Brothers in Arms

Shadow: Careless Conjecture

"You know what you need?" Rouge suddenly asks, looking like she's got an idea. "Food! I'll go run by the kitchen and steal some good stuff, and then you can eat. You'll feel better..." She coos, fluttering her lashes at me. I roll mine, but I feel a half-smirk tug at my lips all the same.

"Fine. I'll meet you in our office, alright?" Rouge smiles in return, waving at me with a wink as she flies off to the cafeteria. Shaking my head in amusement, I continue to the elevator, feeling too tired to Chaos Control down to the Chaos lab to return the emerald I borrowed. A brief ride later, I arrive there, yawning as I step onto the floor.

"Shadow? What are you doing down here?" A familiar voice asks, and I look up with surprise to see Topaz. Pulling out my emerald, I gesture to it.

"Returning this. You?"

"Overseeing some preparations to test the Black Arm you brought in. What's his name, by the way?" She questions, following me as I hand my emerald over to a scientist.

"His name is Eclipse. Eclipse the Darkling, as he introduces himself," I reply, returning with her to the elevator and pushing my floor. She doesn't choose one, so I assume she'll just come with me to my office.

"Unique name. There's a story there, I suppose?"

"There are a lot of stories where Eclipse is involved," I sigh, leaning against the wall and crossing my arms. "He's an interesting character."

"That can mean a lot of different things," Topaz replies, half-joking, and I smirk.

"Yeah, I guess so. He's hard to pin down, though. I can never tell what he's feeling or thinking until he tells me, but I think that's more my fault than his. I don't know how he's going to react to G.U.N. as an environment."

"Well, it's probably best that he chose to come here," Topaz says slowly, thinking about it. "If he had been captured and forced to, I doubt he'd be being very cooperative." I look up in surprise, this part catching my attention.

"He's being cooperative? As in, more than you'd expect?"

"Oh, yeah," Topaz nods, leaning on the wall herself. "I haven't actually talked to him. He hasn't said anything, that I'm aware of, but he's very expressive. Goes along with everything, though you should have seen his face when we asked him to lay down with his mouth open to check his teeth. I've never seen anyone so confused," she laughs, relieving the memory.

"He hasn't said anything?" I ask, surprised. "Normally, he's pretty talkative... I wonder if..." I trail off, realizing that I phrased telling him not to talk about classified things as telling him to not talk at all. "Heh. Oops. That may be my fault, actually... Tell him that I didn't mean he couldn't talk. I just meant he shouldn't let anything sensitive out."

"Oh, really?" Topaz laughs again, nodding. "I'll tell him that. It'll definitely make communicating easier. We just all assumed he must be mute or shy." I chuckle, finding both of those ideas ridiculous.

"Eclipse? Shy? I doubt he even knows the meaning of the word," I joke, feeling a little bit better than before. "So," I add, trying to change the topic, "you all are monitoring his mind, right? To make sure he doesn't...mess with me or anything?"

"Oh, definitely," the sandy blonde-haired human replies, looking at me with interested lavender eyes. "Why? Were you worried otherwise?"

"Not really," I say offhandedly, trying to pretend like this isn't making me feel bad all over again. Darn it. So, I really did look like a giant idiot in front of the Commander. And, Rouge won't be happy that I was right, either.

The door to the elevator opens, and Topaz drops the volume of the conversation.

"We're keeping a close eye on him. Don't worry," she smiles, and I try to return the favor, at least a little bit.

"Who? The alien?" Asks the man who just got in, and I jump before I recognize Captain Andrews. "That thing that looks like you?"

"Yes," I reply, disdainful. Captain Andrews has never shown me an ounce of respect, and I return the favor at every opportunity. "But, I'm sure even you could tell the difference between us, given enough time." Topaz winces, and Andrews raises an eyebrow.

"Well, someone's in a spicy mood," he says smugly, not getting all fired up in response for once. I'm annoyed by his calmness, finding him much more tolerable as a hothead.

"I haven't had breakfast yet," I reply, cutting myself off from saying more, which would be something along the line of 'I've had a miserable day with almost no sleep, I haven't eaten since breakfast yesterday, I managed to make an absolute fool of myself in front of the Commander, and I just spent hours on a useless mission hunting ghosts. Got a problem with that?'

"Oh, how horrible. Does wittle hedgie need his formula?" Andrews laughs, and I just scoff.

"You still sound like an idiot doing that. I don't know why you'd think that would have changed," I scowl, and he laughs.

"It's my favorite way to get on your nerves! And don't pretend it doesn't work, because you look about ready to launch me to Timbuktu." I ignore him, but he's right. Between being hungry, tired, and stressed, I could really use something to punch right now. Unfortunately for me, Andrews is not an acceptable target.

"Andrews, leave him alone. Shadow's had a long day," Topaz steps in, defending me. She's also a captain, so she and Andrews can't really pull rank with each other. But, it also means she can snap at him, while I, a special agent, shouldn't be arguing with my superior. Rouge is the captain of Team Dark, a good idea since I can't always be trusted to make the wisest decisions, but, in situations like this, I really wish I had some more authority.

"Oh, fine. But, he looks like he could use a good argument," Andrews grins, and I struggle not to start one right now by saying something I'll regret later.

Just relax, Shadow. You'll eat in just a minute, and then you'll feel better. It faintly occurs to me that I don't know what G.U.N. is feeding Eclipse, but I'm not about to ask with Andrews in the elevator. That's just begging for him to make some snide remarks.

Thankfully, my floor comes soon, and I hop off, Topaz deciding to stay with Andrews to continue her chastising. I don't bother to keep up a persona as I trudge down the hallway, too exhausted and beaten down to care what people think of my lowered ears and slumping posture.

Slipping into Team Dark's office, I sit on the floor and wait for Rouge to arrive, letting my head fall back with a long sigh.

To think it's not even 10 o'clock...