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Each member of Team Dark was like a fracture-filled diamond. Their flaws were hidden from sight, but they were still damaged. If pressure were applied to their weaknesses, then any one of them could shatter like glass.
Rouge sat on the rooftop railing of GUN’s headquarters. The helipads behind her were empty, and a chill breeze ruffled her fur.
It was strange, really. They were some of GUN’s strongest operatives, but they were broken in countless ways, and their very lives were made up of broken pieces.
She still remembered the moment when she had first encountered Omega and freed Shadow from that stasis capsule. Her newfound reality had been reflected in the broken glass that had once imprisoned him.
Shadow himself was an amalgamation of broken things. One of the rings he had worn on his wrists when they first met now lay broken in the bottom of her chest of drawers. As he began to take more risks in combat and became more detached from his own body, his bones began to break – infinitesimal fractures that healed almost as quickly as they appeared. His trust in his creator, whom he had believed would never hurt him, had been shattered beyond repair.
Omega’s breaking points were less obvious to the naked eye. He was made almost entirely out of metal, but beneath his exterior, there were still servos, wires, and articulated joints that could break. She still remembered the time that one of his lenses had cracked in battle; it had looked like a damaged, blood-filled sclera. It seemed impossible that someone like him could ‘break’, but his exterior wasn’t impenetrable… and his code wasn’t flawless.
Rouge liked to think that she had gotten off lightly, but she wondered whether that was actually true. She kept the first 18 years of her life strictly to herself. For all Shadow and Omega knew, she had come into existence when she had first met Shadow aboard the Ark. That was how little they knew about her past. In their eyes, she didn’t have a broken home or broken relationships. She drank and gambled and stole and flirted because she was a charismatic spy and treasure hunter, not because she was desperately trying to live life on her own terms. She didn’t know where the facade ended and where she began, and she was terrified of what would happen if that facade shattered.
The wind was picking up, and she curved her wings around her bare shoulders.
People praised Shadow for not becoming a monster despite everything he’d been through. They said that he was doing well, all things considered. They commended him for working with GUN despite everything the organisation had done to him. They chalked his rough demeanour up to his personality, conveniently ignoring the fact that he had CPTSD.
People praised Omega for his commitment to defeating Doctor Eggman, choosing to believe that he had noble intentions, because that was more palatable than admitting he was driven by bloodlust and a desire for revenge. In the rare event that they couldn’t ignore the truth, they laughed nervously and said they hoped that Omega wouldn’t kill any more humans after that – that he wouldn’t kill them.
People praised Rouge for her accomplishments as a spy and government agent, overlooking that she was also a world-renowned treasure hunter and a business owner. They assumed that she was promiscuous, then chose to overlook said promiscuity for the sake of her “service to their country”. In the rare event that someone learned she was a high-school dropout, they marvelled that she had turned out “all right”. Just “all right”, not “well”. If she had turned out well, then she wouldn’t dress like a slut, apparently.
Team Dark were all praised for being ‘fine’, because the world needed to believe that the three of them were. The alternative – that each of them had been broken beyond repair by systems that benefited the people all around them – was more than the average conscience could bear.
It was repulsive to be commended for being ‘fine’, as though it were a spectacular accomplishment rather than a hard-won victory in a battle that they had no choice but to fight. The words were usually met with an angry snarl, a bored eyeroll, or a disapproving whirr.
She couldn’t help but wonder what it would take for the general public to change their minds and decide that Team Dark weren’t ‘fine’ anymore. Would Shadow have to kill someone? Would Omega have to go berserk? Would she have to have a breakdown?
Something rose in her chest and at the back of her eyes. She shook her head, willing the feeling away, but it refused to leave. She gritted her teeth, clenching her hands around the railing. She wasn’t fine at all, was she?
A sharp flash of green light illuminated the railing, and she heard the sound of metal on concrete. She didn’t look, but she knew that Shadow was standing there. He took an uncertain step forward, then he hauled himself up and sat beside her. His gloved hands closed on the railing, and rivers of traffic flowed far beneath his feet.
‘Am I in your spot?’ Rouge muttered, and she saw his gaze darken. It was a low blow, and she knew it. Usually, it was Shadow who haunted this rooftop, not the other way around.
‘You can tell me to leave.’
Rouge said nothing. She drew her feet up, huddling on the railing like a gargoyle. Shadow decided not to imitate her. He likely thought it was an unnecessary risk. If he fell, he could use his abilities to save himself, but he’d sustained enough head injuries over the course of his life to last him for eternity.
‘… Rouge?
‘Now you know what it feels like,’ Rouge murmured. She wrapped her arms around her knees, looking out over the city. ‘Now you know how it feels whenever I find you here and have to force you to tell me what’s wrong.’
‘… Is something wrong, then?’
She stiffened and raised one of her wings, whacking him on the back with it. He nearly fell from the railing, and her hand shot out, grabbing his arm in spite of her foul mood. ‘What do you think?’
’I think you seem upset –’
‘Yeah? Well, I think your creator forgot to give you empathy,’ Rouge snapped.
Shadow’s grip slackened on the railing, and his ears flattened against his head. His typically sharp expression crumpled, and his ruby eyes flickered. He seemed stunned.
‘I’m sorry,’ Rouge said, but the words did nothing to soak up the guilt rising in her chest. ‘I-I’m sorry. I-I –‘
‘Maybe you’re right. Or maybe he just didn’t think it was necessary,’ Shadow took a deep breath and exhaled shakily. ‘After all, a creation can never exceed its creator… and he was never very good at understanding how I felt.’
‘I-I didn’t mean it, Shadow, I swear. I just…’ Rouge drew her wings tighter, putting up a barrier between them. ‘I’m the one who always puts you and Omega back together, but you never… no one ever…’ Her wings lowered, trailing down her back like silken shadows. ‘Why doesn’t anyone ever notice?’
Shadow hesitated, and he didn’t draw closer to her. She’d hurt him. She’d really hurt him. She couldn’t blame him if he left as quickly as he had come. But he stayed nonetheless. ‘… I wasn’t aware that you needed to be helped.’ He hesitated again, clearly wrestling with something. Then he said quietly, ‘I’m not blind, Rouge. It isn’t fair to blame me for not noticing that something’s wrong when you go to such excessive lengths to hide it.’
Her eyes began to water, and she said, ’So you’re saying it’s my fault that no one ever helps me?’
‘No. No, of course not.’ Shadow grimaced and looked away. He’d rescued her countless times before, but rescuing wasn’t always the same thing as helping. ‘It’s no one’s fault. Look, I’m not good at this, all right?’
‘… Clearly.’
An awkward silence ensued, and he shifted his weight on the railing. ‘Did something happen?’
‘No.’
His body went rigid. ‘Did someone hurt you?’
‘Good grief. No!’ Rouge massaged the bridge of her muzzle. She could feel a migraine coming on. ‘Look, I’m not in the mood to play 20 Questions, all right?’
He bit his tongue, and she wondered if she’d finally annoyed him into silence. But when she looked up, she saw that his gaze was unfocused. ‘I used to wonder why I couldn’t be more like you. It felt like you had it all together. I thought there was something wrong with me.’
Rouge stiffened. She wanted to argue. She wanted to insist that she was ‘fine’, because it felt like her life depended on it… but she didn’t. ‘Do you really think that I’d talk about my problems with someone like you?’
Shadow flinched, and she realised how her words must have sounded. She scrambled, hurriedly saying, ‘I-I mean, your problems are a lot bigger than mine. Why would I complain to you about my family?’
He stared at her in bewilderment. ‘You have a family?’
‘Yes?’ Her eyes widened, and she forced a smile. ’I’m not the one who was created in a lab in outer space.’
He didn’t react, and she wondered if she’d tried to steer the conversation in a more lighthearted direction too soon. But his eyes softened slightly.’ What are they like?’
‘Oh, they’re horrible.’ Rouge examined her gloved fingertips, as though she were checking her manicure. ‘Not as bad as yours, but they’re decent competition –‘
‘I wish you’d have told me.’ Regret welled up in his eyes, and he said, ‘About this. About any of it. I would have tried to help if I had known.’
‘There’s nothing you can do,’ Rouge said wearily. ‘It’s fine.’
After a moment, Shadow placed an arm around her shoulder. It felt like being hugged by a mannequin. She blinked, wondering if she’d finally lost her mind. But then she felt the weight of his arm and the coldness of the inhibitor ring on his wrist. He lowered his head to hers and muttered, ‘Don’t tell me what I can or can’t do, damn it.’
It was so abrupt – so clumsy and awkward – that she laughed, disguising it as a cough.
‘Are you laughing at me?’
‘No? What on earth are you talking about –’
‘You can’t lie to me,’ Shadow said. ‘Not any more.’
There was an argument on the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed it and slumped against him, resting her head on his shoulder. ‘All right, you got me. What, do you want a prize?’
‘I want you to come to me when you feel like this,’ Shadow said. ‘Don’t make me come looking for you.’
The doors of the service elevator behind them slid open, and she heard familiar, heavy footfalls. ‘Seconded. I am also submitting a request that the two of you mope elsewhere.’ Rouge heard the sound of buckling metal, and she and Shadow turned, wincing as they saw Omega’s shoulders stuck in the elevator doors. ‘This current arrangement makes retrieving you both extremely difficult.’
‘Heaven forbid that I make you work for it,’ Rouge joked as Omega freed himself and lumbered over to join them.
He stared down at her, then at Shadow. ‘What is wrong with her?’
‘Ask her yourself.’ Shadow gave him a tired smile and said, ‘Good luck.’
‘What?! I’m fine!’ Rouge protested.
‘Vitals are irregular.’ Omega whirred disapprovingly and said, ‘Exhibiting higher than average levels of petulance.’
‘Petulance? You’re terrible,’ Rouge complained. ‘Both of you.’ But she didn’t shrug Shadow’s arm off, and she didn’t knock Omega’s hand away when he placed it on her head. They weren’t very good at comforting people, admittedly, but when she was with them… it felt like there was nothing in the world that could hurt her.