The air in the massive chamber room felt pungent and chilly at the same time, a sacred yet profane imitation of an ancient shrine at the back corner while rivers of glowing cream colored coolant flowed in all directions around stone walking paths. This place was the beating heart of the entire space colony, and standing in the center of it were the Ultimate Life Forms gazing upon one another for the first time.

Shadow gazed up at the massive monstrosity of a bio-synthetic reptile. The surface of its skin was harsh and scabbed, grotesque tubing protruded from its body along its back and poking out from its neck, and a pair of fitting tipped metal prongs poked from the front of its head to serve as eyes. The sight of it filled his heart with a deep sympathy, but the creature appraised the black hedgehog before it with an expressionless face that betrayed no hint of what it was thinking. If it could think at all.

"So you're the true ultimate life form..." Shadow asked rhetorically aloud, his voice filled with pity. In response the lizard reared up and roared out at the hedgehog, a booming screech echoing through the chamber and rippling the water. Its mouth agape let Shadow see into the lizards glowing internals, a sickly flesh color leading to a pale white the further it went along to the back of its throat. The sound sent chills through Shadow, but the sight instilled an unspoken yearning he couldn't put into words. The same yearning that brought him down to the core of the ARK after discovering the secret project files on The Doctors computer that revealed he, Shadow, was not the first that had been created by the project to create the Ultimate Life Form.

Once the Biolizard's roar rumbled to an end it lowered its head to be closer to eye level with the hedgehog. Its sibling, in many ways. Shadow did not know how this creature felt, how it saw him or comprehended its own fate. But he knew what desire burned in his own heart, and he could only hope that this thing felt an equal but opposite desire itself. They were two missing pieces, and together they could finally be whole. Slowly, Shadow reached out a hand to touch the Biolizard's snout, and the synthetic life form rumbled but remained still allowing the contact to be made.

With the tacit acceptance provided, Shadow stepped forward and pressed his entire body against the lizards face, feeling the dull rounded lips opened against his torso while he embraced the snout as best he could. "I wondered why I was created. I couldn't begin to guess what my purpose for existing was. But now I know, there is no doubt in my mind. Do you feel the same way?" He asked, and could only hope the rumble vibrating through the lizard he received in response was a confirmation. Shadow couldn't know this creatures mind or heart, but he had to trust the connection they had in spirit compelled it just as much as it compelled him.

A pang stabbed at Shadow's heart when he felt the Biolizard pull itself away, reaching out in longing for the creature as it reared its head high again. But the concern passed instantly when he looked up to see the lizard opening its mouth and loom high above him, a drip of drool raining down to land on Shadow's smiling face. "Yes. This is my purpose. Our purpose. Take me." He sighed out aloud, lifting up his arms invitingly. And without a moments hesitation, the lizard lunged down and engulfed him. All at once the misty coolant laced air of the outside world was replaced by the organic heat of the Biolizards mouth claiming his entire body, so sudden was the change that he let out a gasp and wiggled against the flesh around him on instinct.

The Biolizard closed its lips around Shadows ankles and then lifted its head up once again, only the hedgehogs shoes poking out from its mouth while the rest of the critter struggled in its maw. After a moment Shadow relaxed, groaning out at the wet warmth compressing around his body and feeling the gentle grinding of the squishing flesh all around him, harmlessly chewing him in a way that felt soothing. He hoped if the lizard was capable of tasting anything, that his flavor was being enjoyed. Eager to fulfill his purpose for existing Shadow tried shifting himself further into the mouth, only to feel the lips holding in a tight seal around his ankles to keep him from going further. After a few seconds of not understanding, a realization occurred to the hedgehog, and with a muffled chuckle he kicked the shoes off of his feet leaving them to land with a splash into the coolant river below and get swept away.

Satisfied, the Biolizard tilted its head back and let Shadow slide towards the entrance to its gullet. Shadow felt the wetness around him grow warmer as he moved towards the glowing pale flesh of the lizards throat, and felt it flow around his body while he was sent away like he was going down a waterslide. The hedgehog made a slight bulge down the lizards long neck as he slid down, and the beast lowered its head and let out a high pitched hiss of satisfaction that lasted until the bulge disappeared from view as it reached the end of its journey. Shadow spilled into the waiting stomach of the Biolizard with a comfortable groan, panting on the pungent air inside and pushing onto his hands and knees while trembling.

The interior of the stomach was aglow with a sickly bioluminescence. The organic space was long enough for him to lay out with his hands above his head before he reached the other end, and wide enough to sit up on his knees before his head bumped against the ceiling. A sloshing puddle of fluids splashed up to his wrists and the walls around him shifted and undulated in a constant organic movement in rhythm with the muffled thudding of a heartbeat. It was oppressively hot, and yet at the same time it felt off with the emotional chill of a sterile lab room.

Shadow frowned sadly and laid face down, pressing his arms and legs out and began rubbing his body against the interior of the stomach. He felt the organ wave around him from the stimulation, and then clench down to compress against his body from all sides until he was forced to curl up into a tight spindash of a hedgehog ball. The puddle of sticky belly fluids splashed against him now filling the smaller enclosed space halfway filled, and the digestive muscle held firmly against his body without allowing an inch of open space. But Shadow was undeterred and continued moving as best he could, gently scritching his quills against his surroundings and pressing with his limbs to rub his shoulders and knees at the stomach walls, even nodding his head to nuzzle at it. There was a work quaking vibration all around him from the stomachs reaction, and the booming thunder of the Biolizard belching out a deep crass gassious discharge deafened out all other sounds.

Then the stomach relented, expanding back to the open shape it had been originally letting him tumble out of his hedgehog ball and sit up. He shook his head sending driplets of gastric fluid to splatter against the walls around him, clearing his head before assessing his surroundings again. The difference filled him with a warmth and brought a smile to his face. The pale sickly color was replaced by a deep warm pink, the walls were soft and ridged with a healthy humidity sweltering around him. Internal fumes flowed in a visible steam as the Biolizard breathed, and a quivering from the stomach walls pressed gently against Shadow in an appreciative squishing embrace. Shadow chuckled and rubbed at the walls, punctuating it with a sigh of contentment and resting back into the fleshy hammock of a stomach in complete satisfaction.

This was where he belonged. It was his purpose to be here, he felt whole and complete now. Separately they were lacking, it was only together that they fulfilled the reason for their creation. The Biolizard surged with a physical resplendence that had long been denied, and Shadow was at peace with the total assurance of what his place in the world was. In the outside world the Biolizard trudged through the coolant of the space colony core to a secluded room it used as a den, never to be seen by any mortal eyes ever again. Its movements were graceful and confident, and the motion reverberated down to its belly causing Shadow to purr amidst the gurgling of the stomach around him.

With the two creations of the project gone AWOL, the scientific research on the space colony was shut down and soon enough all human life aboard relocated back down to earth to find new journeys in life. The ARK was left desolate and abandoned but still buzzing with the perpetual energy that powered it while it drifted quietly in orbit around the planet. The only beings left behind to populate it resting at the very heart of the colony, The Ultimate Life Forms sleeping in unified bliss around and within one another, living eternally through the burble of happy belly and the regular rumble of a belch.