Brothers in Arms

Shadow: Careless Conjecture

"Boy, I haven't heard Abe that cheery in a while," Rouge half-jokes, trying to lighten the mood as we arrive at headquarters. I don't respond, feeling this is hardly the time for humor.

"Shadow? Are you alright?" She asks as we walk in, looking at me with concern, and I shake my head.

"Commander Tower is right. I'm going to have to keep every sense open, and you might even be in danger, yourself. Even without Eclipse to deal with, this would be a stressful situation. Add him in, and I don't even know if I can trust myself, let alone anybody else."

"You can trust me," Rouge replies somewhat indignantly, and I nod seriously.

"Yes, but, if this group is as powerful as Tower's worried it is, we have to watch our backs, even around our comrades. Double agents aren't that hard to sneak in."

"You're really running with this, aren't you, hun?" Rouge sighs, and I shrug.

"Better wary of everything than regretful and dead or, worse, captured for experiments or ransom. G.U.N. would have to use a lot of resources cleaning up that mess, whether to get me out or to destroy all possible parts of me floating around."

"That's morbid, Shadow," Rouge says, frowning. "It's one thing to be wary, but you sound resigned to being dissected!"

"Might as well be prepared, right?" I reply, a hint of dark humor in my raised eyebrow. "We should get moving. I'll get the Emerald and a Chaos detector and meet you in the hangar." I whirl away before she can respond, escaping her inevitable concerned comment.

She's still tapping her foot, annoyed with me, when I return five minutes later. The sun's light is just brightening the sky, and I sigh as I realize we're up at least an hour before sunrise. Rouge doesn't say anything as I teleport us to the plains, but I know from experience that she's just building up for a long scolding later.

We scan everything. I run around in a good five hundred-mile radius, and there's still no signal reminiscent of what I saw yesterday. Rouge stays with me the whole time, flying next to me or riding in my arms for the particularly fast parts. We spend over four hours just zipping around, senses attuned and Chaos detector close at hand, but it seems our search is in vain.

So, as mid-morning approaches on the sunny fields, we warp back to G.U.N., footsore and weary.

"I am starving," Rouge complains as we trudge back from Tower's office, having reported our fruitless attempt. "But they're not serving food here until one, and it's only nine thirty." I give her an unimpressed look, not feeling too sympathetic to her plight.

"I'm hungry, but I don't really want to eat right now," I reply, speaking softer than usual. I still feel frustrated at myself from this morning, not knowing how I could let myself make a mistake like this.

"Oh, Shadow," Rouge says concernedly, obviously picking up on my emotions. "It's Eclipse's fault, not yours. Don't blame yourself. Blame him! He's the reason you forgot--he's probably the reason you're feeling so down!"

"I don't think so," I sigh despondently, wanting to do nothing more than crawl under a big rug right now. "And neither does Tower. He didn't come out and say it, but I'm pretty positive he's already monitoring Eclipse's mental activity. Now, he probably just thinks I'm looking for an excuse for my failure..."

"Hun, even if Eclipse isn't behind this, Abe doesn't think that about you! He knows you're more likely to be hard on yourself than anyone else. I mean, you could use less of that and not more, you know?"

"Yeah," I respond, feeling very half-hearted. I'm listening, but I think Rouge is wrong about this. To my eyes, I seem to be a blame-shedding incompetent who won't admit when he's made a mistake, though I do appreciate her attempts to cheer me up.