This is a headcanon about Heidi and Shadow Lacey, Heidi’s Shadow Self. While Heidi and Lacey share a body and are, in a way, foils to each other, they consider themselves as separate people.
If you want to learn more about how Shadow Pokémon before learning about Heidi and Lacey, please refer to my previous headcanon about Shadow Pokémon.
Shadow Lacey
Due to reasons that she doesn’t know, Heidi naturally attracts and absorbs Shadow Energy involuntarily. In the past, the natural Shadow Energy in the world didn’t affect her. However, one day, she had an encounter with a Shadow Pokémon from another world. Its Shadow attacks were absorbed in her, causing unbearable pain. She was able to be cured of the pain, but she wasn’t aware that, ever since that day, her body would continue to passively absorb the Shadow Energy that was present in the air. Eventually, the energy’s preying on Heidi’s identity crisis gave birth to Lacey, a shadow version of Heidi with its heart closed to the world and without emotions.
Note on writing Lacey’s name: the bold part of her name is a part of her name. So, saying “Lacey” actually refers to Heidi’s nickname while saying “Lacey” refers to the Shadow Form. If spoken or written in a format without bold, then you say “Shadow Lacey”.
Lacey and Heidi consider themselves as separate people. They have different personalities, different reactions to stimuli, etc. However, they do have similar preferences and attractions, primarily because of Heidi. Lacey’s actions or preferences towards other people is actually due to her being a part of Heidi and naturally responding to Heidi’s preferential instincts. Because of this, Lacey is drawn to those that Heidi likes (i.e. Rayquaza, Zinnia, Nergal, Lauren, etc.); however, this doesn’t mean that Lacey doesn’t have a mind of her own. She is also drawn to Lauren because of being the first creature to consider her as her “sister”.
Lacey doesn’t necessarily have a particular end-goal in mind when it comes to herself. When she first awoke, she only cared about living. She was concerned about the possibility of Heidi finding a way to purify herself, an action that would ultimately kill Lacey. Thus, she worked to find a way to either separate herself or permanently take over the body. Heidi, on the other hand, thought differently. Heidi considered herself and Lacey as equals and as sisters from the moment she started understanding who Lacey was. Because of this, until recently, she worked to find a way to separate Lacey from herself so that Lacey may be satisfied. However, after Heidi obtained the powers of Arceus and after their relationship improved due to having a new sense of communication, both Heidi and Lacey are satisfied with ultimately sharing a body together indefinitely.
Lacey does not consider herself as an Arceus. While she is able to utilize Arceus abilities due to the fact that she shares a body with Heidi, she still considers herself as a Shadow Latias, not a Shadow Arceus.
Abilities
Lacey has most of the same abilities as Heidi, from flight to the power of Creation; however, there are several differences that stands Lacey apart:
- In terms of strength, due to Lacey being a stronger Shadow Pokémon, Lacey is naturally stronger than Heidi in her Mega Form, but weaker than Low-Powered Arceus!Heidi
- Lacey cannot Mega Evolve in any way.
- Lacey is able to actively absorb Shadow Energy. She is able to absorb Shadow Energy from other Shadow Pokémon and stop the flow of Shadow Energy from those Pokémon. This does not count as purification, but it does make it much easier for a Pokémon to be purified. If a Pokémon whose energy has been absorbed is not purified, then an active reintroduction to Shadow Energy or even a particularly traumatic event can cause them to relapse. Because of this, absorbing the Shadow Energy of a Pokémon should be used as an interim step to purification.
- Note: There is a limit to how much Lacey can absorb before causing unbearable pain or requiring for her to expel the energy. As such The Gale of Darkness is immune to this technique, even if she were to actively expel the energy while doing so.
- It is theoretically possible for Lacey to reverse this process and inject Shadow Energy on a non-purified Pokémon to force them to turn into a Shadow Pokémon; however, she has never tried to do so, nor wishes to try.
- Lacey is able to actively expel Shadow Energy within herself. She can vent out Shadow Energy from her body similar to venting out a heat engine. This allows her to regulate the amount of Shadow Energy that is within her body.
- Lacey is immune to any effects of further corruption; however, the sudden amount of Shadow Energy will cause her to naturally expel it throughout her body and force debilitating pain upon her.
- Lacey cannot be purified through usual methods, but any successful attempts without finding the source of her corruption will eventually cause her to return.
Heidi’s and Lacey’s Relationship
Lacey and Heidi consider themselves as sisters that share the same body. They are friendly to each other (as friendly as Lacey can be, at least) and consider each other’s needs and desires, with their mutual best interests at heart. When one of the two of them are active, the other serves as a second opinion and a helpful guide in case the other goes astray. They typically do not try to force the other into doing anything unless it’s important, however.
Lacey is able to easily forcibly take over the body if Heidi is in True, Lacey, or Heidi form. It is impossible for her to do so when Heidi is Mega Evolved or in Heidi’s Low-Powered form. Heidi, however, can forcibly take over from Lacey; however, it requires some amount of work, and she has to turn into her Low-Powered form to do so. High-Powered form requires for the two to consensually be in sync, however. In addition, Lacey is involuntarily taken over if Heidi in her standard forms absorbs too much Shadow Energy, and Heidi is involuntarily taken over if Lacey is out of Shadow Energy and does not either Mega Evolve or transform into Low-Power state in time.
Lacey and Heidi communicate internally. The inactive sister can use the narration of the roleplay writing to communicate her feelings and her thoughts of a given situation. Because of this, narration and writing when Heidi or Lacey is involved takes a first-person omniscient point of view instead of a third-person omniscient point of view as would be the case for all other characters. This means that the use of “I” and “me” would refer to the inactive sister. In addition, the active sister is able to hear the thoughts of the inactive sister and communicate with her, either verbally or through thoughts. However, when the two of them combine into High-Power Form, narration returns to a third-person omniscient point of view, and communication between the two of them occurs in thoughts.