"Adam?" The word rang through out the vast cavern, a bare whisper turned to roars as it echoed off the stone formations within. Every eye was upon the speaker, a tall, graceful girl with steel gray hair that rippled in the candlelight and eyes of a beautiful quicksilver that stole the breath of all who looked into them. Before her was a man, one infamous throughout Aincrad though none knew his name or face. He was large, rippling with brawny muscles, and his red hair shone like fire as it framed his ruggedly handsome features. If Shadow was completely honest with himself, they painted a beautiful picture, one of exotic contradiction that he would never have expected from the leader of Laughing Coffin and the famous Silver Shadow.
"Yes, Tenshi, it's me." The large man rumbled, and Shadow frowned inwardly. Why was such a large man leader of Laughing Coffin, a guild of assassins, and especially, how did he know BellaLux? His questions went unasked and unanswered as the girl, looking like little more than a slip of a thing next to the man, reached up tentatively to touch the blazing red stubble on Adam's chin.
"But… how are you here? Why Adam?" With an incredibly soft smile, the larger man caught her hand in his, pressing it to his cheek.
"I came for you, Tenshi. Kireki helped patch me in. I came into Aincrad to find you." Shadow didn't see what was funny about the answer; only a madman would willingly join this death-game after all, but for some reason, Bella chuckled at the answer.
"Of course he did. That kid always loved his computers." Suddenly, the girl's eyes sharpened, and from where he was standing, Shadow's own widened. She looked very angry. "Why are we here, Adam? Do you know what Laughing Coffin is?" Shadow could've Adam's face hardened for a second, but before he could be sure it was gone, replaced by a wide grin.
"Of course I know. I created it, after all." It was then that the suspicion Shadow had seen building within Bella, or Tenshi as the large man seemed to call her, burst, and the girl took a subtle step back.
"Created it, Adam? You can't mean that." Unsurprisingly, the man slid forward to match, that unnerving grin still stretched across his face.
"Of course I do, Tenshi. I came here to find you, but I couldn't. So I had to do something to attract your attention." He reached up to caress her cheek in a manner reminiscent of the girl's own actions just a few moments before, but she slapped away the hand.
"So you killed people, Adam? Innocents? I taught you better than that." At her words, Adam's face was suddenly overtaken with fury, and Shadow raised his eyebrows from where he was at. The large red-haired man didn't strike her as he expected, however, instead turning away from the girl as if being scolded.
"You don't know what it was like without you, Tenshi. We couldn't survive, and they… the others wanted to take you to the hospital. I couldn't let them. You know what would have happened if I did. I had no choice, I had to find you." Shadow watched the exchange with awe. Somehow, this young woman had cowed the large, obviously powerful man with only her words. Now, she stepped forward, and with a surprising authority to her, grasped Adam's chin and pulled ti forward, to look her in the eyes.
"What did you do, Adam?" She asked, her voice soft but commanding. For a moment, the creator of Laughing Coffin looked like a frightened child, and Shadow would have chuckled at the thought if he weren't surrounded by killers who would end his life in an instant at the slightest inclination.
"I-I had to, Tenshi. I had no choice. I had to save you, because I love you." It was then that the truth dawned on Shadow. Whoever these others were, likely some kind of gang of friends or family, Adam had killed. That was the only explanation that made sense for this reaction. For whatever reason, this Adam had perceived the hospital as a threat to his Tenshi, and thus had killed those who had attempted to take her there. The true sadness, however, and the thought that made Shadow's blood boil, was that he didn't seem ashamed of his actions. Yes, he was afraid of retribution, obviously, and what Tenshi would think of him, but not ashamed. He fully believed he was right in killing his friends and family, possibly even the person who had allowed him to come into SAO. The thought disgusted Shadow. What sort of monster killed their friends and family without any qualms?
Shadow saw the moment that the exact same realization hit Tenshi, and at first, he thought she would be angry. He expected the young girl to rage and scream, to spit at and scratch Adam and curse him with every name under the sun, punishing the man for his crimes with exactly what he feared; rejection. He was very surprised, then, when she did none of that, and actually pulled the older male into a tight hug, pressing his head to her bosom.
"Oh, Adam, it's alright. I love you too." At those words, A wave of rage flowed through Shadow. How could this woman forgive such a monster? He had ended his own family, willingly slain those he loved and sold his soul just to attract her attention. Her soul truly must be as twisted as his own, if that was truly the case.
"You forgive him? He killed your family! Your loved ones!" Shadow yelled, his hands clenching for stolen blades and grasping nothing but air. Unarmed, all he could do was glare at the woman, who released Adam at his outburst.
"Adam, who is this and why is he here?" The rage in Shadow froze at the sound of her voice, icy fear replacing it to course through his veins. It was a thing made of ice and shadow, cold as winter and darker than night. He shuddered as she stepped towards him, and no longer did Tenshi appear to be a girl, small and slight. Shadow was now faced with a queen, regal and fierce, with a deadly glint to her quicksilver eyes which locked onto his own blazing red ones. She stalked towards him, each step a silent glide across the stone floor until she was standing before him, her gaze sliding down his form like silk.
"His name is Shadow, Tenshi. He's been hunting our new family for months now. I brought him for you, an offering for this glorious occasion." Tenshi's eyes flicked back up to Shadow's from where they had lingered upon his abdomen, chiseled hard by long days of fighting in the field, and without a doubt the young mercenary knew exactly what Adam meant. He's giving me to her to kill, like some sort of toy, he thought, disgusted as a small, sly smile crossed the woman's face.
"You always get me the nicest gifts, Adam. But it would be boring to just kill him." With a flick of her chin, two of the Laughing Coffin members who had been waiting in the eaves, watching the proceedings, stepped forwards, her instant authority going unquestioned as they handed her weapons Shadow recognized as his own. With a move that spoke of utter contempt, Tenshi threw the bundle of equipment at Shadow's feet before claiming her own from the second attendant. It was the work of an instant to add them to her inventory, and the same was true for Shadow, who wasted no time in collecting them. Tenshi may think she could kill him, but she would be in for a surprise.
With their weapons and armor once again in place, Tenshi backed up a few steps and drew the two silver daggers resting on her thighs, a feral grin on her face. Shadow drew his own weapon, smirking as he gripped Blood Rose's handle. Those daggers looked fancy, certainly, but they were nothing compared to an S-class item, and the blood red scythe with a black grip was exactly that. Before they could move towards one another, however, Adam suddenly stepped between them.
"Wait. Tenshi, another gift, if you will. Something to make your first dance in the Court of Shadows more… memorable." With a dramatic flourish, the large man handed his new ally two daggers, and Shadow's eyes widened at the sight of them. One was pure white, and looked almost like it was crafted out of light itself, while the other was the opposite, a shard of darkness that seemed to suck in the color of the very air around it.
"Hikari and Yami," Tenshi murmured as the item information screen appeared in front of her, before she swiped it away. "How appropriate." WIth a nod, Adam stepped back, and suddenly the air between Shadow and Tenshi was filled with tension. Their eyes met, and for several seconds, all they did was stare. Shadow could make nothing out of the quicksilver orbs across from him, and his own were just as hard, anger radiating from every pore of his body. This woman was just as bad of a monster as the LC leader, to accept such crimes. But perhaps it was just as well that it would fall to him to defeat her. After all, it took a monster to defeat a monster, and Shadow had his own share of darkness.
When they moved, it was without warning. One instant they were stock-still, glaring at each other from across the field of spikes, and the next the two Shadows flew towards each other, their blades clashing in the still air. After the first strike, Shadow was already spinning around, long practice and martial training allowing him to know exactly how and where to move. With ungodly speed, he brought his scythe across, hoping to end this fight with a single, devastating blow. It was not to be, however, as Tenshi slid underneath the curved blade, her hair ruffling in the air as it passed not an inch overhead. Popping up like a spring, the girl slid one step forward, her other foot lashing out to kick Shadow in the chest.
He flew back, winded from the sudden blow, but a single kick wasn't nearly enough to defeat a trained warrior such as Shadow, and he caught himself on a nearby spike. With a small grunt, he threw himself back at the girl, gritting his teeth as once again she slid around the blade like water, lashing out with a devastating backhand and sending him flying once again. He rolled when he landed, before rising in an instant and throwing himself back at Tenshi, his rage growing with every time he failed to land a blow.
They danced around the Court, and with every passing second Shadow grew more and more desperate. He had caught her off guard a few times, but for each he only had a glancing blow to show for it. Tenshi was like water and shadow, flowing around his blades as if she weren't even there, stepping just out of his strike zone as if to taunt him. She was unpredictable too. Every strike she made, every slash and attack that he only barely managed to block, only just dodged, came from a new angle. Every one of his instincts, beaten into him through long hours and days of training, demanded he block here, strike there, only for her to appear somewhere else entirely. It was extremely frustrating, and Shadow was growing desperate as his health bar fell further and further, starting to edge into the red.
Finally, the warrior caught a break, some sixth sense pinging as the girl disappeared around a stone spike. At first, he moved to block where she should have reappeared from, but something stopped him, and he instead turned his blade upwards. Surprisingly, she appeared there, flipping over the five foot rock as if it were a mere pebble in her path, and her blades slammed down onto his, sending them both sprawling to the ground. For a few, desperate moments, they struggled, wrestling for the top position, until finally Shadow's superior strength stat put him on top, Tenshi's daggers just barely holding his scythe away from her throat.
He looked into her eyes then, all his anger ready to spit into her face and declare victory over the evil bitch, only for him to be brought up short by what he saw. Gone was the queen of shadow and ice, the dark, seductive woman who had eyed him like a piece of meat, and in its place were innumerable unsheddable tears. The quicksilver eyes, previously hard and frozen with a raw hatred and evil, were now like liquid, softened by an immeasurable sadness.
"Find Kirito." The voice was little more than a whisper on the wind, but it rang through Shadow's mind like a bell, so desperate and broken it stole his breath. "Find the Black Swordsman, and warn him. Even the dead cast Shadows." He stared, unable to comprehend what he was seeing and hearing, until finally it clicked in his mind. She had been faking. The forgiveness, the love she offered to the friend that had betrayed her family and slaughtered innocents, was a lie. She knew that turning on him then, in front of all his loyal followers, would have been a death sentence. And if she died, so would Shadow, and there would be no one to know the truth.
"Why?" Shadow croaked, his voice heavy and hoarse from the exertion. To the others, the ones watching with barely contained glee, they would think he was asking why she had turned on him, why she had proven to be just as twisted and evil as them. For Tenshi and Shadow, however, it held far more weight than meaningless anger and betrayal. Why sacrifice yourself? Why sell your soul to the devil on the meager hope that you might escape one day, or that I might be able to fix this? Why trust me, A complete stranger? She smiled up at him, a broken angel, and answered with the only answer she could.
"Because I can." With a lightning fast action, her knee shot up from under him to slam into his groin, toppling Shadow over. Before the warrior could even register what had just happened, Tenshi spun, landing on top of him and pressing her new twin daggers to his throat. For a moment, they both froze there, Shadow staring up at her in surprise, and Tenshi looking back with apologetic eyes. Then the sound of clapping came, and they broke their stare to look at Adam, who had approached from behind.
"Excellent, Tenshi, just as I knew you could. Now… kill him." The man smiled, and Shadow's eyes flashed back to Tenshi- no, Bella's- eyes. She stared back at him, her hood masking the pain he could now see there from her family's murderer, and for just a moment unease swept through him. Then she spoke.
"No. I won't." Shadow's breath caught. What was she doing? Before he could protest however, Adam frowned, before stepping forward to loom over the two.
"What was that?" He rumbled, and Bella smiled up at him.
"You heard me, I won't kill him." She glanced towards Shadow, and the smile turned into a smirk. "A shamed and defeated enemy is better than a dead one." Shadow's eyes widened minutely at the words. So that's her plan. Clever. "Let him go. If he's dead, he can't appreciate the lesson he's learned. Let him live with the knowledge that whatever his crusade was, he failed. And if he tries to start again, well…" Her eyes flashed, and again Shadow was faced with the deadly predator which had hunted him through the stone spikes, a queen of shadows in all her glory. "I won't be merciful next time."
Adam laughed, and suddenly the tension which had filled the air was broken. "Oh, I like it. So deliciously cruel." With a gesture, one of the other members of Laughing Coffin, who now sported a wide grin since Shadow had been defeated, stepped forward and picked him up off the floor even as Bella stepped towards Adam and wrapped herself around his arm. Shadow couldn't hear what it was she whispered into his ear, but from the wide grin that cracked the despicable man's face, he could guess. As he was handed a blindfold, Shadow tried desperately to catch Bella's eye. He worried, as his hands reached up to wrap the dirty brown cloth around his eyes, that he would fail, but then, just before the darkness fell, he caught a glimpse of her glancing towards him. All he saw was just a hint of steely quicksilver, nothing to prove that what he had seen there, lying on top of the woman with a blade to her throat, was true, but then her last words came back to him, the answer to his question.
Because I can. She hadn't meant it a flippant answer, claiming she had taken what actions she did on a whim. No, the truth went far deeper than that. The queen of shadows, the primal predator hungry for his blood, the twisted, vicious woman that would condemn violence and death… all of that was there, within reach for her. She played the role of Adam's queen, his Tenshi, because deep within herself, she knew she could, because if her life had turned out even slightly differently, she would be that person. She was both capable and in such a position to do so, and the ease with which she had shifted into Tenshi sent shivers down Shadow's spine as he was led blindly out of the Laughing Coffin fortress. Yes, she was more than capable of being that person, he knew, but what pained him the most was that she wasn't. Whatever the reason, the woman he had looked down on as he tried desperately to remove her head from her shoulders, was not a monster. He had looked into those currents of quicksilver, and all he saw was a desperate need for Shadow to do as she asked.
Find Kirito. Find the Black Swordsman and warn him. Even the dead cast Shadows. Shadow had no idea what was so important about that message, but as he felt fresh air waft over him, a stark contrast to the stale cavern air he had slowly been growing accustomed to, he knew that he would deliver it no matter what. A woman whose kindness and care for those she had loved, whose pain and sacrifice shocked him to the core, had made only a single request of him, and he'd be damned if he didn't fulfill it. After all, one could never hide from their Shadow.
XXX
Okay, so this is unusual. I know, I've already updated this story once already today, but seriously, I just wasn't done with that shit. This chapter forced me to finish it, and if I'm completely honest, I might just have another in me as well.
Anyways, so something I wanted to announce. Originally, I had planned on Bella's theme song being Angel With a Shotgun, but recently I have found a new song. So from now on, Bella's theme song is the nightcored version of 'Silver Lining'. As for the battle, I think the theme song should totally be the same as it was in Arctic01's story The Tri-Blade Alliance, 'Let it Burn'. That's where Shadow comes from, by the way, so go give his story a look. So that should be it for now, and as always, feel free to Review or PM me with anything you have questions for, and I shall see ya!