Chaos Born

A Body Without a Head

A brown withered leaf finally released its hold on the branch and floated gently earthbound, dancing on little breezes it managed to catch and rolling over and over, brushing the nose of Shade the Echidna as she took pause beneath its tree. She watched the leaf, cracked and void of life, as it gave another somersault and came to rest alongside its fallen brethren on the forest floor.

In a depressing sort of way, Shade felt a kinship with that leaf, sympathising with its place in life.

She had fallen from her tree many years ago, tearing herself from the life she knew, alienating from her tribe to follow a hedgehog she had barely known to a world she didn't belong in.
That was what she had thought at the time, anyway. Things had improved since then, she supposed.

From being a captain in a whole clan of echidnas to suddenly being one of only two on the entire planet was a shift that had struck her deeply and had evoked a new respect for Knuckles for having lived as the last of his kind for so long. That thought hadn't even occured to her when she and a group of her warriors had infiltrated Angel Island and had kidnapped him along with the Master Emerald ten years ago. She had changed since then and had made peace with Knuckles since he all but saved her life during that time. He and Sonic had impressed her and she had vowed to follow them into whatever battle they faced.

She could sense, however, the age-old tension between Knuckles and herself, the blood-feud of their clans still present in their own veins though Shade had done her level best to override those territorial instincts.

Shadow had helped her enormously on that front.

He had confessed, in confidentiality to her, that he still felt territorial around Sonic and that basic animal instinct was something that they all had to deal with in some form or another.
She barely knew Shadow but he had quickly deduced that Shade was finding it hard as one who originated from another time and who had been raised to believe one thing.

In many ways, Shadow and Shade were a lot alike and thus, they had bonded as friends.

The added perk that their names were practically identicle in their meanings wasn't picked up on immediately - at least, not by them.

"Out here by yourself?" Shadow's recognisable voice asked as the darker hedgehog came walking down the forest path. He had come looking for her.

"I need to be by myself sometimes," Shade replied, shrugging her shoulders and planting her foot over the leaf she had been watching, "I can think better."

Shadow couldn't argue with that. As he walked on, Shade walked with him.

"What have you been up to?" she asked, "Heard Eggman might be making a comeback. Bet you, Rouge and Omega are busy."

"And how did you find that out?"

"What you don't know can't hurt you, Shadow."

"On the contrary," Shadow contradicted with a grim face, "What you don't know can hurt you very much."

Shade glanced at him from the corner of her eye.

 "...Now you're onto something completely different," she noted, "I know that look and I know what it means when your spikes do the thing; you're thinking about Sonic."

Shadow turned to her, puzzled.

 "Do the thing?" he echoed, "What do you mean 'do the thing'?"

"Nothing," Shade laughed, "But you ARE talking about Sonic, aren't you? What's happened? Is it to do with that creep that turned up at Sonic and Amy's engagement get-together?" Shadow pressed his tongue against his lips.