Imagine if after the end credit scene of Shadow retrieving his inhibitors, he is found by GUN.
He has just dragged himself out of the second crater, snapping his ring on his wrist when he hears the helicopters.
He briefly contemplates teleporting away, hiding in the surrounding forest or a fight...... but just as quickly he abandons those thoughts.
He is tired. He honestly had not planned for there to be an "after" . He has lost everything, and anything he knows is 50 years out of date.
He almost destroyed the world. GUN is right. He is dangerous, he is a monster. And dangerous things should be locked away and kept under control.
So he submits himself to GUN. He submits himself to testing and stasis when he is not needed. They test many things, his strength, his healing ability, his speed. They run him to exhaustion, they pit him against the weapons they build to see how effective they are, they bleed him dry taking samples.
He grows weaker by the day. They take without giving him time to recover and just put him in stasis. This is penance he thinks. His punishment for his crimes. He almost destroyed the world, and now they will study him to death to better defend it from monsters like him in the future.
It goes on for months, weeks in stasis broken up by short bursts of testing. His quills become brittle, his fur dull and greasy, and his bright red eyes fade to a pale grey. He wonders if one day they will take too much and he will finally fade completely. His soul free to join Maria where ever she is. He starts to hope for that day.
Sonic and everyone else think he is dead until someone (aka rouge the bat) leaks GUN info to the Wachowski's. They are all horrified at what is happening to Shadow and Maddie specifically goes on a warpath to free him into their care. "look at the state of him, you don't need to be a vet to see that whatever you are doing is killing him!"
GUN resists and it takes longer than anyone wants to get him free. It even includes Sonic and their mysterious leaker threatening to go public about some of GUN's less than good past plans/intentions but eventually Shadow is released into their care.
Shadow just thinks he is being given to new researchers, especially when he learns Maddie is a vet. Medical research this time, maybe it will be a break from fighting things and running all the time? Maybe less stasis too since they will need to observe him more? He hates stasis, the fluid stinks and always leaves his skin so itchy and mats his fur. Perhaps these researchers will be a bit better. More like Gerald and the scientists. Plus Sonic and the others he was with are kept here too. Maybe he will be allowed to interact with them, it could be nice to be with others that look like him for once.
It takes time for him realize the testing is over. He at first thinks they are waiting for him to regain his strength before starting but even after he has recovered no testing happens. He just keeps waiting, remaining quiet and compliant. It takes even longer for him to learn that they don't "own him", he is just joining their family. He is free to do as he wishes in ways he has never really known. Free to be "Shadow" without the word "Project" attached. Shadow has no concept of family, he has only ever been owned and he struggles to figure out how it is different. Maria loved and cared for him and he for her but she was a child. Any adult in his life has been an owner more than a parent or true caregiver. Luckily the Wachowski family has plenty of patience and love to spare to help him find out what family is and who he is.
snowghoul
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2087
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