Shadow and Rouge's dynamic becomes strained in the AU. Rouge knows that Shadow is closed off but she and Omega have a special connection with him. When he starts hiding things and ignoring signals from his body that things aren't quite right, she starts to lose trust in him. Shadow starts to have internalized doubt about the nature of what he was made for (if he were the ultimate lifeform, how could he be infected? How could he save maria if he's not completely immune to infection? Could he even have in the first place?) and the distance from his support network makes it worse 👍👍👍👍