Enter... Zhadow and Zouge!
Upcoming exams have been draining me of all my free time, but in the meantime, I've been doing a lot of writing for the side characters in my au. They're not in it for long, but for whatever reason they now have more developed lore than the main plot💀
A lot of people seem to headcanon Zhadow as an attorney in the No-Zone (I assume because of @chauvel 's amazing comic!!!) but I've liked to humor the idea that he's also a therapist alongside Zouge! I've had some concepts for a while, and it seems about time that I've gotten around to finalizing them.
Omega's No-Zone counterpart is Zeta! He's essentially a glorified polygraph machine. I still need to work out some details with him-
CW: Mentions of blood and suicide below
I've been doing a lot of writing on Zhadow, specifically regarding his version of Maria and Gerald, and how he ended up employed at the No-Zone prison in the first place. Since Zonic canonically doesn't have super speed, I've adopted the notion that ALL No-Zone occupants have something negated from their Prime counterparts. For instance, Zouge has a serious case of butterfingers as opposed to being a master thief! This Zhadow isn't as in-tune to Chaos energy as his Prime counterpart is. He can't use Chaos control or many of the other Chaos abilities.
Zaria was still very sick in this Zone, yet her case of NIDS was much more severe than Prime Maria's. She suffered from insomnia, very serious hallucinations, and was prone to violent outbursts because of such. She had none of Prime Maria's compassion and was rather a very paranoid and wistful individual.
Her grandfather, Zerald, was a great inventor like Gerald was, though most of his innovations came in the form of containment units rather than weapons. He designed the original blueprint of what'd eventually become the No Zone prison. He went mad amidst his creations, mostly due to the fact that he knew that his beloved granddaughter would inevitably be housed within one of them if her condition did not improve. Desperate, he created the ARK as a way to separate Zaria from all the stresses of Earth and to contain her before she had the chance to do any harm.
Zhadow was created to be Zaria's only friend and confidant. After extensive research on alien life, Zerald assumed that the Black Arms' advanced intellect would lend assistance in his goal to figure out the workings of his granddaughter's mind before it was too late. He trained Zhadow in all forms of psychology and therapy so he'd have the proper toolset to help Zaria, but it hadn't shown much success. Zhadow considered Zaria to be a friend, and wanted nothing more than to see her well as Zerald wanted, but Zaria became haunted by visions of less friendlier Black Arms when she'd see him.
Eventually, catastrophe occurred. Rather than GUN agents breaking into the ARK, it was Zaria herself who caused the tragedy. After suffering from a particularly vibrant and violent vision, she snapped and murdered Zerald as he'd tried to help her out of it. Distraught after realizing what she'd done, she took her own life, leaving Zhadow alone with the aftermath.
Zhadow was traumatized by the events but vowed to carry on Zerald's wishes to help those who needed it, like Zaria. He made a promise to never let such a mistake happen ever again.
Presently, Warden Zobotnik tracked Zhadow down after assuming command of the No-Zone prison. Obsessed with control, he figured that employing the Zone's highest regarded therapist would do well for his inmates' rehabilitation. Zhadow is selective, however, and only chooses to take clients that he deems need it the most. He's incredibly good at his job despite appearing closed-off and apathetic on the outside. He took Rouge under his wing after she, too, was hired and helped to train her to manage general group therapy sessions with the inmates.
Aaand that's all for this lore dump lmao- Expect more after my exams are over! I miss posting here regularly!!💚
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