Shadow: The Origin Of A Legend

Chapter 11

I scream as I fall farther and farther, gathering momentum rapidly. The wind rushes through my ears, howling. My heart is thudding rapidly in my chest and I can't breathe. Somehow, it feels like I'm spinning, and I feel dizzy, but I can't possibly be spinning. I can feel myself shivering, but I don't think it's because of the chill of the air. What's wrong with me? Am I going crazy?

Before I can think any more, something catches me by the back and yanks me upward abruptly. I let out a sharp yelp as my direction of movement changes from downward to moving up and to my left. A strong pair of arms wrap around my chest, and I would recognize those white-and-pink gloves anywhere, even before I heard her voice.

"Hey, sugar," Rouge says cheerfully. "Thought you didn't like heights?"

"N-Normally I don't," I call up to her, stammering, still feeling like I can't breathe, "but this w-was an emergency situation." I'm still shivering.

She glances down at me, amused. "Yeah, I know." Shifting her position, she flaps her wings to gain some leverage and pulls me a bit closer. I can hear her thoughts as clearly as if she was speaking. 'Jeez, he's shaking like a leaf, poor guy. If I know him, though, it's best I don't mention that.' She smirks at me, continuing her previous statement. "But seriously, couldn't you have sent a postcard?" The smile drops from her face, replaced by a look of annoyance. "I had to learn of your whereabouts through a news report saying you'd been admitted to the hospital for starvation!" She scolds.

"S-sorry," I reply, sheepish, "I was more than a l-little busy..."

"You ditched me!" Rouge replies coldly. "You didn't even leave a good-bye note..." The harshness in her voice fades, replaced by sadness that spears my heart.

"I-I'm so sorry, Rouge," I reply, looking up at her. "Please don't be angry at me, I-"

"How can I not be?!" She yells. "You abandoned me! I trusted you and you abandoned me!"

Frustrated, at a loss for words, I hesitated, then blurted, "I just wanted to protect you, Rouge!" Surprised, she looks down at me. We lock eyes for a moment that stretches on awkwardly; I finally break it by looking down at the scenery, despite how sickening the height was. "I-I just wanted to keep you safe, and being with me practically guarantees that you'll get hurt." Tears begin to well in my eyes as I think of Heather, Omega, and my possibly-dead family. "Everyone I've ever known has--has died, or disappeared, and it's all because of me."

Rouge slows down, preparing to land on a nearby neon-purple-lit building. "Oh, Shadow," she sighs, putting me down on the roof. I stand up straight as she lands next to me. She turns to me, pity in her eyes. I'm starting to find that I don't mind pity any more, or maybe I just don't mind the fact that she pities me. Sitting down, she crosses her legs, dangling them over the edge of the building; with a small pat on the ground next to her, she invites me to sit next to her. Wincing, I oblige--the glass shrapnel burrowing into my skin is still painful--and I try to hide my agony. Unfortunately, my act is clearly unconvincing. "Shadow, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I reply gruffly, propping my arms up on my knees and resting my chin on my arms, biting my lip to keep from screaming as the glass shards burrow further into my arms and legs.

"You don't look fine." She reaches over and plucks a glass shard out of the side of my face.

"Hey!" I yelp, flinching, and turn to face her with an indignant look. "What are you-?!"

"If you don't get those shards out of your skin, they'll stay there forever," she replies, pulling out another, "and that'll cause problems in the future. Just hold still and let me take care of them." Rouge reaches into one boot and pulls out a pair of tweezers, then grabs my head with one hand. I don't even have time to wonder why the heck she keeps tweezers in her boot before she's practically attacking me with them, yanking out the glass shrapnel.

Annoyed, I scowl at her, but don't protest much. She takes around thirty minutes to pull all of the glass out of me, and by the time she's done I'm bleeding from about a hundred different small scrapes and we have a medium-sized pile of glass between us. She breathes a sigh and wipes her forehead. "That would've been a lot easier if you'd managed to stop struggling for more than ten seconds," she grumbles, sweeping the glass off the edge.

"Hey, I didn't ask you to do it." I growled in response, resuming my previous position with my arms and head resting on my knees. I looked out at the cityscape beneath me, eyes half-shut. It had been a long day, and all I wanted to do was sleep.

Rouge looks at me for a moment, and I'm tempted to read her thoughts, but I don't want to know what she thinks of me now. She's probably still angry at me for ditching her a year ago. I sigh inwardly. I shouldn't have done it, but it's too late to take it back now. She shifts position, and then clears her throat awkwardly. "So, uh..." She begins, and I glance over at her from the corner of my eye. "What are you going to do now, Shadow?" She turns to me again.

I fix my gaze on the twinkling neon lights again, thinking about my response. What am I going to do now? I need to find out who or what I am, but Robotnik might be the only person who knows...I want to make Robotnik pay for all that he's put me through, but I know that Sonic would never agree to work with me, and I don't know much of anything about him anyways. It'd be impossible to be friends with him, not after what I've done. I don't know if I can even stay in this country, or any country on this planet...I close my eyes, lowering my head between my arms. I've committed such atrocities; do I even deserve to live anymore?

"Shadow?" Rouge gently prods my arm.

"I don't know, Rouge," I sigh. "I just don't know." Lifting my head, I stare at the twinkling stars. "I-I want to do something to make up for the atrocities I've committed, but I know there's nothing I can do..." Tears form at the edges of my eyes, and I try valiantly to blink them away.

"What do you mean?" Rouge gently rubs my arm in a soothing manner, almost absentmindedly.

I shake my head, feeling my throat close up. I can't explain to her exactly how horrible I am. I hate myself, but I'm nowhere near able to tell her that. I don't want to burden her with my emotions. After a long pause, I get myself together and turn my head, looking Rouge dead in the eye. Not much about her has changed. She's wearing a different outfit--this time, it's a black tank top with a bright red heart on it and acid-wash jeans. Her eyes are more of a blue color, with less green in them. Her wings are half-furled around her shoulders, and she's wearing red eyeshadow despite the fact that it doesn't suit her eyes too terribly well. A gust of wind tousles both her hair and mine; I blink and brush mine out of my eyes. "Look, I can't stay here," I reply. "I have to find out who I am, where I came from. And I won't find that here. Besides," I sigh, "it's not like the people around here want me to stay." I shift position, pulling my arms back to my sides and letting my feet dangle over the edge.

Rouge hesitates. "You know...You could always work with me."

I shake my head. "No. No way. I'm never working for any sort of agency again. In fact, I'd prefer to not work for anyone ever again." She looks down, clearly more than a little disappointed. I turn to face her. "Look..." She glances over at me. "I appreciate the offer. And I'll keep it in mind, if I change my tune in the future."

She smirks slightly. "You're not really going to do that, are you?" She queries with a slight laugh.

"Rouge," I shift position to completely face her, and I grab her hand. "I promise you. I will work with you some day, but I have to find out who I am first."

Rouge blushes, looking surprised for a moment, but then her face breaks into a smile. "So serious, Spaceman," she giggles, and despite my distaste for smiling I find myself grinning back at her.

"Yes, just so, so serious," I chuckle, dropping her hand and turning back to the cityscape, feeling a bit silly and over-dramatic. We sit in silence for the longest time, watching cars go by, lights flicker in neon tones. I look back up at the stars, twinkling and glittering in the sky. The clouds above reflect the bright tones of the city, mixing and melding together on their soft, fluffy surface. "It really is beautiful out here." I remarked, leaning back a bit.

Rouge smiles. "Yeah. It really is."