Tikal tended to the little Chao as they played and greeted her. They were a distraction she could trust to take her far away from the troubles of the world. She fed them sweets and pet their heads then sat quietly next to the temple garden. The temple itself was large and quiet it sat mightily on an island only accessible by a bridge. The garden was like that if a museum. Paths to walk, trees and flowers to admire, and little bridges covered in blooming flowers and climbing vines to cross over the little clear waters. But the garden was most prized by its cherry blossoms...and what the blossoms hid.

The Japanese architecture of the temple along with its great fences and blossoms hid the shrine of the master emerald. Bet even there, another garden resided before it. But this garden, unlike its curtain, was not ordinary. The flowers were ever more beautiful, true. The flowers on the cherry blossoms were ever more perfect, but of course. The streams and waters were ever more pure, no doubt. But it's pride remained in the matter that it was a chao garden. A garden blessed to keep its beauty because of it's caretakers, the chao. Every day, the priestess, Tikal, would come to the gardens to see them and walk the garden paths, sit next to the little streams, and listen to the fountains and rustling of the trees.

Her eyes closed as she had taken this moment to set next to the waters again. To escape the world of conflict and westernization. This was a place of healing for her broken soul. The chaos' playing helped drag her deeper in this nirvana. Where she could take in life in every breath.

The sounds of footsteps and of a chao trying to get her attention pulled her away. Her head turned to see a samurai had set foot on the grounds of the garden. His crimson eyes took in all its beauty and peace. She was not alarmed. As long as his sword never left his side, he was welcome here like she was. Her head turned towards the shrine and Chaos, the shrine spirit, stood without acknowledging the warrior. She took it as a sign to return to her place of peace. The Samurai had ignored her very much the same. He had yet to notice the chao.

He walked the straight path to the master emerald's shrine and examined the cherry blossoms, once in a while looking to see if they had all bloomed. Tikal did not see this, but by the sound of his sandals on the stone she could understand what he was doing. Did he care about the blossoms as much as she did?

"Hmm, a few are late this season," He said softly. His hand brushed every so lightly on the petals of a single late bloomer. "What have you to hide here, I wonder." He retracted his hand carefully. He did not want a single one harmed. "Does it fear of loosing it's petals perhaps? Does it hold so tightly to vanity?" He stared once more at the blossom. Then he continued.

Tikal had taken the questions to mind. What if this samurai was right? Could a blossom, seeing those around it bloom so quickly only to lose its petals in the wind, hesitate because of this? Is that why all blossoms do not bloom together though they live in the same tree? Do they have to accept to be ready to fall apart once they have developed? Tikal now pondered the question quietly to herself.

The samurai behind her now could see the Chao as they blocked his path and danced around him. They looked at him in awe and inspiration. He was so tall and mighty to them. The samurai knelt, his back to the shrine. He extended a hand towards the eldest looking Chao and rubbed its delicate head with its permission. It hugged him getting a smile from his face. "Such peace, I had not known existed. That innocence like this would trust an armed samurai not to take out his sword..." the samurai frowned to himself. "I do not understand it..."

Tikal looked over her shoulder and watched the samurai tend to the chao as she had. She grew curious of this samurai. Never had she seen before a warrior so mighty and so cold seek to understand that of which she cherished and protected. "Perhaps...he is not what he seems." She looked at the reflection of water. She was smiling...smiling for a samurai.

She made a decision as she accepted this. She would not leave the samurai who sought answers to remain in torment of the unknown. When she turned to look at him, she found Chaos slowly approaching the samurai.

"What are these creatures that they do not have worry...pain...suffering?" The samurai turned with surprise as if he heard a voice. Chaos slowly walked towards him, his eyes never leaving him, then knelt next to the chao. The samurai hummed; he looked at the stones he stood upon. "I see, but...what gives them this?"

Tikal, surprised at his response to breathless words, spoke to the samurai for the first time. "You can understand him?"

The samurai turned to look at her. He looked once again at Chaos then replied, "Creatures of chaos can understand each other... no matter the method of speech."

Tikal could understand Chaos perfectly, but she was no creature of the power of chaos. However she was intrigued by this samurai even more. "I am no creature of chaos but we speak to each other well. How do creatures of chaos speak to one another?"

The samurai looked at her feet replying, "I do not know. I just...feel and understand what he tells me."

Tikal invited him to walk with her, the long paths of the garden. He accepted. "Tell me, what makes you a creature of chaos? Why are you so different then I?"

The samurai was quiet. Would he really tell her what he has told no one ever before? He looked into the eyes of the priestess. Her blue eyes as pure as the water and as innocent as the chao. Yes...he would tell her, though he did not know why. "I was not born by a father and a mother. I was born by ritual and sorcery. I was created...but I knew not what for. When I was in the making...I...knew I was alive but...I felt nothing. I didn't understand emotion, I didn't recognize smell, taste, sound, sight, nor hearing...I just...knew I was alive. When I was brought into the world I was given the knowledge of only hatred and of anger. I was born knowing how to kill. I was born...without moral...without conscious...I thought I knew suffering by the pain I endured as I was given form and life...I thought I understood all of the world and why it was better not existing...but then I learned something new...that changed my life."

"What did you learn?" Tikal asked evermore invested in understanding this samurai.

"I learned..." he closed his eyes, savoring the sweetness of the word he was about to say, the satisfaction of how well it belonged in such a place and time, "I learned...love."

Tikal smiled. "Who taught you this? Why did you let yourself learn love when you only knew hate and suffering?"

"I didn't...I learned it because it would not leave me. That was what made me so confused at that time. I had felt love...but against my will. A girl...she had seen me for a different purpose than the sorcerer who created me. She saw me as hope for Japan. As it's protector and it's guardian. When I could no longer take being clueless to her reason to love me, I asked her for knowledge and she gave it to me."

"She taught you the meaning of love? True love, samurai?" Tikal stopped walking. He walked a few steps before stopping and facing her.

"Yes."

She was quiet now. How could a samurai learn true love? Love that was not for battle or for honor? Love that was genuine and caring, that raised children and protected families. Could it be true he had learned this love? "What did she tell you?"

The samurai turned and continued to walk, "She said that her love came from her spirit. It had no conditions or opinions. She gave it, because she knew I was valuable. She told me that true love for something meant it had no reason to prove anything to you or gain your approval to be given or to thrive. It was there because it belonged."

Tikal looked at the stones at her feet as she walked with this samurai. This strange samurai who desired to learn so much about peace. Could she find a place in her spirit to love him? Since the day she was born she was frightened of samurai and their ways. But even then she had found out how to befriend them. She had found a place in herself to realize that they weren't all bad. Some of them, like Sonic, Silver, Blaze, Knuckles, and even young little Tails were striving to do good in this world. This samurai...the one they called by no name yet, had scared her though. They had called him a friend, but they did not speak well of him. They called him cold, they said he was reserved, and had no interest in the company of others. Perhaps...they were wrong. This samurai before her was none of these things. He was curious, lost; so hungry to learn. "Tell me, samurai, what do they call you and you respond? I have been called Tikal, priestess of these gardens and the temple."

The samurai looked beyond the horizon towards the setting sun that kissed the ocean. "I am called Shadow, though a I am not proud of it. But it is a name that suites me for the purpose I was created. It was only when love had touched me, I sought a new purpose...and to fulfill it."

Tikal saw behind him the shadow he cast. Her smile returned again. "And what was your purpose?"

"To avenge, destroy, and burn the emperor who ordered my master's death. And the death of his daughter. They did not have much time when I was made. Only three years to live. They did not need to kill her either...she died of illness. Illness that could not be cured. We had gotten away when they were attacked, I protected her as I was ordered. Then she taught me love before passing where I could not follow her anymore."

"I am sorry," Tikal closed her eyes. "I cannot imagine the suffering you have endured."

"That was not suffering..." Shadow shook his head. "I suffered when I could feel nothing. I suffered when I did not understand love. When I did not understand peace and kindness. I walked my paths to stop this suffering, true suffering."

Tikal tilted her head to see his eyes, "What is true suffering, Shadow?"

He faced her and replied, "It is as I said. This ignorance I live in. That life I lived as I knew nothing, even before hate and vengance. True suffering is this life I live...as nothing but a shadow." He looked so disheartened to her as he said these things from his heart.

Tikal smiled and approached him. "You are called Shadow and you count it as a curse. You say it befits you because you count it as evil and yourself evil. But you do not realize that shadows are good. A shadow is born of light when it is cast upon an image and given form. This woman that taught you love saw light cast upon this land and you were made from it. She saw you as its protector. Shadow, you bear your name because you are the hope Japan was given when light had shone upon it. You should be proud if this name. In this way...it truly sites you."

Shadow pondered her words. The way she had explained these things to him...he had never thought this way. Shadow felt her hand on his cheek. His eyes nearly left his skull. The contact was unheard of to him. Why would she dirty her hands to touch someone so impure! So bloodstained! Why would she do this? But...he would not move.

"Shadow." He looked in her eyes once again. "I will teach you all you wish to know...so that you will no longer suffer."

Shadow's eyes shot open, surprised for the second time. What more would she do to disgrace herself? She steeped far below her place in the world. Why would such a woman of true purity, dare to forsake her duty for a samurai's suffering? Then he realized it...the truth of her actions. Shadow felt his eyes water. He fell to the ground before her...and she followed him.

She lifted his chin so he could look at her smile. She took her kimono and whipped his eyes clean then stroked his head and took it in both hands. "I will teach you...everything. From the peace of this garden to the sweetness love you have not descivered yet."

He looked away in shame, "...You dishonor yourself...for me? Why?" He knew. "Why would you do this? I am nothing to you." He knew exactly why she did this...but he needed to hear it be said.

Tikal kissed his forehead, an action he would never forget. "I have learned to make you everything to me." Her words became so sweet to him. He could feel healing in his very spirit from every word she spoke. "I have learned tocare for you, Shadow, as this woman had once before, but not only in my spirit...but in my heart." She once again lifted Shadow's head. "I have learned...to love you." Before he knew it, her soft lips touched his.

The wind blew caressingly past the garden, making the pedals flow past the two lovers and into the ocean horizon. The only sound they could hear was the soft ringing of Shadow's two bells on the pummel of his sword.

Chaos watched from a distance. Though he could not show it, the chao could sense it. He was happy. He began again to walk his garden, the chao returning to their games. He stopped at one of his cherry blossoms. If he could smile, he would, for the sight laying before him would make any good heart smile. The blossom that Shadow had found not long ago had accepted fate bloomed...but it was not like the others. This blossom was perfect in every way...and by far the most beautiful in all of the garden.