I have very much enjoyed reading this one back a few times, with music ;)

There is so much emotion in this one, although I am still not certain i fully got your intended meaning, i definitely got a few.

Interpretation one:
The shadow is he. I don't recall this saga, so I may be entirely missing the mark, and reading the story i want to see the most in here. Our main character is a robot that was once human, as his ind was built on and expanded, he became someone else, Ariel, but the shadow of himself, his soul for want of a better term, is still there, haunting him, and although he tries to reject it, it remains. For reasons that don't need explaining for the emotional impact to carry, caring for the robo-child, bring sit back to the surface. The ease with which he cares deeply supports this. He wrestled with himself, refusing to acknowledge the name he was once called, everything is entirely in his head, and at points, his former self is able to take over. The bit where someone asks why ariel is acting funny, thats the little girl right? and thats why it hits timothy so hard, allowing for miss mystic to knock him out for a moment, they drag him back inside and there, once he comes round, he records it, in the hope that it will be enough to subdue the shadow.
-- I very much like this possible way of reading it, the internal struggle, the idea of self, and the former self, of acknowledging who he was whilst not letting that rock who he is now. It being triggers by the robochild gives a huge amount of emotional depth to the character, creating a sense of his background. The slow build to him almost realising, he calls the voice enemy of me, but i wasn't certain if he actually fully realised it was him, and the voice took it that way for wanting to hear that. The shadow, not being able to follow through on its resolve, still held back by its 'humanity' and getting knocked out, brings in empathy for both ariel and timothy, and the ending feels so real, that trying to hold on to yourself in the midst of identity confusion, the tug between two halves trying to find balance by recording it

Interpretation two:
The shadow is a separate entity. This changes how is reads entirely, i am mainly feeling interpretation 1, but thought i'd include the others for fun. If the shadow is something else, the Ariel is being possessed by it, it wants to take from him, and although assures him it won't endanger the child, kinda feel like it would, and Ariel uses all his strength of resolve to resist it, refusing to accept it as it tries to take over him. This also changes the end, now he is recording it for the future, so if it tries again, he has something he can refer back to and help himself break free. This is also a really nice story, feeling somehow more lonely than the first interpretation, despite the first one being entirely internal but something everyone could go through (if they have all been upgraded like Ariel) reading it like this feels a lot more like him bearing this burden alone. The way it tears at his sanity carries no mater how i read it though.

Interpretation threee
Thetans. Nice good respectable Scientologist wrestling thetans which of course you get more of around children.