Jayde the Hedgehog • By Your Side [3]

10: Truth✔️

Music: Invincible - Deaf Kev

"And do you remember when he fell in the water!" Jayde and Shadow burst into more laughter, walking towards the door of the house.

After paying at the restaurant, the striped hedgehogs decided to get some payback on the blue hero for his bright idea he gave to Amy. Though the pink hedgehog was the one that came up with the whole double date ordeal, Sonic decided to add to it – let's just say he got an unplanned bath in the sea. Jayde clutched her stomach and laughed louder as she remembered his face, so full of shock and horror. At least he knew it was only playing. Unfortunately for the blue blur, Amy didn't do much to help either and stood by holding back her laughs. Afterwards, Shadow and Jayde decided to return home to look at the video footage before tomorrow's assignments.

As they entered the house, Jayde quickly rushed into the spare room and changed, chucking the dress in the corner of the room, followed by her shoes and throwing on a loose checked black shirt and some track suit bottoms. She grabbed a projecting device from her suitcase and ran back downstairs.

Shadow had taken off his clothes, finally feeling free. He ruffled his quills, turning as Jayde leapt down the last three steps and dived onto the sofa with a wide grin, "Okay." She plugged the device into the projector, watching as the screen brightened up the dark surroundings, "Let's see what he's up too." She mumbled, but she was afraid of knowing.

The two sat by the dim fire for hours into the night, searching through all of the information they had been given from the commander. They needed to review plans, finalise ideas and try to figure out who the masked figure was. However, Jayde didn't want her assumptions to be correct. Without the proper view point, she couldn't be certain but Jayde had vaguely an idea of who it was.

And if it was him, she couldn't tell the others. She would be fired from GUN and probably assumed a criminal.

02:03am

They should be asleep by now.

Shadow heard a small yawn coming from the grey hedgehog as she watched the footage through for the fifth time in a row. Her leg bounced in its place, but Shadow didn't know why. He had noticed her tension growing throughout the night and he could tell it wasn't just nerves but another hidden emotion – almost like fear.

Jayde's orbs scanned through the footage, slowing it down to see if there was any way she could be certain who it was. His body was always hidden by that black cloak, except maybe the odd arm of green fur would be shown. Her eyes started to become heavy but as soon as she saw a glimpse of a reflection in a car, she scrambled to her feet and paused the video.

The ebony hedgehog's ears perked up as he heard a short, sharp gasp leaving her lips, "Renee, whats wrong?"

Her hands gripped her quills, orbs widened and glossy. She... couldn't have. But it was true. His reflection was as clear as day to her in that car window. That smug grin that held sharp canines, that tuff of dark green hair on top of his forehead, those black roofed glass that held comfortable on his muzzle...

Torrent Natalus

Shadow frowned, "Jayde?" he went to look at the footage, but his communicator went off. As he answered, the ivory bat appeared with an angry look on her face, "Rouge?"

"The mission tomorrow starts two hours earlier. We have reason to believe that the Dark Creature could be working with someone else." Rouge spoke, "I'm going to send you some footage I found in GUN's security system from a few years back when he stole first stole that item. No one knows who they are."

As Rouge's face disappeared, the video footage came out in front of them as Shadow projected it. The video was blurry, the second figure having tampered with it beforehand. The two figures ran through GUN HQ, black cloaks covering their full body and face – no part of them could be seen. As Jayde watched, her orbs widened even more. All the fears, all the anxiety she had from that first viewing in the commander's office – it was all coming back. There was nowhere for her to hide and she couldn't escape the fact that the second figure – was her.

Jayde suddenly stood from her sitting position, making Shadow look at her. He noticed her orbs where full of fear and hatred, something he hadn't seen in her since her Negative form. Her ears pinned against her skull as she stepped back, "Renee, are you okay?"

"I-uh-yes! Yes, I am fine... I just... need to sleep for the mission! Yeah, that's right!" Jayde bumped into the arm of the sofa behind her before turning around and heading for her bedroom, "Night!"

Shadow watched with a frown as she walked up the stairs, what was she hiding? He glanced at the image she had paused on, noticing the blacked out reflection on the car. The ebony male did not recognise the Mobian in the video at all but clearly Jayde did – and he was determined to figure out why.