It was never something that Shadow had ever considered happening but there lay his Lord and Father, battered, beaten and almost unconscious. The hybrid could feel the eyes of his alien brethren upon him as in inched closed to the alien overlord.
"Father?" The hedgehog's voice held a note of uncertainty and his ruby eyes were transfixed by the being before him.
Although the alien had told him otherwise, and despite the evidence to the contrary from his own battles with his creator, Shadow had never truly believed that there were being out there that could over power the leader of Black Arms. A glance around the gathering crowd of aliens informed Shadow that many of Black Doom's other children had shared his assumptions, standing dazed and helpless without the towering presence of their master. A few however had a strange steel in their gaze and, at a single motion from Black Doom's still bleeding hand, swiftly gathered their leader up and forced their way through the stunned masses. Without any real conscious decision Shadow was already trailing them when one of the soldiers turned and growled a warning at him.
"Let him come." Doom's normally raspy voice was strained and unusually soft.
With a bold smirk, Shadow moved to stand near to his father and followed the procession back through the twisting route of the Comet. When they finally reached Doom's chambers the alien overlord dismissed his children.
Just as Shadow was leaving the rasping voice spoke out again, "You may stay Shadow."
Silently the hedgehog settled in the dark of the room, his ruby eyes alone standing out. Across the room, Black Doom seemed as relaxed as if he were alone and thought that his Master and Father trusted Shadow with his life pleased the hybrid; it seemed the alien was much better at letting go of the past.
Shadow had been determined to keep a vigil over his wounded creator but the days worrying about his father and battling to keep the Black Arms from falling into chaos in their leader's absence had taken a toll on the hedgehog and his ruby eyes started to close. Suddenly a high squeak came from the corner of the room and the battle trained hybrid's exhaustion vanished. His body low to the ground, Shadow moved silently towards the potential assailant; if the being that had wounded his father had thought to return he would ensure it failed in its quest to slay Black Doom.
At last Shadow reached the source of the noise and turned his wide eyes on the sleeping alien in disbelief, "Doom…. Why on Earth do you need a hedgehog?"
Well it's been a long time since I worked on this story but here we go with another chapter. I tried something new with their relationship here, putting Shadow back in the position of power and this will continue in the next chapter. (I promise I won't take so long.)
