Edited October 2

All characters belong to Sega.

Reincarnate
Chapter 2: New Skies

Shadow watches Amy anxiously, his now slender hands clenching and unclenching on the comforter. The normally exuberant hedgehog is dead silent and staring, her face working strangely.

"Say something!" Shadow says, disbelief at his new condition making his tone sharper than he means it to be.

Amy bursts out laughing.

"Eh?"

Shadow stares at her as she shakes with laughter, clutching her sides. Slowly his frustration mounts even as her hilarity diminishes, until she's only giggling in spurts, hiding her grin behind her hand. She lowers her hand and smiles apologetically at his annoyed expression.

"Sorry! When you said that, I just immediately thought of someone else I know…knew. It struck me as funny, that's all – you two couldn't look more different."

Oh, great. Well, he should have expected this.

"But you do know me: I'm Shadow."

Amy shakes her head, staring at him strangely. He stares back in renewed frustration.

"I am! I know all about ARK, and how Robotnik was going to use the threat of his cannon to take over. Sonic and I fought the Biolizard; all of us saved the world!"

Amy is looking at him like she thinks he's a little crazy.

"Um, yes…that was all on the news."

That figures. He racks his brain for something personal that only he – the real Shadow – would know about.

"Maria–" Amy cuts him off.

"Maria was mentioned too, and Gerald Robotnik, and the whole fiasco. Look, I don't know why you're trying to convince me you're Shadow…for one thing, Shadow was most definitely a guy, and he died soon after defeating the Biolizard. You'd know that, after all you've obviously seen on T.V." To Shadow's dismay, Amy looks faintly annoyed.

"Amy! I did die, and I spoke with Maria. She said I was given a second chance at life. How else would I have come here?"

Amy seems to think about this; she's frowning thoughtfully at least, but then her face closes off again and Shadow sighs.

"You were the one who convinced me to do my part, Amy. For a second, it was like Maria was speaking through you. I have a lot to thank you for."

That struck a chord in her, Shadow can tell. Apparently, this hadn't been broadcasted. (Thank God.) Amy opens and closes her mouth a few times, her face slightly pale. Shadow watches patiently as she struggles with herself, and smiles when she finally says, "Shadow?" Across the room, Tails speaks for the first time.

"So you're…a reincarnation, huh?" Shadow nods.

"Do you know what you have to do, then?"

"What do you mean?"

"From what I know, someone is reincarnated when they have an uncompleted task. If you've come back, obviously there's something you were supposed to do that you haven't gotten around to yet. Any ideas?"

"No. Maria only said that I have to find my true purpose. Maria was always…cryptic."

He can't stop a faint smile at her memory, painful as it may be. Amy twists one of her bracelets around and around on her wrist, and he follows the movement with his eyes for a minute before glancing up at her face again. She regards him thoughtfully for a minute.

"So, what do you plan on doing?" she asks him, and he blinks. He hasn't even begun to consider his next plan of action. He has no goal, and the realization makes him feel like he's floundering. He's always had a purpose. Now that his promise to Maria has been fulfilled, it's like there's really nothing to do. She hadn't given him any clue as to what he still needs to accomplish, or what "living his life to the fullest" means. It's the first time he's considered her vagueness a flaw; until now it had been something of a novelty – purely Maria. He shakes his head.

"I don't know."

"Well, I know one thing you're going to have to do, and right away."

"And that is…?"

"Get some decent clothes on."

She laughs at him when he frowns at her, color flooding his face for, in his mind, no reason at all.

-

Left alone in his room, Shadow studies his reflection in the mirror. His once dark fur is now the pale yellow color of sunlight, and his eyes are a light green instead of red. He has no streaks on his quills anymore, he notices when he turns around and looks back over his shoulder. The dress is a little strange to him; he wonders how he's going to move around. He wonders if he can even homing attack, but inside is no place to find out. He puts his hands on his hips and sighs. This body is going to take some getting used to, definitely. And he misses his air shoes.

He opens the door and looks around the hallway, in which there is no sign of Amy or Tails. He steps out and jumps back immediately when a small robot wielding a feather duster whizzes by, green lights on its head flashing as it attacks and dusts every surface in sight. Shadow ignores it – there had been plenty of robots running around in Robotnik's wake when he was still on ARK, and he is used to them. He finds the stairs and descends, stopping outside a door when he hears Amy's voice.

"…Sonic will have a fit," she's saying. "He still has his arm bands (though they'll probably clash with his fur, now…)"

"Yeah," Tails replies in his placid voice, "I just wonder if Shadow will be able to adjust."

"Judging from how long he's been upstairs, it may take a while."

"I wonder if he still has all of his abilities."

Shadow continues past the door. If he has to find out, he'd prefer to do it alone. He opens the door, blinking in the bright sunlight, and moves away from the lab and onto the grass, looking around a little self consciously. He takes a deep breath and breaks into a run, which is pretty quick by normal standards but feels slow to him. He jumps, and to his extreme relief he is able to perform a homing attack. He lands easily and releases a breath he had been holding without realizing it. He looks down at his feet again; he isn't as fast without his air shoes. He doesn't know if being a girl has anything to do with it or not.

"Hey, you can still use your moves!"

He spins around and comes face-to-face with Amy.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"You didn't."

"Sure, sure. Does it feel weird?" He stares at her in confusion.

"Does what feel weird?"

She gives him a look that seems to imply she finds him extremely dense. She motions towards him, saying, "Being a girl, silly. That has feel a little strange for you."

"I'll get used to it."

The voice was actually a lot harder to cope with than his new body. It was hard to sound dark and serious in this higher-pitched voice, even though it isn't nearly as girlish as Amy's. He studies his gloves and Amy shrugs, looking him over.

"Am I a genius with color or what? It looks good."

"What, the dress?"

Amy sighs and pretends to look insulted. "Shadow, you're going to have to learn some fashion sense if you're going to be a girl. I should be training you or something. I know! You should come back to Station Square with me. I'll take you shopping!"

"You've got to be kidding. There's no way I'm–"

"Come on, it'll be fun!"

"No."

"Yes."

They square off, each a picture of defiance. Staring contest.

Glaring contest. Then Amy's heated stare turns to a softer, pleading look.

"Come on, Shadow, it'll be fun, I promise," she wheedles, eyes big and begging, and he has to look away.

"No," he says gruffly, or as gruffly as he can in his girl's voice. Amy harrumphs and plants her hands on her hips.

"What does it take, huh? We can grab something to eat."

She draws out the word "eat" in a way that makes him aware that he hasn't eaten for…however long he's been in this body. Amy watches him cautiously as he struggles against the two titans: aversion to shopping and hunger that's increased since he acknowledged it. Not to mention Amy's giving him Bambi eyes again, which is making it difficult for him to say no. Then she plays her ace.

"You even said you owe me. Please?"

"All right, all right!" he holds up his hands. "But only for a while, okay?"

"Yes!"

She snatches his wrist and starts tugging him with her.

"What, we're going now?" he asks as she shouts a goodbye to Tails, who had come out on the porch when he heard them arguing. She glances at him over her shoulder as she sprints for the train station.

"What did you think?"

"But your stuff is here!" he hadn't counted on having to put up with it today.

"We're coming back, aren't we? Hurry up!"

He groans, and then allows himself to be dragged along behind her.

How bad could it be?