The shadows lingered sullenly and silently, as the dark Chao gathered around the dark hedgehog. The appearance of the curled and wispy trees, similar to a burning candle wick, and the fruits colored like hearts, made him feel welcome here. There was a red sea here, imagining that someone had died to give the Chao a place to swim. Soon, he found it was only nothing more but Kool-Aid. They liked the fruit punch flavor, though sometimes they would opt for the lemon.
Leaves danced and swirled around him, the wind cutting cold breaths into his quivering quills. Shadow often was too busy to visit the little fays only told in legend, but he visited whenever he could. They couldn't discuss politics or books or any other intelligent conversation worth noting, but they appreciated his presence, and they never demanded much other than lots of pets and rubs and some gemmed heart fruit.
The winds stirred, the vising ice gripping onto his body. He had eyes, he had ears, but he could be both blind and deaf, and still know when Sonic was coming. It was something he learned to pick up, and he felt even those who had no senses and were shrouded in darkness could still feel him in the distance. He felt that he was a mystical being, a guardian that laid his hands to protecting those who considered him dear, but Sonic may never admit to that. Even those who were confident and brash could never find themselves to be of a holy power. It was how the mystical ones truly worked.
The Chao had worn Shadow's dark facade, had bore the signs of Shadow's care and affection, but they also welcomed Sonic with raised arms, excited dogs believing their owner had disappeared for an eternity. In a way, it might as well be true. Sonic often was too occupied with protecting Mobius from too many threats. Truly, he didn't mind it, but there were days where he was tired, and just wanted to relax. Sonic shivered from the frigid wind, but was warmed by the Chao's cheek rubs and Shadow's reassuring body next to him.
It was too long since he saw him last, he knew. Work was tiresome. Breaks in-between the cataclysms and the anxiety were often scarce. They came here because it was the only place they knew that while it forebode wickedness and sin, they had a friend. A friend who truly was dead, but was still alive in their hearts and minds.
Sonic brought delicate things for them to eat, for all of them. An apple and brie sandwich, applesauce, fig pudding, roasted snake, black marbled bread, and chocolate candy in the shape of an egg.
They felt the eggs he collected didn't mean anything to the outside world, but it meant something else to them. There was often a debate about rebirth and regeneration where they escaped from. That from everything that was created, it used to be destroyed and blasphemed. Dead things were ate by the soil, and things grew and were born. Sonic thought nothing had to be destroyed for the sake of a peaceful life on Earth, and Shadow often switched back and forth to things only being occasionally thrown away to a revelation to start things from the beginning. A videogame player who felt he was bored and dissatisfied with the world he once tried to save, so he restarted and tried to rebuild everything from the disassembled ashes.
Differing views like this often dissuaded them from eating a picnic with the water babies in complete harmony, but things had to be quiet, just this once. They were dead, truly, and nothing mattered, except for those that believed in them. Those who thought they were heroes and angels.
Holding hands despite the freezing whips of the wind, the trees that raked their claws against the purple faineant sky, and the water that tasted of powdered drinks straight from a grandmother's fridge on a hot summer day, they were here, they were at peace for at least fifteen minutes before they waged and fought against the shadows and volatile thoughts of the suffering for a thousand years, and they had to relinquish it, for however much they could.
The Chao sighed happily, the wind howled violently, and both angels had said nothing and only reflected on their thoughts, the candied eggs broken and bleeding.