The Shade

Tanya brought her staff up, blocking the Shade’s blade.

“Bad idea,” the Shade said, voice eternally distorted by the mask.

Tanya blocked a few more attacks from the Shade’s sword, and even jabbed her staff forward when she could. Metal clanged as the two danced around each other.

Tanya had been practicing. The Shade was in a high enough position, they rarely had to do the fighting themselves.

But the Shade still had a point. Unlike their sword, Tanya’s weapon was a staff. It was blunt. A sword could do some damage. And even if it didn’t slice through her skin, it was a shock sword. If any part of that blade hit Tanya, she would get electrocuted. Unless she was wearing the protective cloth designed to prevent that, but she didn’t have enough to cover all her skin.

So, Tanya was forced on the defensive far more than she’d like to avoid getting electrocuted.

There also wasn’t much inside the room that she could use to help. The door she’d come through was locked. There was another door, up on the catwalk. But the room only went one floor up. The catwalk was so close to the ceiling, the doorway was about three feet tall.

Tanya’s next block was clumsy, and she fumbled with the staff. She was forced backwards and, thinking quickly, she feigned a stumble.

She couldn’t see the Shade’s expression. The mask could also be called a helmet, and thoroughly blocked their face. But she was sure the Shade smirked, could practically feel it in the air.

The Shade swung again, and Tanya launched forward. They clearly hadn’t expected her to be able to move that well. Tanya was soon too close for the sword to be any good. She pressed on the mask, shoving back until it flew off to reveal. . .

Nothing. There was no visible person beneath the outfit.

What? Was this some kind of new technology? A figure controlled remotely?

But Tanya could see inside the black uniform. It was hollow in there, none of the technology required to control the suit remotely.

The hollow suit proceeded to move on its own, taking a few steps to scoop its helmet up and put it back on.

“Wha. . .What are you?” Tanya managed.

Shade shrugged. “Oh, I’m a human person as much as you are, I suppose. But the author never figured out who I was behind the mask, so I don’t exist.”

“Wh-what?” Tanya stammered.

She understood what each word meant, but strung together, it didn’t make any sense.

Shade tilted their head. (Their helmet? They didn’t have a head.) “You don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?”

Tanya stumbled back from them for real this time.

Shade sighed and crossed their arms, finger tapping against one arm. Tanya used to try and imagine what their face was like, under there. What facial expression they might be making to go with the body language. But, well, apparently there was no point, was there?

“I suppose having no body has made me more in tune to these things. Something has to be wrong, after all. We exist as a work of fiction. This is a lived in world. But it’s not the real world, as it were.”

“That-that’s nonsense.”

It should be. It should sound completely insane. So why did a cold chill go down Tanya as Shade explained?

Shade sighed again. “Would you like to explain the white space?”

The white spaces were empty parts of the world. They resembled TV static. They weren’t dangerous areas. People passed through them all the time. But there was mostly white or gray everywhere in the area. If there were any objects, they seemed disconnected from anything. Tanya knew about them, of course. She’d passed through a few. But she was always certain there was a scientific explanation. She thought they were like black-holes, only on a planet.

Shade continued. “Can you name any of the countries we’re supposed to be fighting? Or what year I was put in charge? You’re fighting against me. Surely you must know.”

“Well. . .well I. . .”

“No story is going to be as air tight as the real world, but something’s very off here. My best guess? There writer half assed their idea before giving up. The author didn’t fill in the cracks, and there are too many for us to fill those instead.”

Shade held their arms out for emphasis.

“We’re barely existing in an incomplete world, and if we don’t stay like that for the rest of our existence, it will be because reality finally caves in around us.”

Shade should sound like a madman. Tanya could argue, if she wanted to. But she didn’t want to. Because there was truth to what Shade said. They barely had to prove it. Tanya knew those arguments were right, and could even come up with more odd parts of life herself. This was like being reminded of a deadline she’d forgotten was coming up, but much worse. It was being told something she already knew.

In the face of all this, she focused on something simpler, something she could manage.

“If none of this is real, why are you trying to kill me?” she asked.

Shade looked to the side and rubbed their chin with their gloves. “Well, real or not, I assume you’ll still try to stop me from carrying out my plans.”

“You mean your plans to make everyone your robot slaves?” Tanya asked.

The leader of the resistance, Levi, had found out about it. Shade worked a lot with cybernetics and technological enhancements. Only the current technology Shade was working on would be, essentially, a metal prison. The people suited with it would be trapped by it, with the government able to take control of the tech, and control the person inside by extension. This controlled fighting force could then be turned on anyone else Shade wanted, but honestly, Tanya found the first part to be the worst. It was a thoroughly sick plan.

And tellingly, Shade didn’t comment on that. “For another.” Shade turned back to Tanya, the lenses of the mask where eyes should be pointed right at her. “You are a fully realized person. I think I’m rather jealous of that.”

Shade kept their voice even, but they brought their sword up again.

This was it. They were going to attack. Tanya had dropped the staff and effectively backed herself into a wall.

“Tanya!”

Levi?

What looked like a grenade flew down from the catwalk.

Shade backed up. The explosion went off between them, but it was small, and Tanya doubted it would do much to Shade. Especially since they didn’t have a body.

And if Tanya wanted to keep her body, she had better get moving.

She quickly scrambled up the stairs, ducking as the ceiling came up to greet her. As she reached the top, Levi grabbed her wrist. She let him pull her along. They both ducked into the tiny door, and were out, getting further away from danger.

Well, they were getting away from one kind of danger. Tanya had long thought Shade was the most dangerous thing in her life. But it turned out, there was something far greater to worry about.