“We have discovered a team of rogue scientists from G.U.N.” Commander Tower said. “They somehow accessed a sample of black arms DNA from the A.R.K. We’ve also found the bodies of multiple small animals they had experimented on. They all had hybrid stem cells used in your creation implanted in them. Our researchers found that all samples had been killed beforehand, but would have similar powers to yours.”

“You’re worried they’ll make another faker.” Shadow growled. As if the world needed even more irresponsible and overpowered little turds in cos-play.

“I know they’ll fail,” Commander Tower said. “But that’s not the problem. Our researchers determined that if black arms DNA is to be used the same way it was in your creation, but inside the atmosphere instead, the result would be similar to if you removed all your inhibitor rings and released literal chaos.”

“Can’t they just use inhibitor rings too?” Shadow asked.

Commander Towers shook his head. “The only reason yours work is because you were grown in space, then came to the surface. If the DNA is to be activated directly on the surface, the massive influx of power in such a short time would make the inhibitors useless.”

Shadow nodded. “I assume my mission is to dispose of it then.”

“They’re switching lab locations after we discovered their previous hideout.” Commander Tower slid a picture of a kangaroo across his desk to Shadow. It looked to be taken from a very low quality security camera. Shadow sincerely hoped they had better pictures than this. “This is the one we’ve determined is in possession of their last DNA sample. Use whatever means necessary. Do not hold back on lethal force, just try not to get any civilians hurt.”

“May I know the reason for my lack of restrictions?” Shadow asked. Something as good as being able to kill people and not file pages of paperwork always had a catch.

“They’re not trying to grow an organism from an egg cell,” Commander Towers said. “They want a head start on the growth process. Their plan is to implant directly into a child, then train it be their weapon.”

“I know what I must do,” Shadow said as he left to pick up the report from Avery.

Shadow planned how he was going to dispose of the bodies, as he couldn’t really plan for anything else without the full report. He had a deep hatred for people who targeted children.

“Your case, Agent Shadow.” Avery didn’t even look up from the computer as she handed Shadow a file.

“Commander Tower says he’s proud of you,” Shadow said as he took the offering.

“So?” Avery then got back to work filing paperwork as if she didn’t care. But Shadow’s enhanced hearing didn’t miss how she started humming and typing faster.

That was good. Avery’s lack of morale had been leading to an inefficient work flow and deteriorating emotional status.

########

Shadow sat at a park bench, pretending to read a newspaper. The file for his mission was hidden behind it. According to the report, This was the location the rogue scientists would use as a dead drop. It was in the opposite side of the city from G.U.N. headquarters. Much to Shadow’s relief, the report contained two mug shots of the kangaroo. Apparently, he had a long history of crime, and was just working for the scientists as an informant in the exchange they hide him from law enforcement. That was ideal, as it meant he would be less likely to know anything about his delivery.

That was the only thing Shadow considered “ideal” about this situation. There were many things he still didn’t understand with this. If the bodies had been found with Shadow’s stem cells inside, why had they not exploded too? Was it just when pure black arms DNA was activated? What did that even mean? And, if the G.U.N. scientists found out about the possible explosion, why hadn’t the rogue scientists done so? Wait, maybe they did.

According to the report, everyone already relocated to the new base were among the lower ranking scientists. The kangaroo himself didn’t seem to be highly favored by the main leaders. It all made sense. The leaders were putting expendable members in the blast radius. Members that knew just enough to activate the DNA in someone and nothing more. The leaders were betting that the following explosion wouldn’t kill the implanted child, so they would be able to use the inhibitor rings then. But, if the child died, people would still trace the scientists back to G.U.N., and it would fuel the public’s distrust for the government even more. It was genius. Horrifying and disgusting, but genius.

Shadow then turned to the pages that contained the identities of the children who the scientists were suspected to be targeting. He thought of how he would dispose of the DNA as he looked at the faces. It was much easier to think of things like that, instead of how each kid’s face painfully reminded Shadow of a certain girl. He ended up with two plans. The first was to chaos control the DNA straight into space. Putting it in orbit would make it nearly impossible for anyone to recollect, especially if he took it out of the container first. The back up plan was to straight up eat it. That proved much more of a risk, as Shadow wasn’t sure if that would activate the DNA, or if his inhibitor rings could handle it. That plan would only take effect if Shadow ended up using too much chaos energy to make the teleportation to space.

Suddenly, a face on the pages caught Shadow’s eye. The name read “Cream the Rabbit.” Shadow vaguely remembered her tagging along with the blue faker and his friends, but that wasn’t why he stopped. Shadow had stopped because Cream was the first person to not remind him of Maria, but himself. Odd. Shadow then heard a very familiar voice some meters away from him.

“Maria?” Shadow whispered as he jerked his head toward the voice, now listening with full attention.

It was not, in fact, Maria. It was actually Cream the Rabbit herself. And, much to Shadow’s horror, she was talking with the kangaroo.

“Where are your parents, sweetie?” The kangaroo asked, voice laced with sickly sweetness.

Shadow’s chest tightened as he quickly checked his watch. The kangaroo was five minutes early from what the report had said. Could he have also been sent to kidnap the person they were planning on implanting too? In any other situation, Shadow would instantly teleport there, twist the kangaroo’s head off, then release the DNA into space without a second thought. But doing that in front of Cream? That would traumatize a six year old girl. Shadow had been so caught up in his thoughts, that he hadn’t been paying attention to Cream, until he saw her pointing directly at him.

“There!” Cream’s eyes lit up as if she just found a piece of candy on the ground.

Cream was very smart, pointing to the nearest person she knew and lying like that. She had also unconsciously helped Shadow out tremendously. He would play along, acting as the dad, then send Cream off to play somewhere else. He would then kill the kangaroo, hide the body in a nearby dumpster, then chaos control the DNA to space before calling for G.U.N. They would handle the rest. Shadow folded up the newspaper, then walked over to stand beside Cream.

“Do need something with my daughter?” Shadow asked, subtly stepping in front of Cream.

“Oh, no, not at all.” The kangaroo’s voice made the thought of killing him all the better. “I was just concerned for a child playing all by herself. Forgive me, but you don’t… look like her father.”

“Well I-” Shadow started to speak, as he somehow felt very angry at that comment, but he suddenly felt Cream wrap her hand around two of his fingers.

Nobody had ever held Shadow’s hand. Not since that day Maria had left to live in the stars forever. He was so startled by the sudden gesture, he dropped the newspaper, scattering the file papers all over the ground. Upon looking at it, the kangaroo shot into the air, toward the roof of a nearby building. Shadow whipped a hand gun from his shoulder holster and fired three rapid shots at the retreating figure, but he was using his left hand, as Cream had grabbed hold of his right. All shots missed.

“Chaos control!” Shadow yelled, teleporting to the roof of the building, and forgetting to let go of Cream's hand.

Chapter Text

When shadow reappeared on the roof, he was immediately met with a foot in the face, sending him flying off the roof. How had the kangaroo known where Shadow would end up? No matter.

“Chaos control!” Shadow yelled. To his great horror, nothing happened.

“Daddy!” Cream yelled. Why had she kept up the facade?

Shadow looked up to see the kangaroo grab his chaos emerald, his gun, and his daught- ahem, Cream, then leap away. Shadow cursed, then whipped his legs back and fired his hover shoes full blast behind him, sending him toward the wall. Before he could collide into it, Shadow put his feet back in front of him, and skated up the wall. By the time he reached the top, the kangaroo was already three buildings ahead of him. Shadow sped off in pursuit.

The kangaroo could jump extremely high and far, switching direction by kicking off walls, signs, even an elderly tortoise at one point. This made it particularly difficult for Shadow to keep up. Even though Shadow grossly outmatched his quarry in speed, he couldn’t gain nearly enough height. And, If he could manage to predict where the Kangaroo would land, there were those kicks to worry about too. Someone had planned on Shadow trying to intercept. That was the only conclusion he could draw to explain how they knew to send a kangaroo and how he anticipated Shadow’s attacks.

But then, who? Shadow had many enemies, but there were none he could think of smart enough to plan this far ahead. This far ahead… Shadow suddenly saw a glint coming from the roof of a taller building nearby. He instinctively blasted his hover shoes in front of him, causing him to jerk to a stop. Right as he did so, a bullet hole suddenly appeared in the air conditioning unit in front of him. It was exactly where his heart would’ve been had he kept running. There was a wicked good sniper on the other roof. How far ahead had these people planned?

Shadow quickly ducked behind a wall and pulled out the gun from his other shoulder holster. He had refrained from using it on the kangaroo, fearing he would hit Cream instead. He would make no such reservations with this new enemy. As Shadow peeked over the edge of his barricade, a bullet ricocheted off and would’ve found it’s way into Shadow’s brain if not for his enhanced reflexes.

Shadow then used said reflexes to fire twice at the sniper before they could reload. Had Shadow been using something more powerful than a hand gun, he would’ve probably hit. But, as it was, he missed both times. Shadow cursed. If he had just let go of Cream’s hand, none of this would’ve happened. Why did it feel like he didn’t want to? Ugh! This would all be much easier with a chaos emerald. Shadow started, suddenly remembering there was an ability he could use without a chaos emerald.

It was a stupid plan. One worthy of the blue faker’s level of idiocy. It wasn’t like Shadow had any other choice, though. He then took a deep breath and sped to the other side of the roof to get a running head start. Once he reached the edge, Shadow turned around and skated as fast as he could toward the sniper. They should’ve still been reloading right now. Shadow sped up more, then jumped as high as he could toward the roof of the higher building. As he reached the peak of his ascent, he saw the sniper trained directly on his head. He had to time this perfectly, or he would end up dead. Shadow waited until he got within point blank, and could see the sniper’s finger squeeze on the trigger, and then…

Chaos snap was a much weaker form of chaos control that could only be used within a short distance of a target, but had the benefit of not needing a chaos emerald. Shadow had timed it just perfectly that he teleported the short distance between him and his enemy right before the bullet could make contact. The surprised sniper turned, only to see Shadow’s fist coming for their face at mach speeds.

Satisfied with his handiwork, shadow pulled out two trackers, then dropped one on the fallen enemy before taking their gun and resuming his pursuit. G.U.N. would pick them up later. Shadow had lost too much time already. He ran in the direction he last saw Cream and the kangaroo, jumping to increasingly higher buildings to get a better vantage point. After scanning the vast cityscape, he then saw them on a building much lower down. Shadow knew how to avoid the kicks! He would come from above. Get the jump on the kangaroo, if you knew what he meant. Did he really just make a pun? Shadow punched himself in the arm as punishment before vowing to never even think of that moment again.

Shadow then jumped off the building, heading straight for the kangaroo. Shadow recognized this gun. It was manufactured by G.U.N., and he’d trained with it for months. Although it wasn’t his favorite, it always shot true. Unlike those terrible hand guns, Shadow had yet to miss with it. He took aim at the kangaroo’s head. It was well away from Cream, so that wouldn’t be a problem even if he did miss. This ends now. Shadow thought. Just then, the kangaroo turned around in midair, using Cream as a shield.

The A.R.K. burning. Blood on the escape pod. A fragile heart finally giving up. It was all going to happen again. But this time, Shadow was the one pulling the trigger.

“Maria!” Shadow screamed.

He wasn’t sure why he did that, but it broke him out of whatever was happening to him. Shadow aimed away from Cream at the last millisecond, sending the shot wild. Nothing like the A.R.K. would ever happen again. Shadow would make sure of that.

He continued to fall toward Cream and the kangaroo, using his hover shoes to steer. When the kangaroo kicked this time, Shadow was ready. He grabbed the foot and pulled hard, causing his quarry to veer off trajectory. The kangaroo then pulled out Shadow’s gun, but shadow managed to wrestle it out of his hands and slap it away, careful to keep Cream from getting hurt. It all But right as Shadow was about to wrestle away Cream and the DNA sample, the kangaroo threw Cream to the side, causing her to scream as she fell toward the busy road below. Shadow cursed as the kangaroo twisted out of his grip and kicked away. He only had time to go for one or the other. Reason said to go for the DNA. He’d save much more lives that way. Maria would’ve said to save the rabbit. No amount of other lives saved could replace Cream. But… what did Shadow say?

This is my choice. Shadow thought as he rocketed toward Cream. Sure, it’s what Maria would’ve wanted, but Shadow found it’s also what he wanted too. It was unreasonable and emotional. Something a hero would do. Not Shadow. But what could he say? He was the ultimate life form, not the perfect one.

Cream’s hand reached toward him and Shadow took it, pulling her close. He fired the hover skates full blast at the ground and managed to steer their descent to the sidewalk instead of the road but they did little to slow them down. Especially with Cream’s added weight. It was going to be a bumpy landing. Shadow curled himself around Cream, trying to shield her from the brunt of the impact, when she popped her head out of his hold. Shadow suddenly felt their descent slow. He looked up to find Cream spinning her ears like a helicopter.

“You’re…really…heavy,” She groaned as she slowly lowered both of them to the ground.

“…You can fly.” Shadow said once they reached the ground. “With your ears.”

“Of course, daddy,” Cream said. None of what just happened seemed to have phased her mood at all. “I’m a rabbit.”

As if that made the slightest bit of sense!

“He’s gone now. You don’t have to keep up the facade,” Shadow said, trying really hard not to get mad.

“Oh, okay,” Cream looked disappointed for some reason.

“Look.” Shadow wasn’t really sure who was supposed to be taking care of Cream, but he didn’t have enough time to find them. Instead, he pulled out his ranged taser and handed it to Cream. Of course he managed to keep that instead of his chaos emerald. “If anyone like that kangaroo comes, point this part of the toy at them and press the button. It will make them do a funny dance.”

Cream’s eyes lit up. “I love dancing!”

“Good, just don’t try it on yourself.” Shadow rubbed Cream’s head, then skated away.

Shadow realized none of the citizens had even bothered to look up during the whole chase. He guessed they were just too used to the blue faker’s little antics with evil masterminds, inter-dimensional beings, and even the IRS to care much anymore. That was at least one good thing with all of this. That, and the fact he had managed to stick the other tracking device on the kangaroo during their skirmish. Shadow took his watch and pressed a hidden button, causing the analogue dial to flip up, and reveal a GPS showing the exact coordinates of the kangaroo.

“Gotcha.” Shadow allowed his frown to lessen a bit. It was close enough to a smile.

########

Shadow crawled through the air ducts of the lab as fast as he could without arousing suspicion. Which, admittedly, wasn’t fast at all. But it was better than scaring the enemy into doing something rash with the DNA. Shadow knew where to crawl with his watch, but it only showed how far away his target was, and at what angle. He had to solve the labyrinth of an air conditioning system himself. Puzzles had always been Maria’s thing, not his. That, plus the fact his target was always on the move, meant he ended up backtracking and second guessing a lot more than he would ever admit. Having saved Cream, Shadow had earned a few more minutes before they could find a different kid to inject. He hoped it was long enough to make up for Shadow’s mistakes.

Suddenly, the dot indicating Shadow’s tracker started glitching out, blinking all over the watch’s interface. It did so for a good thirty seconds before coming to an abrupt stop at the other side of the building. Shadow sighed, then made a U-turn and started crawling the way he came from. After this mission was over, he was going to seriously go over his paycheck with G.U.N.

Once Shadow was right above his tracker, he carefully removed a panel and looked down to find the kangaroo lying unconscious on the ground. That was very odd. Shadow landed as quietly as he could, then started searching the criminal. The DNA and chaos emerald had been taken and in their place, strangely enough, was a slightly squished cookie. Questions started whirring in Shadow’s head. Why would they attack one of their own? Had there been an insurgence? Had they known about the tracker and left? Could there be a turf war between different groups of scientists? Shadow listed out many other possibilities in his head, but then one became glaringly obvious: It was another trap.

Sure enough, lights started flashing, alarms started blaring, and heavy steel doors started slamming. Shadow cursed as he sped out the nearest door before it could slam shut too. In the next room, all doors were already shut but the one on the right. As Shadow ran through to the next room, he met the same result, but this time to his left. He tried to jump and get back into the vents, but they had been sealed off completely. Without a chaos emerald, Shadow could do little against it in time. He had no choice but to keep running through the quickly closing doors.

After Shadow passed a few more rooms, he drew two conclusions. The first was whoever was operating the doors was forcing him somewhere. Why else would there be only one door open in every room he entered? The second was a bit odder. Shadow recognized this place. The layout was almost exactly the same as the research center at the A.R.K. that was also how he knew he was being forced to this place’s equivalent of the room Shadow had been made. He was clearly walking into another trap, though, there wasn’t really much he could do about it.

After a few more rooms, shadow made it to the equivalent of his birthplace, the final door slamming shut behind him. With that, all the alarms stopped, leaving a deathly silence. Like that of a grave. The flashing red lights still persisted, letting Shadow see his surroundings. The room was much larger than the one on the A.R.K., and the tank in the middle was filled with orange liquid instead of green. It was also empty other than that, much to Shadow’s relief. Shadow also noticed the walls were lined with monitors, as Shadow remembered, but there were basically no pipes or wires here. Either the technology had improved to be a lot cleaner over the last fifty years, or somehow the lack of wires was also important to this mastermind’s plans. Both, Shadow assumed.

As expected, there was no escape Shadow could find. He sighed, reaching for his emergency S.O.S. He had gone on his own long enough, and it was clear that backup would be required to take down whoever was behind all this. It was time to call the rest of Team Dark. But as Shadow reached in his quills, he couldn’t find the signal emitter anywhere. It wasn’t like Shadow to misplace things like that, and it had been strapped to his back tight enough to hold on even when Shadow went super. There was no way it could’ve fallen off either.
Suddenly, the crushed remains of Shadow’s S.O.S. fell from the ceiling and landed a few meters in front of him. He jerked his head up to see who dropped it, but that was right as the lights blinked out. When they flashed red again, Shadow could see nothing but metal beams crisscrossing the ceiling.

“You know, some of these pathetic humans once believed that when an eclipse happened, the sun was swallowed by a giant snake.” A voice echoed from somewhere in the room, but with the strange acoustics, Shadow couldn’t pinpoint where.
As the lights flashed red again, Shadow saw a blur of motion move across the room, but the lights turned off before he could catch exactly who the voice belonged to.

“Show yourself and we’ll get on with it.” Shadow crossed his arms and sighed.

He was not in the mood for another monologuing villain. He couldn’t believe one of these had played him so well. It was a huge mistake on Shadow’s part. One he would never disclose to anyone. As the lights flashed on again, Shadow came face to face with the owner of the voice. He looked similar to the black arms, with talon-like hands and claws, but was much closer to Shadow in size and proportions. He also had a muzzle and odd extensions on his head to mimic quills. Great. Shadow thought. And he’s another little turd in cos-play too.
“I am Eclipse,” The faker said. “The perfect life form. Here to swallow you.”

“At least pick an original motive,” Shadow said as he launched himself at the faker. He was so done with this mission.

########

Shadow and Eclipse met like two storms colliding. Shadow was more reckless than he was normally, taking hits he normally would block in order to land even harder hits, and willingly risking loss in order to perform unnecessary acrobatics. Fighting fakers was different than normal fights. It was less like battlefield combat, where the goal was to kill the opponent by any means, and more like a medieval duel, where the goal was to prove your dominance, and the faker’s stupidity for ever trying to challenge you.

Regardless, Shadow learned a lot about this particular faker from their short but fierce exchange: he was very good, for starters. He had blocked many punches Shadow had expected to connect, and landed many that Shadow had been expecting to dodge. Despite that, the faker was desperate to prove himself. He had tried many of the useless flips he’d seen Shadow do in an effort to one up him. Shadow had made sure to punish the little faker duly for those. The last, and most important, thing Shadow had learned was the faker did not have a chaos emerald either. Otherwise, he would’ve used it already. Which begged the question: where had Shadow’s emerald gone? Having gathered all the information needed, Shadow decided to leave that question for later as he retreated to the wall with the computers, and started ripping them from their stands and hurling them at the faker.

“Retreating, are we?” The faker asked as he punched Shadow’s projectiles out of the air.

Shadow had expected that. The faker did not think highly of retreating, to the point he would take a computer to the face if it meant he didn’t have to dodge it. Shadow could exploit that. He then zipped around to the other side of the room, and ripped many computers, along with the batteries, from their places. As the faker approached “menacingly” around the pod, Shadow flung all his improvised weapons at him.

The sparks ignited the batteries as they burst on the ground from the force of Shadow’s throw, causing a small explosion. If the faker was worth half his salt, the explosion would serve as little more than a distraction. Fortunately, that was exactly what Shadow needed. As the faker was busy trying to fight off the explosion, Shadow jumped, then chaos snapped, aiming a hover shoe powered kick at the faker’s head. Much to Shadow’s shock, the faker had caught Shadow’s foot with one hand. Before he could react, the faker threw Shadow into the wall.

“Did you really think chaos powers would work against me?” The faker then teleported in front of Shadow, and almost took off his head, had Shadow not jumped out of the way in time, and tried a spin attack instead. “Nothing will work. I am the perfect life form. Unlike you, I don’t make mistakes.”

The faker sent an uppercut toward Shadow, but it was too late. Shadow was already too close for the faker to do any- Eclipse’s fist teleported the distance between it and Shadow, causing the uppercut to connect, sending Shadow flying upward, and slamming into one of the metal beams crisscrossing the ceiling. Shadow grabbed hold of the top edge and flipped himself up. How had that happened? More importantly, why hadn’t Eclipse used chaos powers before?

Before Shadow could think more, he suddenly saw Eclipse’s foot heading straight for his face, and had to jerk his head back, narrowly dodging the attack. Shadow retaliated with a kick of his own, only to realize Eclipse wasn’t there anymore. Shadow was then nailed in the back, sending him falling off the beam. Thinking quickly, he chaos snapped, hoping he was still in range. He was, as the next thing Shadow knew, he was standing behind Eclipse. He wasted no time attacking, but his fist didn’t reach half way before Eclipse suddenly teleported to stand right in front of him and caught the fist.

“I could’ve killed you any time I wanted,” Eclipse monologued as Shadow pretended to struggle against his hold. Shadow was really getting in position to throw Eclipse, but he found it concerning that he was only half acting. “But that wouldn’t have done it. I wanted to out think you, out smart you, out wit you-”

“Those are all the same thing,” Shadow grunted as he twisted his body to fling Eclipse over himself and slam him into the metal beam. He then landed a heavy kick, denting the beam under Eclipse’s body. “Faker.”

So that had been the secret all along. Just had to keep him monologuing, and he was good as- Eclipse was suddenly holding Shadow by the throat.

“I am not a faker!” Eclipse screamed as he punched Shadow hard enough that he could see sparks fly around in his vision. “I don’t need to fake your inferior power!”

Eclipse then dropped Shadow, who ignited his hover shoes in an effort to get away, but Eclipse simply teleported again and slammed his foot into Shadow’s gut, sending him smashing into the opposite wall. Even though Shadow managed to activate his hover shoes in time to soften the fall, he still hit hard. As he rolled to a stop, he saw Eclipse barreling toward him, and barely rolled away in time to dodge. The force of the impact still sent Shadow airborne.

“I am your eclipse!” As Shadow shakily stood up, desperately searching for a way to keep Eclipse talking, his feet were swept from underneath and he was yanked by the foot and slammed to the ground again.

Shadow felt his arm snap as he landed painfully on it. That had never happened before. Not even the researcher’s tests back on the A.R.K. had ever caused one of his bones to break. He had never felt this helpless in his life. Being in this imitation of his home and feeling this powerless caused all the memories he’d been trying so hard to keep back suddenly came crashing down on him along with Eclipse’s blows. Being tortured to near death by the A.R.K. researchers, watching Maria get shot, and nearly succumbing to black doom’s control. It was all too much. Shadow started hyperventilating as he tried to curl into a ball to shield from the incoming blows. His whole body felt dysfunctional, and all he could feel was pain. Eclipse then yanked Shadow up by the throat.

“I. Am. The. Perfect. Life form!” Eclipse growled as he threw Shadow against the wall.

Shadow slumped to the ground, defeated. Everything was fuzzy as Eclipse walked toward him. I am going to die. Shadow thought. Even though he was created to not die of sickness or old age, he could even survive mortal wounds if he had a chaos emerald, that did not mean he was invincible. And, being in the state he was in now, death was certainly a possibility. Had this been a few years ago, during the black arms incident, Shadow would’ve gladly accepted his death, even helped it along if he could. But now, something was holding him back. Something he would’ve found odd had he been in his right mind.

“I need to make sure Cream is safe,” Shadow whispered. Though it sounded like gurgling from all the blood in his mouth.

“What was that?” Eclipse asked, stopping.

At that moment, the door opened. The white light was almost blinding compared to the black and red that otherwise filled the room.

“Good,” Eclipse said, not taking his eyes off Shadow. “It took you more than long enough to find a replacement. Put them in the pod and let’s be on with it.”

Shadow had seen who had really opened the door, and it wasn’t the team of scientists Eclipse thought he was talking to.

“You know,” Shadow said after he spat out the blood. Just had to keep him talking. “Being the ultimate life form has one major advantage.”

“What!?” Eclipse sounded almost desperate. “What can you possibly have that I don’t!? Tell me!”

“Cream.” Shadow managed a half smile with great pain. It was worth it.

“Cream?” Eclipse asked. “But you’re part black arms. We’re lactose intoler-”

That was as far as Eclipse got before he started doing an exceptionally funny dance. A very small rabbit stepped out from behind him, and started dancing along while laughing. Cream had a much more powerful taser than Shadow had given her, as it caused bolts of electricity to snake around Eclipse’s body as Cream tased him a few more times to keep up the “dancing.” Eventually, Eclipse’s body couldn’t take it anymore, and he fell over, unconscious.

“I found your lucky rock, daddy!” Cream held out Shadow’s chaos emerald, but stopped once she realized the state Shadow was in. He didn't even have the energy to argue with Cream calling him daddy. “Oh, dear! Did you trip and fall?”

“Something like that.” Shadow found talking much more easy once she had given him the chaos emerald and it started healing him. Given the beating he had taken, it would be a while before he was completely healed. “How did you get here?”

“Oh, that was easy.” Cream sat down beside Shadow as he rolled on his side and propped himself up on one arm. She began telling her story. “I needed to return your toy before I could keep looking for Cheese, so I followed you, You smell like coffee beans, so I just sniffed around a lot and ended up here. But when I knocked on the door, the big kangaroo bully opened it! He said ‘you need to come with me,’ but mama says I should never trust a stranger if they say that. So I used that toy you gave me, and tricked him into dancing until he fell asleep. But when he was asleep, I saw your rock in his pocket, so I traded it for my cookie I saved in my pocket, because mama also says that stealing is wrong. A bunch of other people like that bully came to try to get me, so I borrowed one of their toys, because they make cool light shows too. Then I tricked them all into having a dance party, and then I opened the door and here we are!”

Shadow stared at Cream. She couldn’t have been older than seven. He didn’t know how she was able to say that much, and so eloquently, too.

“And…none of that scared you?” Shadow asked.

“Nope!” Cream puffed out her chest in pride. “I just thought ‘Mr. Sonic wouldn’t be scared,’ so I wasn’t either.”

“Cream,” Shadow said, voice growing firmer. “You’re six-”

“And a half!”

“And a half. You can’t pretend to be brave just cause that fake-” Shadow cleared his throat. “Sonic doesn’t look scared. I’m sure there’s been many times he’s been afraid too.”

Shadow would be lying if he said he wasn’t scared back there, getting beaten up by Eclipse.

“But I wasn’t. I…” Cream’s facade started to break down as she continued. “I can’t be scared, I…I…”

Cream suddenly burst into tears as she dropped the taser. Shadow reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, but when he did so, Cream practically fell on him and burrowed her face into the white patch of fur on his chest. Well, it was now somewhat green from Shadow’s blood. Cream’s tears washed some of it away, but Shadow hoped she didn’t get any on her face. He then grunted as she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. He hadn’t realized he’d broken some ribs too.

Cream started sobbing harder as her little frame started to shake. Shadow used his one good arm to gently stroke her back as he whispered reassurances in her ears. He then noticed his own muzzle was damp from tears too. He hadn’t cried since that one day when he remembered what Maria truly wanted for her last wish. They stayed like that, lying on the cold metal floor, until Shadow had healed enough to sit up. Cream, despite her calming down to the point of just sniffling and hiccuping, retained her iron grip on Shadow, so they sat there a bit longer, with shadow rubbing the back of Cream's head, saying how proud he was of her for being brave and facing those people even though she was scared, and telling her that everything was safe now, and he wouldn't let anyone hurt her, before he slowly stood up, careful not to jostle Cream too much. There was still the DNA sample to deal with. Shadow was in no condition for a trip to space, so eating it would have to do.

“Cream,” Shadow said. She had refused to let go, so Shadow had to carry her as he walked out of the room. He found it filled with the unconscious bodies of multiple scientists. Some still had slight sparks jumping off them. “When you were having that dance party, did you see anything like a vial of green water?”

Cream only nodded, and pointed to a wolf in a white lab coat. As Shadow approached, he saw the scientist was holding a syringe filled with black arms DNA.

“He said they were going to poke me with it.” Cream’s voice was muffled, as she had pressed her face against Shadow’s chest and started softly crying again.

Shadow added the wolf’s murder to his to-do list once Cream wasn’t looking. But, despite that, it was good that the DNA was in a needle. Shadow had been wondering how to get it into his body without exposing it to the air and accidentally “activating” it. Shadow picked up the syringe and stuck the needle in his arm. He had a brief thought of how weird this might look to a passerby, but he quickly disregarded it. Thousands of lives were at stake here, so what someone else would think should be the least of his concerns. After Shadow had finished injecting the DNA, he was incredibly relieved to find nothing bad had happened. His theory of diluting the unactivated DNA with his already activated DNA had worked even better than expected, as all of Shadow’s remaining wounds and bruises instantly healed.

“Alright, Cream,” Shadow said, causing her to look up at him. He was once again thought how much she reminded him of himself. She had the same shade in her eyes, though it was much less noticeable. She had lost someone she loved too. “Let’s get you home.”

Before Shadow could teleport both of them out of the building, he heard laughter coming from the other room. Shadow looked back to see Eclipse had crawled over to one of the remaining functional computers, and entered a command.

A robotic voice suddenly blared in the intercoms. “Initiating self destruct in five. Four.”

“Chaos control!” Shadow yelled, this time he was fully aware of Cream, and holding her tightly.

Nothing happened.

“Three. Two…”

Chapter Text

At three seconds, Shadow was already running away. The doors seemed to have all opened, letting him pass freely. He needed to go slower than he could’ve, so as to not hurt Cream from whiplash. He ran until he found the place he’d entered. Naturally, it was locked.

“Chaos spear!” Shadow yelled. Again, nothing happened.

At two seconds, Shadow turned and sped back the way he’d came. Breaking the door would take too long. There had to be a different way out, Shadow just needed to find it. He started speeding through every room, looking for anything different from what he remembered from the A.R.K. It was easier said than done, as this building had way too many rooms filled with lab equipment. Anything could be a secret escape route.

Oddly, there was nobody in any of the rooms they passed. Could they have known Eclipse would activate the self destruct sequence? No, it had been too spontaneous, almost like a last resort. Shadow came to the conclusion that the scientists from that one room were the only ones here. He then remembered Eclipse. The faker had taken a serious beating from him, even compared to the others Shadow had faced. That and Cream’s tasing had to leave him unable to escape in time. Shadow sincerely hoped so.

At two and a half seconds, Shadow had been to every room he could remember, and seen nothing out of the ordinary. Well, every room except one. Shadow had hoped he wouldn’t have to do this, but was left with little other options. He made his way to what would be Maria’s room.

At one second, Shadow entered the hollow copy of what had once been a safe haven for him. Everything was as it should be, down to forgeries of the crayon drawings Shadow had made with her and taped to the wall above her desk. He knew they were crude forgeries, as they contained no life. Didn’t stop it from stabing what remained of Shadow’s heart like a knife, though.

Everything was exactly as it should be, except an industrial metal door where Maria’s closet should’ve been. Bingo, Shadow thought right as explosions started sounding from behind.

########

”And that’s when uncle Shadow went into super turbo speed mode!” Cream jumped up as she excitedly explained the day’s events to an increasingly concerned Vanilla.

“I was in complete control,” Shadow huffed. “Your daughter was safe, I assure-”

“Shadow,” Vanilla kindly but firmly interjected. “You will have your turn to explain. Cream is talking right now.”

Shadow sighed, then sat back on the couch in Vanilla’s living room, waiting patiently for his turn.

########

At least Shadow could use his time slowing abilities from the chaos emerald. Though they didn’t slow time nearly as much as he was comfortable with. Already, balls of light were growing from shells hidden all around the hallway that the door had opened to. Shadow ran down the hallway to the door at the end, only to open it to a flight of stairs.

He cursed, then proceeded to climb the stairs without assistance from his hover shoes. They had never worked on stairs. Once he reached the top, he opened the next door to reveal a hallway much like the previous. The process repeated multiple more times, with the explosions slowly growing bigger, forcing him to dodge and weave his way through in order to avoid burning Cream.

He did this around nine more times before questioning how, exactly, the rogue scientists were able to construct an entire building like this without raising any suspicion. Making the bottom floor resemble the A.R.K. was plausible. They just had to change the layout of some of the rooms and completely remake all the walls. But making the whole building a maze designed specifically to trap Shadow? He didn’t find that as easy to accomplish.

Shadow thought nothing of it, until he ran into a cluster of explosions that had completely blocked the hallway. He could’ve easily ran through, but he doubted Cream would survive. Shadow’s mind went back to rearranging walls as the explosions grew more and more rapidly. He then deemed that the wall separating inside from out should be on his right.

He then turned and punched it as hard as he could. The wall crumbled almost comically easy compared to the others, revealing a cleared out office room. It was all a trick. Shadow suddenly felt incredibly stupid, but there was no time to worry about that now, as the room was almost filled with explosions.

That was when Shadow used his super awesome rainbow unicorn powers to blow away all the fires and fly away.

########

“I did not do that!” Shadow protested. He was going to clarify, but thought better of it when Vanilla sent him the nastiest stink eye he’d ever seen.

“I’m sorry, uncle Shadow.” Cream looked very dejected. “I forgot to keep your super awesome rainbow unicorn powers a secret.”

Shadow just sighed and motioned for her to continue. His mind went back to what really happened as Cream’s story grew increasingly more outlandish.

########

Shadow curled around Cream, then charged up a spin dash. He could feel the explosions closing around him by the time he finished charging and shot away, into the room, and out the window. It was at that moment where his hold on time loosed and it’s speed returned to normal. As the building exploded, Shadow desperately tried to use chaos control again. It finally worked properly, and Shadow teleported himself and Cream back to the park where it had all started.

He set Cream down as he caught his breath. That had been way too close for comfort. A bunch of sirens blared as ambulances and other first responders rushed to the cloud of smoke in the distance. With any luck, it had taken Eclipse along with the other scientists, rendering Shadow’s job finished. Well, almost finished. He still didn’t even know who was supposed to be watching Cream at the time, let alone how to get her home.

“Uh, Cream?” Shadow asked.

“Yes, daddy?” She looked up at him sweetly.

The excitement from Shadow’s mission was thankfully gone, and she was back to her normal self. Shadow was glad. Seeing her cry like she had hurt more than anything Eclipse did.

“Don’t call me that.” Shadow had meant to ask her who had been watching her, and surprised himself with saying that instead.

Though, truth be told, he had been uncomfortable with Cream calling him that since the start.

“Okay, uncle Shadow!” Cream said, satisfied, as if she had solved a particularly hard puzzle.

Shadow sighed. Good enough.

“Look, who was watching you before we went on our… excursion?” Shadow asked.

“Oh!” Cream exclaimed. “Miss Amy was! Cheese got lost, so she was helping me find him. I went to check over here, but found you instead!”

“Uh, oh.” Shadow whispered under his breath.

Out of all of Cream’s babysitters, Rose was the one who Shadow least wanted to provoke. He was sure that showing up with Cream after the better part of an hour, and an explosion, would do exactly that.

“Let’s go find her as fast as we can,” Shadow said.

“Will you use your super awesome rainbow unicorn powers?” Cream asked.

“What are you talking about?” Shadow genuinely had no idea what she was referencing.

“Oh, you want to keep them a secret!” Cream smiled conspiratorially as she leaned in and started whispering. “Don’t worry, I’m good at keeping secrets. Amy still doesn’t know I hid that cookie from breakfast in my pocket.” She paused for a moment. “Please don’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t. Now we really need to find-” Shadow was suddenly cut off as he was grabbed from behind.

Shadow almost moved to throw the attacker when he realized it wasn’t an attack at all, but a hug. Coming from none other than Rose herself. It reminded Shadow of the first time they’d met.

“Rose,” Shadow said. “For the last time, I’m not son-”

“YOUFOUNDCREAMTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!” Rose yelled in his ear, startling Shadow more than he would like to admit.

“Oh, yes,” Shadow said. “I need to fill out lots of paperwork now, so-”

“Oh my gosh, is that your BLOOD on her FACE!?!?” Amy screamed. Shadow looked down and found that there was indeed lots of his blood staining Cream’s fur. “Shadow, WHAT HAPPENED!?”

“I tased a bunch of men!” Cream shouted cheerfully.

‘She knew what a taser was the whole time?’ Shadow thought.

“You WHAT?!?” Amy’s voice somehow increased in both pitch and volume. It then became very quiet, which Shadow found even more scary. “Shadow, you are coming with me to Cream’s house right. Now.”

‘Dang it, Cream.’ Shadow thought. He was so dead.

########

“And then we ended up here!” Cream concluded her story triumphantly.

“That was quite the adventure!” Vanilla rubbed her daughter’s heads, eliciting a fit of giggles from the smaller rabbit. “You must be tired, especially since it’s past your naptime.”

“But I’m not ti-” Cream’s sentence was cut off by a yawn.

“Hey, Cream,” Amy said. “Let’s go play upstairs!”

“Okay!” Cream hopped off her mother’s lap to take Amy’s hand as they headed up the stairs.

Before they left, Amy turned and mouthed ‘I got this’ to Vanilla.

‘Thank you,’ Vanilla mouthed back.

“Now,” Vanilla said once the girls left. “Your side. Spare no details.”

Shadow could’ve sworn he felt the room temperature drop several degrees. He would rather go back to facing Eclipse.

‘Nothing I can do about that now,’ Shadow thought. He then took a deep breath. Telling the truth seemed the smartest option.

Shadow told her everything that had happened, from the kangaroo and the chase, the rogue scientists, to the DNA, to Eclipse, to the explosion, all the way up to entering her house. He tried his best to leave out no details, and keep things as objective as possible. Once he was done, Vanilla looked rightfully terrified.

“Excuse me a moment,” Vanilla said as she left the room.

With Shadow’s enhanced hearing, he could tell both Rose and Cream were asleep from their snoring. That was good, as Shadow didn’t want Cream to hear what her mother was saying.

“It’s happening again.” Shadow heard Vanilla mutter to herself. “Oh Gaia, it’s happening again. They won’t stop. They just won’t stop. Oh Gaia, what do I do?”

“They won’t stop?” What did that mean? Shadow noticed a family picture above the mantle, featuring Vanilla, Cream, and a male Rabbit who he assumed was the dad. How exactly did he die? Various grizzly possibilities involving G.U.N. raced through Shadow’s head, but he was stopped as Vanilla returned.

“You work for G.U.N., right?” Vanilla asked. Shadow nodded. “Fake your death.”

“Excuse me?” Shadow asked.

“Quit, retire, plead…child labor laws, I don’t know,” Vanilla said. “Just get away from G.U.N. It’s not safe.”

“This isn’t about me, is it?” Shadow asked. “Cream knows what a taser is, and took out a room of grown men with it, not to mention a black arms. You’ve been training her because you expected something like this to happen.”

“Yes, I have,” Vanilla said after a moment. Shadow then heard her mutter under her breath. “Should’ve expected no less from a G.U.N. agent.”

“If this is about Cream’s safety,” Shadow said. “I assure you, I’ll do everything in my power to-”

“I don’t doubt your sincerity, Shadow. And I know what you’re capable of,” Vanilla said. “But it’s that I’m worried about.”

Worried that Shadow physically wasn’t capable of protecting Cream?

“What happened?” Shadow asked.

Vanilla paused, as if debating in her head what she should say.

“If you must know,” Vanilla eventually said with a sigh. “I worked for them once.”

Vanilla suddenly looked much older than she should’ve, and her tone turned melancholy and nostalgic at the same time.

“I thought I was doing the world a great service, keeping it safe from all sorts of threats. Though I won’t lie, I was comfortable with the salary.” Vanilla sighed. “A bit too comfortable. I did lots of…unsavory things to keep my position. Made lots of enemies that way.”

Shadow would’ve never expected this from her. Though, considering the stuff his other acquaintances got into despite their cheery demeanors, he was more surprised that he was surprised.

“But then I fell in love.” Vanilla gazed wistfully at the picture on the mantle. Shadow noticed how happy they all looked then. They were at the beach around sunset. Cream looked much younger, perched on her dad’s shoulders, and Vanilla was laughing, her figure slightly blurred, as the picture had been taken as her husband pulled her close. “He was kind, smart, funny, incurable cheater at monopoly, though.”

Vanilla laughed sadly, and Shadow was taken back as well. Maria had loved monopoly too.

“I quit my job,” Vanilla continued. “Severed all ties and moved away so I could marry him and start a family. We had Cream, and the three happiest years of my life. I thought it was over with G.U.N., but one day, a group of people claiming to be agents show up for me…”

“And the next thing you know, he’s dead on the floor and you’re powerless to do anything.” Shadow finished for her.

Vanilla sadly met his gaze.

“Yes,” She whispered. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. “And now they’re coming for my baby. They aren’t satisfied with just Nutmeg. They never were.”

Vanilla began to cry softly into her hands. Shadow now felt a much deeper kinship with her. One only found through shared grief. He found he wanted to do anything to keep Vanilla from feeling any more of it. Before he fully knew what he was doing, Shadow had crossed the room and wrapped his arms around Vanilla in a hug.

It was a very awkward embrace. Given Vanilla’s height, Shadow had to stand on his toes even while she was seated. He hoped it didn’t matter much. Soon, Vanilla picked him up and held onto him as one might with a stuffed animal as she cried harder. Shadow sighed, remembering Gerald had specifically designed him to be cuddly like this. Under normal circumstances, his pride would’ve been getting a serious beating from this. But Shadow found he didn’t mind much at all now.

It was then Shadow resolved to do whatever it took to keep what was left of the Rabbit family safe. It was probably illogical, and impractical, prioritizing one family’s needs over the whole world’s but what could he say?

He was the Ultimate life form, not the perfect one.

Epilogue:

Vanilla awoke to the soft buzzing from her alarm. It needed to be soft, so as not to wake Cream, who was thankfully still sleeping next to her. She had been for the past week, as Vanilla didn’t want to let her daughter out of her sight for a second. It also helped with both of their nightmares. Vanilla got out of bed as quietly as she could, and began making preparations.

They were moving today. Somewhere In a rural town on the opposite side of the planet. Hopefully it would be far enough away that the rogue G.U.N. agents could never find them. Vanilla had already made aliases and forged passports to throw them off her trail, but she had to do much less than she would’ve liked in order to leave as fast as possible. It was already a small miracle they hadn’t been located already, and Vanilla didn’t want to push her luck.

She was almost finished packing when she heard a nock at the door. It wasn’t Vector’s secret nock, as he was the only person she’d told about her plans. She wanted to leave as secretly as possible, in case the agents decided to question her friends, and hadn’t scheduled any meetings, so she had no idea who it could be.

Vanilla slept in her normal clothes now, as she needed to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice, so she didn’t bother changing and went straight to the door. On her way there, she took the gun hidden in her bookshelf just in case.

Vanilla then slowly creaked open the door, only to find nothing there except a letter. She quickly snatched it from the ground before closing and dead bolting the door. She then checked the envelope for any signs of it being a letter bomb. Deeming it safe, Vanilla headed back to her room to read it.

The envelope was sealed with the symbol of the black arms, the one Shadow had espoused as his own.

That was odd, she had requested no interaction with him due to safety concerns with him working for G.U.N. despite her advice.

Vanilla opened the letter. Shadow seemed genuine enough that he wouldn’t put them in danger by contacting them unless he had a really good reason. Might as well hear him out.

‘Dear Vanilla,’ It read. ‘I managed to get the issue of the rogue scientists to become top priority in G.U.N. Headquarters. Apparently they teamed up with the late faker, Eclipse, to fulfill multiple vendettas. We were not the only ones this group had it out for. Regardless, me, Rouge, and Omega all share concerns for your family, so here is a list of identities of all the agents we killed, along with a list of names of all the ones we could only apprehend due to the absolute dumpster fire of a legal system we have. Omega would like to thank you for the opportunity to cause mass destruction and assures you that he “murdered them most epically to honor [you].” Rouge offers a month of free babysitting for Cream, and I only hope that’s all of them, and that this brings you safety along with healing. With love, Team Dark.’

Vanilla then looked through the pictures of all the now dead agents they had sent, and didn’t quite know how to feel as she was met with the faces of all the people who were the source of so much pain in her life. She then looked through the list of all the people Team Dark had apprehended, and was relieved to find that it was indeed all of them.

There was one more picture in the envelope, though, and Vanilla pulled it out to find a selfie Team Dark had taken in front of a massive explosion. Rouge, by clever angling or sheer luck, had even managed to catch Shadow smiling. The words “That was their main base. We love you!” Were scribbled in black sharpie next to a heart at the bottom.

Vanilla laughed softly, remembering that despite their grown up appearance, they were still all teenagers.

########

Cream couldn’t find mama when she woke up. She was scared for a second, until she smelled blueberry pancakes, her favorite, coming from the kitchen. She woke up Cheese, then hopped out of bed, excited for a new day. But then she realized it was a sad day. She was moving. Cream trudged to the kitchen, no longer excited about the blueberry pancakes.

“Good morning, mama,” Cream said as she entered the kitchen.

“Good morning, Sugarcream.” Mama scooped her up and planted a kiss on her forehead.

Cream smiled and hugged mama back, but she didn’t feel like smiling.

“What’s wrong?” Mama asked, sensing Cream’s sadness.

“We’re moving today,” Cream sniffled. “I won’t see my friends any more.”

“Oh, no, sweetie.” Mama held Cream tighter. “We’re not moving anymore. Never again. It’s over.”

“Really?” Cream asked. Maybe today was going to be a good day after all.

“Yes.” Mama kissed Cream’s head again, then sat down on a nearby chair.

They stayed like that for a while, the pancakes completely forgotten, until there was a nock at the door. Still holding cream, mama went up to open the door. She opened it to reveal all of their friends waiting outside. Today was going to be a very good day!

“We told everyone about your situation,” auntie Rouge said. “We figured it was fine now that it’s over, and we were worried about you. Hope you don’t mind.”

“I’m sorry,” Mr. Vector said. “I tried not to say anything.”

“Aw, don’t blame him.” Auntie Rouge hooked an arm around uncle Shadow’s shoulders. “He was up against the two best interrogators in the nation.”

“InterroGATOR! HAHA!” Charmy yelled. Mr. Espio immediately started chasing him with a flyswatter.

“I only did it cause you held my bike hostage!” Uncle Shadow yelled as he pushed auntie Rouge’s arm off his shoulders.

“That has nothing to do with this.”

“It’s my bike!”

“Please stop fighting.” Mama used her voice for when she was talking with knuckles after he taught Cream all those cool words. It made everyone immediately stop arguing and hug each other instead. “It’s fine you told everyone. I was going to say something myself anyways.”

The whole group let out a collective sigh of relief.

“Ooh, mama!” Cream suddenly had a lovely idea. “Can they stay for breakfast?”

“I’d be delighted!” Mama smiled as she opened the door wide and let everyone in.

Today was going to be a fantastic day indeed.