Chapter 42: A Day After Death
"You," Shadow breathed softly. "You dare show your face here again?" His fingertips pressed against the glass cylinder, only a very observant watcher able to see how much pressure he actually exerted and how the glass creaked under his claw-like hand ever so subtly.
Vincent had stopped in the door for a second, staring, but only a second, before he had himself under control again. But the mismatched eyes had said it all.
How are you still alive? They had asked incredulously upon meeting the blazing crimson gaze burning through the greenish waters like an inextinguishable scorching flame.
Gerald's head whipped around as the reconnected consoles suddenly began a vigorous beeping, showing that Shadow's heart rate, blood pressure and adrenaline were about to shoot through the roof.
Scratch roof. Think bloody stratosphere, shot through the old scientist's mind as his brain rapidly tried to compute the events of the last moments. Shadow claiming it was Commander Graves' boy, Vincent, who had killed him. The same boy now standing in his laboratory, but looking absolutely astonished and terrified. And the Ultimate Lifeform, the glare in his eyes so murderous Gerald wouldn't have been surprised if the water in the tank had started to boil.
"I, er, I think I better get going, Maria, maybe I shouldn't have come-" Vincent stammered quickly, not really talking to the girl, but still staring at the floating form inside the recuperation tank, teeth bared behind the mask and skeleton hand drawing into a Death-like claw with the few sinews already attached.
"Don't even think you can escape me," Shadow hissed in an air stream of bubbles, letting the boy freeze on the spot. "Don't you even think you'll ever be safe again."
Maria turned a confused look on the grey-haired teen and Shadow raised his voice again, this time addressing her and her grandfather instead. "Maria, Professor. He is the one who came in here last night and turned off the air. Tell GUN and lock him up, he's insane even for their standards."
"What?" Maria's head snapped around to stare at Vincent flabbergasted, even her grandfather for a moment stunned by this revelation. The son of the Commander raised his hands in defence.
"What the hell? I didn't do anything!"
"You came in here! Ranting about how I'd die even while you were killing me! DON'T play the innocent card now if you value your life!" Shadow roared, the swirling waters in his tank letting his fur move on its ends and a glowing aura of Chaos Energy drawn in by his fury giving him briefly the appearance of a hovering avenging angel. Lights actually flickered in the room by now, and all three humans took a step backwards out of pure instinct, deep down their ancient cavemen ancestors knowing that this was how the god of lightning splitting the clouds in a thunderstorm would have looked like...
"SHADOW!" Maria screamed and immediately the crackling of Chaos Energy subsided a bit, the Ultimate Lifeform as always turning back into a civil hedgehog as soon as his life-long friend called him to reason. "What is this all about? How could Vincent have tried to kill you?"
"Well, it is certainly beyond me to imagine how this feral monkey in a uniform ever managed to learn how to work a computer, but apparently by now he does it quite well," Shadow replied dryly, not taking his eyes off the now fuming human. "So well, in fact, that he managed to override the controls, shut down the cameras and finally turn off my life-support. He's apparently quite the hacker, even if he isn't much good at anything else."
"Excuse me? That is bullsh- ridiculous! What else did I do, cause global warming?" the teen shot back, seemingly only catching himself because he deemed certain words inappropriate in front of a female. His choice of vocabulary didn't seem to influence the diamond-hard stare of Maria's blue eyes by one iota, in any case.
Gerald licked over his lips. He hadn't been able to find any trace in the network of the attack at all. Whoever had been behind this was a master at his trade. It was no secret the son of the GUN commander loathed Shadow with a passion (and the sentiment was returned likewise…) but could this fifteen-year-old really have…?
"Professor. If you believe me, then you will notify Graves now. I'm sure that not even a father would protect a complete psychopath like this."
Gerald's lines on his face deepened. What was he supposed to do now? He looked from the dead serious hedgehog in the tank to the seething, but also indignant teenage boy who both were now locked in a staring match. Maria's expression seemed just as confused and clueless as Gerald felt inside. Finally, the scientist cleared his throat.
"Investigations concerning the attack on the network are still being carried out, but at the moment the evidence is not yet suggesting any culprit in particular," he said, smoothly glossing over the fact that there was, actually, very little evidence of anything at all. "Shadow, are you sure you-?"
"I am not making this up!" the black hedgehog scathed immediately as soon as he recognized into which direction this conversation was heading. "Professor, you know me better than that. I don't hallucinate. Yesterday night it was Vincent trying to kill me and nobody else."
"Right. I don't have to listen to this crazed experiment of yours. Maria, I'm sorry but I'm leaving. And I'll be telling my father that he's now dealing with an insane project," Vincent declared and made to turn around, the exclamation of fury from Shadow's side at his words music to his ears.
"Vincent, no!" Maria cried, grabbing the other teen's wrist before he could leave the laboratory. "Don't do that. I'm sure we can…I don't know, talk about this or something."
"Talk about this? Maria, this is a murderer," Shadow pointed out incredulously. Vincent shot him an ice-cold glare.
"I don't think you or your creator have any right to accuse others of murder, feral," the Commander's son replied acidly. Before Shadow could open his mouth to retort, though, Maria had already interrupted him.
"Stop this, both of you!" She turned to the hedgehog in the tank, still not letting go of Vincent's wrist. "Shadow, you can't accuse others without evidence, that is not how justice works," she said, then looked at the Commander's son with equal seriousness. "And Vincent, claiming that Shadow has lost his mind in front of your father is just as wrong. He nearly died, is upset, and yes, it might have been sabotage. And besides…you wouldn't want them to shut down the project and make me lose my chance at a normal life forever, would you?" she asked, her large blue eyes a sharp contrast to the narrowed, mismatched ones of the other teen.
Finally Vincent dropped his gaze.
"No, Maria, of course not. If you don't want me to, I'll keep quiet about this, so long as he doesn't make any more trouble," he said and Gerald inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. This was a dangerous situation. The relations between him and Graves were already strained and recently, there had been even more demands from the opposition to terminate the research up here…
The scientist himself actually would have liked to believe Shadow, if the whole scenario had not seemed so incredible. But then again, with daily reports about High School amok runs and kids shooting other kids it would not be entirely inconceivable that even a mind as young as Vincent's might already decide to resort to murder…but unfortunately, Maria was still right. Without proof, allegations would yield nothing besides trouble and he had a sinking feeling that no court up here or down on the planet would accept Shadow's testimony. Gerald wasn't sure whether Vincent would be able to bring Graves to 'terminate' project Shadow, but it was a risk he wasn't willing to take, not with his research this close to a break-though. Right now the old man was just glad that his niece seemed to display the talent for negotiations and empathy that the entire rest of his sodding family so sorely lacked and she might very well have been saving Shadow's life right now. They'd have to wait and see whether he could find anything, a single trace in the logs and files to verify Shadow's words before they could make another move…
"Right. Thank you, Vincent," Maria said quietly, pretending to ignore Shadow gnashing his teeth at her civility toward his enemy. She gave the floating hedgehog a glance. "Maybe it would be better if I talked to him now for a bit," she continued, adding: "You'd understand that, wouldn't you?" to Vincent and the boy reluctantly nodded, still unwilling to be in disagreement over anything with his beloved.
"Yeah. Sure. I…I guess I'll see you later then, won't I?" the teen replied, not without shooting a baleful glance of his own at Shadow. "I…wouldn't like you to spend that much time with him if he's starting to become unstable. I would worry about you."
Maria's smile stayed frozen in place, but it seemed to have lost all warmth of a sudden, the effect akin to an angel that had just turned to stone.
"That you're concerned about me is very nice of you, Vincent, but I can assure you that I am still perfectly able to take care of myself. Thank you."
The sudden rise in formality did not go unnoticed by the GUN Commander's son and he swallowed quickly.
"Err, yes, no, I mean of course you're able to do that," he stammered, before regaining his composure. "I'll, uh, be going now, then…" he made to turn toward the door for a second time, but again he was stopped.
"Hey! Human monkey!"
"What?" Vincent snapped, immediately falling into his aggressive manner of earlier. Shadow in his tank smiled, but all this meant was that he was showing his teeth.
"I'm not going to stay in here forever, you know? You told me how it would feel when one drowns…" Shadow said languidly, crossing his creepily mismatched arms in front of his chest.
"Now would you like me to tell you whether you were right," he grinned, his eyes acquiring a dark glint now, "…or would you like to find out yourself?"
OoO
"Wow," Sonic interrupted at this point. "Somebody actually tried to kill you and there wasn't a single thing people could do about it?"
Shadow shrugged. "Told you. I didn't have any papers – apart from my ownership documents belonging to GUN, at any rate," Shadow added dryly. More normal, he added, "I wasn't a legal person. As far as courts were concerned, I wasn't able to sue, only to be sued about. And since I was the only witness…"
"Damn," muttered Sonic. "That would have driven me crazy…" He wasn't looking at Shadow while he said this, but instead at the rickety table standing next to the couch he'd curled up on, where he had absent-mindedly been brushing some of the dirt and litter that had piled up there during months of neglect into his palm and been discarding it into the bin.
"I had ways to deal with it," Shadow replied casually, not sure whether he should be the tiniest bit insulted that somebody was cleaning house while he was talking about his near murder, or whether to encourage Sonic's tentative attempts to piece his life back together.
But then again, the night had been a strange one anyway so far…
OoO
"Really, Shadow. That last bit would not have been necessary," Maria admonished as soon as the three were alone again, the Ultimate Lifeform in the tank just turning his head away and pointy nose up.
"He did try to kill me, Maria," he replied. "I'd suppose it's only fair if he has to sleep with the lights on from now on."
"Yes, but we're trying to avoid confrontation."
"Maria, do you believe me?"
There was silence after the question and even Gerald turned around. Ever since Vincent had left, the old scientist had occupied himself with the consoles again, checking and re-checking logs, files and cache data to see whether he could find anything that indicated where the security breach had come from while Maria had been talking to Shadow. Now though, the hedgehog and girl were just staring at each other, crimson eyes burning as intensely as azure. Maria had told Shadow again and again that he was her best friend, brother even. And this was what true family ties were about…
Finally, Maria sighed.
"If I did, what would you want me to do?"
"That's not an answer to my question, Maria. Do you believe me that Vincent tried to kill me? Think of what he did to me." Shadow's skeleton arm connected with the glass of his tank just in time to underline his soft words with a ghostly clicking of the bones. "Do you believe me, Maria?"
The blond girl bit her lip. Vincent had been there when Shadow's arm had been vaporized. He had helped Snively when the big-nosed scientist had been trying to create a lifeform capable of killing Shadow in a fight. But still…
Her gaze locked with Shadow's again.
"Yes. I believe you. Now what do you want me to do?"
Shadow gave an actual smile for the first time since he'd come back to life.
"Nothing, Maria. Just that."
xxx
A coffee cup smashed against the wall, ugly brown stains immediately dirtying the surroundings as splinters rained down. A cry tore through the room as a pencil case and alarm clock promptly followed, both being smashed open and their contents scattering across the floor. Next, a foot connected with a bed side table, the furniture crashing against the writing desk, connecting with a computer that people who had known of its price would have treated a lot more carefully.
"THAT PEST!"
Not so Vincent, though, as he once again ripped the keyboard from the desk, cable tearing out of the backside of the PC, and hit it against the edge of the metal table so hard, its keys fell out like the white teeth of a curb stomp-battle victim. The letters clattered to the floor, forming meaningful sentences no longer as the rage continued. The last time Vincent had lost control like this, he had been only twelve years old, but now at fifteen the destructive force his matured body could wield was far greater…and the cause much, much more severe.
"WHY! WON'T! IT! WORK!" he screamed again, stopping short of hurling his expensive speaker boxes against the door, but still ripping his defenceless mouse from the desk and brutally breaking it by banging it against the wall as if it was Shadow's own head.
"WHY IS SHE STILL PREFERRING HIM?" Vincent roared, face drawn into a boiling grimace of rage, picking up his dumbbells and beating them against the door with shoulder-wrenching force, each hit accompanied by ear-deafening clanging and an even more impressive dent in the metal. He continued like this for over ten minutes, his upper body straining and screaming and sweating, but that was okay, because at least sweat would hide the tears…
Finally, the son of the Commander collapsed against the abused door face first, his hands barely catching him as the dumbbells fell to floor and the teen with the mismatched eyes was breathing heavily, pressing his hot forehead against the twisted metal. His shirt was completely drenched now and if anybody saw him in this ruined room in this disheveled state, they'd probably get the shock of their lives.
Not that anybody would care to look, of course.
Trembling hands curled into fists as the grey-haired teenager squeezed his eyes tightly shut to prevent more tears from escaping. Nobody would have even heard the giant racket he'd made during his rampage, least of all his father. None of them up here took him seriously, even though he tried so hard…
"Why won't she love me?" he asked the empty room quietly. He had hoped so much that if he damaged her perfect Shadow she'd finally notice him, had hoped that if he destroyed him she'd start to see how Vincent only wanted to be there for her, hang around with her, love her and be loved in return...
But no.
It was always him.
Whatever damage Vincent had caused the feral beast, no matter whether psychological or physical, her stupid grandfather had it repaired. Even his perfect plan for his execution had failed.
"What am I doing wrong?" the son of the Commander hissed, turning around and letting himself slide down against the dented door with his back until he was sitting. Sighing in annoyance, he slid his soaked shirt over his head, his gaze briefly catching his own mis-matched eyes in the mirror. His expression turned even more miserable.
He knew he didn't look bad. His muscles were trained and well-defined, a flat stomach with the first outlines of an impressive sixpack underneath, currently glistening slightly from the exertion. He was lean, tall and broad-shouldered with a clean hair-cut and an angular face that might become as charismatic as his father's one day and he had white teeth and a nice smile, when he wanted to. He was also about to graduate from High School next year, his family was well-to-do and powerful, and with his IT-skills he'd be able to support a family and buy his girl whatever she wanted, and she wouldn't even have to work, just raise his children and be his wife and be happy… Every stupid girl on Earth would want to be his girlfriend, so why wouldn't Maria?
"Because she likes to hang around with furry freaks instead, that's why," Vincent muttered resentfully, his grey eye brows furrowing. It almost reminded him of the princess in that horrid video game he'd played a couple of weeks ago but he quickly dismissed that thought from his mind. No need to have to get the Brain Bleach, here.
Another weak kick against his bed followed as he immediately resented the idea of comparing Maria to something so vile. Not like he could wreak any further havoc on the rest of his room, anyway…that was, apart from his computer, of course. Vincent had a couple of very important files on there which he would kill himself for if he damaged them or the hard drive they were on. And now it seemed like they would be his last chance…
Shadow was dangerous. He'd always known.
"I won't let him hurt her." He grit his teeth.
With those files it was basically in his power to shut down the project …
But that would also kill Maria, wouldn't it? If they annihilated any trace of Shadow, there would be nothing left of him from which to derive the cure for NIDS… but maybe she'd finally love him?
Especially if she didn't know it had been him who had discovered the truth about her grandfather's experiment.
"Yes," Vincent breathed. "That might actually work."
If he managed to get his father to shut the project down…even if it meant that Maria had to die…
…maybe she would love him before she died. When Shadow was no longer there. Love him as she lay dying in his arms…
Vincent smiled.
Then again, maybe it wouldn't have to come to that. Maybe he could wait until her grandfather had cured her and then get them to shut down Shadow. If nothing happened that would cause him to have to hurry things along, of course…
"But don't worry, Maria," he smiled. "I won't let things get too far out of hand. I promise…"
OoO
Sonic stared. And had been doing that for the past ten minutes.
"Are you all right?" Shadow finally asked, cocking his head to the side. Sonic blinked, briefly shaking his head as if chasing away some sort of paralysis.
"Ah…gods, no! Shadow, this guy is a complete psychopath!"
The black hedgehog gave Sonic briefly a 'You're telling me?'-stare, but then shrugged. "Yes. What of it? People like that weren't exactly a rarity on ARK."
"I guess that explains the catastrophe, then…" Sonic nodded, slightly perturbed, but then Shadow was already continuing, as if not wishing to talk about that subject before the story's flow would bring them to that point, like a river crashing into an abyss.
OoO
"So…what do we do now?" Shadow asked, inhaling deeply to let himself float slightly higher in his tank so he could see both humans still in the lab without a problem. "I mean…that can't be it, can it?"
Gerald's brow twisted. "I'm afraid it might have to be it for the time being, Shadow. I don't have any proof at the moment and we don't have a lot of friends," the old man said, sucking the air apologetically through his teeth.
"Brilliant. This sod tries to kill me and he gets away unscathed," Shadow growled, healthy hand curling into a fist. Despite an attempt to murder him, one had to say the hedgehog didn't look as freaked out as one might expect – Gerald supposed there was something about getting shot at daily that toughened you up in that respect. The Ultimate Lifeform shot a glance at Maria. "At least promise me that you won't go see him again," he said. The girl cocked her head.
"Actually, I don't think I will promise you that one, Shadow."
"What?" the black hedgehog asked, ruby eyes immediately flaring up again. "I thought you believed me! You're going to hang out with a murderer?"
"Well, I do believe you, but Vincent doesn't need to know that." Maria winked at him, for a moment the mischievous Robotnik twinkle back in her eye. "If he plans on trying anything again, this way it will be a lot easier to keep tabs on him…keep your friends close and your enemies closer, no?"
"Hmm…" Shadow grumbled, but he couldn't really argue with that logic. (And besides, the Godfather movie that quote came from was just too cool.) "Professor, did that drowning thing throw me off track in my healing schedule?" the black hedgehog asked instead, wishing the topic of Vincent closed for the moment. Fortunately, Maria's grandfather shook his head.
"No, not particularly. The nanites suffered a slight shock, but nothing we can't repair. You've been in this tank for two months now and your bones and part of your tendons have already regrown. I would think another ten weeks should take care of the rest."
"Another ten weeks?" Shadow gave a very uncharacteristic groan. "Professor, I'm bored to tears in here…"
"Will it cheer you up to know that as soon as the nanites start re-building your nerves you will long for that monotone boredom you enjoy at the moment?"
"Not particularly, professor, no," Shadow replied icily enough to let the liquid in his tank almost crystallize. Maria bit her lip at the grim prospects of the future, but her concerns were elsewhere.
"Two more months, grandpa? In that case, you've got to promise me I can stay here with him. There should be somebody on guard at all times."
Gerald sniffed. "Fine. We can work something out. But don't you overtax yourself or get in over your head, you hear me?" the old man replied, his last sentence almost cut off by Maria flinging herself at him for a tight hug.
"Thank you, grandpa! I won't disappoint you," she assured him, before turning back to Shadow again, her open palms pressed against the glass between them.
"Don't worry, Shadow. I'm sure we can make it through this."
The hedgehog floated down to her eye level. "I know." He smiled. "And after all, hey, you must've been in more life-or-death situations than me, right…?" he asked, referring to her state of being with the curious mixture of sorrow and fear, but most of all love and pride that always mingled in his gaze when he regarded the girl who was his sister in everything but blood.
"We're both fighting for survival up here. But we're good at it."
Maria grinned. "You betcha."
Palms only separated by millimeters were briefly joined by two foreheads almost touching each other. Submerged black and red-striped fur could not have been crasser in contrast to the light blonde hair with its navy band and ivory skin beneath, but Gerald could see without a doubt that his two greatest treasures in life could easily draw strength from each other so much that probably not even an army would be able to stop them…
To be continued…
Hiii there! Well, this should have been up...something like three weeks ago? XD But anyway, hope you enjoy it now and look forward to the next installment! If you're looking for anything else to read meanwhile, I can of course shamelessly plug the latest story on my profile, Advent of Equinox, co-written with the brilliant Skyblaze. :) If you like Sonic, Shadow, adventure, action, comedy and insane theories derived from the backstories of certain SEGA games (or simply feel like you'll probably have grandkids by the time I post the next chapter of 'Life...') feel free to check it out, you won't regret it! ;)
Lastly, I think we've actually got our first piece of FANART for this story, but sadly, I can't find the message where someone sent me the link to it anymore...I do apologize to the artist, want to tell me again? ^^° Of course, everyone is welcome to draw their own, here. XD Last but not least, thanks for all the great comments so far, and if you read, please review? :)
