50 Years Ago (Live and Learn)

Can't Accept it. Have to Accept it.

They'll take Shadow away from you. Maria will die.

That's all that circled Gerald's brain since Sonic confessed that he was from the future. And Gerald...

They'll take Shadow away from you. Maria will die.

Gerald couldn't accept that. He wouldn't accept that.

He, Maria, and Shadow were a family. Those two were the most important things in Gerald Robotnik's existence, and the mere concept of a timeline where he loses everything was cruel. This possibility only existed because of Sonic.

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"Be careful with those, you idiot!" Gerald exclaimed, watching as one of the base's guards accidentally bumped into an energy cell on the cart. "If one of you bumbling oafs even slightly damages these energy cells, the outcome would be explosively catastrophic!"

"Sorry, Professor," the guard hastily apologised, jumping aside.

"Why on Earth do we keep these in the entry way?" Gerald muttered, steadying the capsule rocking on its base from the impact. "This is going to end up getting someone killed."

The professor's gaze dragged over the capsule's contents, pure raw chaos energy. Robotnik had trillions of questions about Shadow's existence. Where did he come from? What created him? How was he capable of producing an infinite source of energy? At first, answering these questions was all that mattered to Gerald, and the anthropomorphic hedgehog held no emotional significance to the professor. But Maria changed things. She always did.

Maria came into his life when her parents had died. He took care of her out of a nagging sense of obligation, but she was quick to revive the dried, shrivelled heart Gerald had long forgotten. Maria saw the world in a way Gerald had never been able to...she saw extraordinary beauty in even the smallest things. She saw something in Shadow.

It wasn't long after that Gerald saw the life that she saw in Shadow. Now, his heart beat for these two kids who deserved a much better life than what he was able to give. But they were happy. And he was happy.

Suddenly, the chaos energy in the energy capsules began frantically dancing around, shining brighter than ever before. Then, a guard shouted in surprise as something crashed into his legs.

"What the–?" a blue creature blinked disorientedly, eyes hazily darting around the room.

"The hell is that thing?" Another guard exclaimed, pointing his gun towards the blue creature. Gerald tilted his head in curiosity, realising it looked strikingly similar to Shadow. Perhaps they were the same species?

"Where am I?" the hedgehog questioned. "Who are you?!"

As more guards surrounded the hedgehog, Gerald could see the rising anxiety. Some guard ordered the rest of the guards to contain it and foolishly fired his weapon. The hedgehog was able to dodge at an inhumane speed.

"Wait, stop!" the hedgehog pleaded. Another fired shot turned the hedgehog's fearful demeanour into aggression. Sparks of energy began rolling off the creature, his eyes flashing blue and bearing his teeth as he warned. "Don't make me hurt you."

Gerald's eyes darted over to all the energy cells. One misplaced shot or spark could turn this place into rubble.

"Capture it!" Gerald yelled out. It was all a blur from that point on, this creature downing these armed guards like it was nothing. His heart was beating rapidly, feeling a paralysing amount of fear of what could happen. And then his heart stopped in his chest as he looked up to see Shadow and Maria in the room.