Shadow is sitting on the edge of the examination table. His shirt and jacket are folded next to him on the table to allow access to the scraps on his torso. Maria is sitting in a chair in front of him and is cleaning up his scrapes with clean cloths. Earlier, Shadow had protested in saying that he doesn`t need this medical attention and believes that he is fine but Maria, as well as Gerald, insisted on it. Even though the scrapes aren`t that deep at all, he could still get infections if they are not treated properly. Maria pours more of the cleanser onto a cloth and applies the cloth onto a scrape on Shadow in the space where his chest and shoulder meet.

X-Rays were done earlier and a couple of the medical scientists are examining the x-ray sheets. Looking at Shadow`s bones all over from head to toe, they find that nothing is broken, remarkably. Such a fall would cause immense damage to any normal person. They begin to make comments among themselves at how well Gerald has built Shadow.

Gerald is looking to a screen which is replaying Shadow`s fall from start to finish. It plays in semi-slow motion so that he can get a good look at what exactly took place during the accident. He carefully examines where Shadow was injured during the fall and how he struck the floor. Maria is turned away so that she can`t see the screen,"Grandfather, please...I don`t want to see that again..."

Gerald continues to watch the video. He has his arms folded together as he is focused on the animation on the screen,"I`m sorry, Maria, but any information we can gather would be invaluable. This is just incredible. Several of these moments would have killed any other person."

Maria jerks a little in her seat upon Gerald mentioning that last bit. Then she goes back to cleaning Shadow`s scrapes. It would be best to concentrate on that than her grandfather`s movie choice. Gerald points to the screen at the point where Shadow`s head hits the floor at an odd angle,"THAT should have killed him instantly, yet not even a small fracture to the skull. Incredible..."

Once Shadow crosses the finish line in the video, Gerald finally turns the screen off. He turns around to look at Shadow, whom is still seated on the examination table,"...You truly are amazing..."

Shadow lifts his head a little, looking to the aged professor. Gerald`s remark sounds like a good thing has happened. But looking at Maria, she seems to facially express something different, like something on her mind is bothering her. Where has that smile of hers gone? Lowering his head back down to get a better look at Maria`s face, Shadow quietly says her name to grab her attention. Maria stops what she is doing and lifts her head up to Shadow. She can see the concern on his features and thus, she gives him a smile in hopes of washing away his worry. He has imprinted himself on to her; if she is worried about something, he becomes instantly worried. However, if she is not worried, then he doesn`t worry.

She doesn`t get to see if giving him a smile has any lasting effects on him no longer worrying as the scientists grab Shadow and take him away to do more examining on him. With the revelation of how Shadow`s body can take damage easily, they are excited in learning more about him.

Maria watches Shadow be taken away and when he is out of the room, Maria turns her chair around to look at her grandfather. As always, Maria`s voice is soft and filled with a kind aura,"Grandfather...Why did you create Shadow?"

Gerald`s face changes a little. He knew this question was going to come up. He also knew that when it came, he would not be fully prepared to answer her. She is a very intelligent girl, she would have figured it out sooner or later that Shadow`s purpose was not to just be a friendly companion for her. Still...He can`t tell her everything. One of the things was to be a surprise for her, while another is rather dire. She isn`t ready to know right now anyway. Maybe he could deter her from the subject for now? He sighs and sits down in another chair,"Maria...He has a lot of purposes. He will be very important to many people. But for now, let`s not worry about that. There is still a lot of work to be done."

Maria`s face drops a tad at hearing her grandfather not answer her question. He normally would be happy to answer any question she has. But her sweet nature won`t permit her to pester or keep asking her grandfather about the matter. She accepts the response he has given her, figuring that he will one day tell her.

Gerald stands up from his chair,"Why don`t you just run along for a while? We`ll just do a final check-up on Shadow and he`ll meet up with you later."

"All right."

Maria stands up from her chair. She puts a hand over her chest, closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She exhales slowly and then she leaves the room. Gerald becomes a little more sad watching how Maria leaves the room. Her disease has progressed quickly the past few days. She is considerably slower than what she once was and seems to have taken on an even more fragile appearance. No one can really say how much time there is left for Maria. After sitting in the chair, looking to the floor deep in thought for a while, Gerald leaves this room and moves on to the next room where Shadow and the other scientists are.

Maria decides to go to another favourite place of hers to relax at for a while to kill time until Shadow can re-join her.

It is a large area that is sectioned off on the Arc. Several of the scientists have been maintaining this area as part of their studies but often times Maria is permitted to enter when they are not currently working on it. It is an area where plants are being raised and taken care of. This is so they can study how successful growing plants out in space is possible, to also provide food for the animals that are being studied and lastly, be ingredients for medicines that they are creating.

Maria enters this area and locates a tree that she usually favours sitting by. Once she finds it, she sits down in the grass in front of the tree`s wide trunk. Then she leans back so that she is laying against the tree. She begins to think about the events of the day.

What a terrible fall Shadow had. It truly is a miracle he had such few scrapes, let alone survived it. What would the purpose be for him to take such damage like that and get up like nothing happened? What could it be? And why would he need to be as speedy as he is or go through training? Maria is sure that there is some valid reason for all of this as she knows her grandfather doesn`t just create things just for the fun of it. There are reasons. They are good ones, too, surely. He`s just as mysterious as he looks.

Above all else though, Shadow is her friend even though he is a product of science and experimentation. She would see him as her friend before anything else. He is a person, like her and everyone else. To Maria, he is no different than her or the others on the Arc. She would love to spend time with him and talk to him and do other fun things with this dark one. Teaching him is interesting and he gets to learn important things but they could do other things. Surely he would like to enjoy himself with fun things.

That`s right! Maria wanted to figure out what would be enjoyable for him. Maria leans her head back against the trunk of the tree and looks to the ceiling as she tries to think of something that he may enjoy that would be fun.

As this is the Arc, there are no sunny skies or clouds overhead for Maria`s view here. Only the metal ceiling with the lights strewn around along with hanging wires. What would the skies on Earth by like if she were down there, sitting with their trees, looking up? If only she could be on that wonderful planet...

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