Reflection 006: Apogee of Darkness
Shadow gazed out the window, watching the earth as night consumed half of it. In his mind, he could hear the voices of those that had lived in the colony, ghosts of the past that always haunted him when he visited. Whenever he heard the whispers he felt disconnected from the world, like Chaos Control.
A light tap on his shoulder brought Shadow out of his musings.
"I thought I'd find you here," Rouge said, smiling slyly.
"Isn't this where you always find me?"
The bat shrugged. "I would have thought you'd stay on earth and make it a little easier on me, but I guess not."
"You know this is my home."
"Yes, I do. And so does the government, Shadow." Rouge caught the hedgehog's gaze. "I know what you can do, but so do your enemies. Just because you have an Emerald doesn't mean they can't catch you. You're not as far above the rest of us as you think."
Silence descended and the two of them stared at each other. Shadow's gaze returned briefly to the planet below.
"What have you found this time?" he asked, turning back to the bat.
Rouge eyed him a moment before responding.
"I was thinking you and I could go out for a meal, to be honest."
Shadow raised an eyebrow. "That's rather... simple."
"What?" the bat asked playfully, "You expect me to spend all my time reclaiming my precious jewels? I'm not that one-minded."
"Of course not," the hedgehog replied with a smirk as he turned to leave the room, "You're also trying to win over that echidna."
With a furious blush Rouge shot back, "It's just for the Master Emerald!"
"Aha!" Shadow cried, "Then you are just after the gem!"
The bat spluttered with an answer for a moment before simply shutting her mouth and glaring at her companion. They strode along the dim corridors in silence, navigating the ancient colony that both of them knew well. Finally, Rouge broke the silence.
"Remember when we first met?"
Shadow looked over at the bat.
"You mean when you were a spy for the government trying to stop the doctor and I?"
Rouge nodded. "Even then I had no idea what you were planning."
The hedgehog thought a moment before responding. "Neither did I, to be honest. I was completely unaware of Gerald's self-destruct program."
With a raised eyebrow, Rouge gave her companion a sideways glance. "You went along with it well enough."
Shadow laughed spitefully. "I have long been resigned to the thought of dying—passing then meant nothing to me."
"Then why did you help stop the ARK?"
The two of them stopped, waiting for the door before them to slide aside. The hedgehog said nothing as the door hissed out of the way and the two of them entered the transporter room. They set up in silence, the sounds of busy keyboards and footfalls filling the room. Before they stepped on the pad, Shadow quietly replied.
"Because of Maria."
Rouge looked at her companion and smiled.
"Of course."
Shadow looked around the dim, humming room. As he stepped on the teleporter, he said, "After dinner, I'd like to go find something to do."
The bat grinned as she watched him disappear.
"Together, of course," she replied as she followed him.
AN: This actually went in a different direction than I thought it would. Then again, I kinda forgot what I was going to write in the middle of writing it. However, that's not necessarily the important part. When I started this, I (again) had little to no idea what 'apogee' meant. Dictionary d0t com described it as the pinnacle or apex, but they also described it in terms of astronomy, where a heavenly body is at its most distant (generally speaking about the moon in its rotation around the earth). So, I wanted the characters to be 'distant' from the current time-that is, reminiscing. I know that's obscure, but it somehow makes sense to me.
As I Am,
~Lady Spritzy
Posted 27 July 2012
