PART 2

'Shadow!'

He turned to see Maria standing at the other end of one of the halls of Space Colony Ark. The stars glimmered outside the crystalline windows, and the Earth revolved beneath their feet.

'Maria?'

She grinned and held up a leather catcher's mitt and a baseball. 'Look what Grandfather got for me!' She ran down the hall toward him, and each flash of her blue shoes was accompanied by a metal clang.

Shadow half-smiled as he watched her draw near. He couldn't help it. He might not be able to get sick, but her smile was infectious. It always had been.

'Aren't they cool? They arrived with the latest cargo delivery. Grandfather said that he didn't want us using a bat in case you hit a ball through a window, but we can still play catch –'

Her foot slipped.

Shadow's thrusters blasted, and he lunged toward her. For a split second, the world turned green, shimmering as she fell.

She landed in his outstretched arms, and he crashed to his knees. The baseball rolled across the metal panels beneath them.

'How … did you …'

'Save your breath.' Shadow sat down and leaned against the glass wall of the corridor, still holding her in his arms. 'How many times do I have to tell you not to overexert yourself?'

She rolled her eyes and put one arm around his shoulders. 'What's the big deal? I know you'll always be there to catch me.' Her eyes reflected his stricken expression, and her smile instantly disappeared. 'I'm sorry. That sounded … pretty selfish, didn't it?'

'You're allowed to be selfish. I don't care. But I may not always be there to catch you.'

'Don't be silly,' she teased. 'You'll always be there for me. 'You're my "shadow".'

His heart twisted in his chest. 'Maria –'

'I know. I understand what you're saying. But you should let "future you" worry about that.' She leaned forward, rolling the baseball back towards her with her fingertips. 'Because right now, "present you" needs to learn how to play ball!'

She stood up and nearly toppled over again. Shadow shot to his feet and steadied her. 'If you keep pushing yourself, you're going to have to use your wheelchair more often. Is that really what you want?'

'Of course not,' she said, panting for breath. 'But I'm sick of walking everywhere. It's so slow.' She gave him a forlorn look. 'You can go anywhere you want in the blink of an eye, and some days I have to wheel myself around. It's not fair.'

'I know.' Shadow glanced down at the shoes that Maria had designed for him. Then he held out one hand, palm up. His inhibitor rings gleamed beneath the halogen lights. 'But if it weren't for my rings, I would be in the same position as you.'

'What do you mean?'

'I have … limited mobility. If I don't wear my inhibitor rings, my system begins to overload. And when that happens, it's difficult for me to move.'

Her eyes widened. 'Shadow, I had no idea.'

'Your grandfather thinks that you already have enough to worry about.' He looked up at her and tried to smile. 'But I thought that … it would make you feel better.'

Maria bit her lip. 'What would?'

'To know that there's nothing wrong with needing help to walk.'

She gazed at the golden rings on his wrists and shoes. Then she threw her arms around him. 'I don't know what I would do without you, Shadow,' she said, and her voice cracked.

'Well, you don't have to worry about that,' he said and hugged her in return. 'No matter what happens, I'm always going to outlive you.'

'Oh, very funny. But what about you?' Maria cupped his face in her hands, searching his eyes with a crestfallen look. 'What will you do when I'm gone?'

Shadow faltered. He could feel her heartbeat echoing throughout her body, beneath his hands. 'I don't … know.' The longer he held her, the more obvious it was that she was getting thinner. 'I can only hope that one day, your grandfather and I will be able to cure you. And if you live a long, happy life, then I'll have decades to make my peace with the inevitable. And then maybe … I'll be okay.'

Maria kissed him on the forehead. 'No one knows what's going to happen, Shadow. But I know you'll be all right. I'll always be with you, even when I'm gone.' She pressed the baseball into his hands and picked up the catcher's mitt. 'But that also sounds like a problem for "future you". Come on! Let's get moving!'

Shadow smiled wearily, watching her as she walked backwards one step at a time. 'Just don't run.'

Maria poked her tongue out. 'Spoilsport.'

He glanced at the ball in his hand, then gave her a wry look. '… I don't suppose you thought to ask for a second mitt?'

She froze, briefly teetering on one foot, and then continued walking backwards. 'Um …'

'I'm kidding. I don't need one, and it wouldn't fit my hand anyway.'

'I suppose you're right.' Maria stood at the other end of the hall and posed, putting her mitted hand up in the air and her other hand on her hip. 'All right, let's play ball! I'll be the Yankees, and you be the Dodgers!'

'Am I supposed to know what that means?'

'It means that she picked the best team for herself,' Professor Gerald said, and Shadow nearly jumped out of his skin. He pivoted to see the professor standing at his shoulder. Gerald slipped his ID card back into his pocket, and the airlock door sealed shut behind him.

'Grandfather!' Maria wailed. 'Shadow has to be the only person in the world who doesn't know the names of any of the MLB teams!' She fell to her knees and slammed one fist against the metal walkway. 'Damn it all to hell!'

'Language, Maria!' Gerald said sharply. 'You're setting a bad example for Shadow.'

'Hmph.' Maria stood up again, but she hesitated. 'Grandfather, are you here for Shadow?'

'I'm here for you both, actually. Come along.'

'But we only just got started …'

'The lab technicians are already waiting.'

'They can wait a few more minutes –'

'We don't have time, Maria!'

Maria flinched, and Shadow swiftly stepped back.

Gerald took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. 'I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. It's just that we have so little … time.'

Shadow watched Gerald out of the corner of his eye. '… Maria needs her wheelchair if we're going to be returning to the lab.'

Gerald put his glasses back on and exhaled. 'All right. I'll go get it. Wait here.'

Maria clutched her hands together, and one hand disappeared into the mitt. 'So we still have time?' she asked.

Gerald swiped his ID card, and the airlock door slowly began to open. 'For now.'

'Then what are we waiting for? Shadow!'

'R-Right.' He looked at the ball in his hand. 'What do I do?'

'… You throw it. At me.'

'Oh.'

Gerald burst out laughing and had to brace himself against the airlock door. 'I think You'll be fine, son. We only just started letting women play baseball competitively, so you'll have an advantage.'

Shadow gave Gerald an unimpressed glare.' I think that advantage derives from my alien DNA, not what kind of chromosomes I have.'

Gerald's gaze darkened. 'We agreed not to discuss that in front of Maria.'

'She already knows about the Black Arms.' Shadow braced his feet against the floor, laser-focused on Maria's mitted hand. 'She knows more than you give her credit for.' He threw the ball overarm, and it left his fingertips.

'If only she knew what the world is going to do to her,' Gerald said.

The ball streaked down the corridor, gleaming like a shooting star.

'What?'

Shadow looked down and saw a grenade pin in his open palm.

An explosion shook the corridor, painting every window and every metal panel a vivid red.

He took one step forward, and his shoe scuffed against the ground. Then he lunged forward, yelling, 'Maria!'

He found her lying at the heart of the explosion. Her clothes were splashed with paint, and she was covering her face with her hands.

He fell to his knees beside her and held her in his arms. 'Maria …'

'I'm sorry, Shadow.'

His heart dropped. 'Why? This is my fault –'

'I-I know that I can lose my sense of sight if I overexert myself, but it's been so long since it last happened.' She clung to him and said, 'I-I should have listened to you, Shadow. I'm so sorry –'

Shadow brushed her hair away from her face. Her soft, golden tresses were streaked with crimson. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, and each one was covered by a red cross.

Shadow's chest began to heave. 'It's just paint. You're okay, Maria. It's just paint.'

She closed her eyes even tighter, and watercolour tears dripped down her cheeks. 'It's so dark, Shadow.'

Shadow's heart stopped. He twisted around and screamed, 'Professor, help!'

But Gerald had disappeared without a trace.

'I don't understand, Shadow.' Shadow looked down at Maria, and she was shaking. Her hands trembled. 'Why would someone do this to me? I never hurt anyone. I never did anything wrong.' She burst into tears and sobbed, 'I never asked for this!'

Shadow held her even more tightly. 'I don't know who did this to you, but I'll find them, no matter what it takes, and I promise you …'

His arms closed on air, and he realised that he wasn't holding her – he was holding himself. He was kneeling on a broken placard. Maria sat on the other side of its surface. Her eyes were still closed. 'Shadow? Are you there? I can't hear you.'

'Maria!' He slammed his fists against the wood, and splinters dug into his hands as he desperately tried to break through to her. 'Wait for me! I'll get you out –'

'Shadow?' Maria finally opened her eyes, and she stared at her paint-stained hands in horror. 'Why … am I clapping?'

His breath left his body. Blood welled up from the diamond-shaped hole in his back and trickled down his arms. It dripped from his chest and shoulders, soaking through the placard. A drop of blood landed on the tip of Maria's nose. She blinked and looked up.

'Shadow?'

He lay in silence, feeling the familiar stiffness of a military cot beneath his body. The unpainted concrete wall of his room filled his field of vision. He buried his face in his pillow.

'Shadow?' Rouge's silhouette cast a shadow on the wall, and she sat beside him. Her hand grazed his hip and came to rest on his shoulder. 'Are you awake?'

He said nothing and watched her silhouette. Her ears twitched. He knew that she could hear every irregular breath that left his body.

'Did you have another dream?' When he didn't answer, she asked, 'Do you remember what it was about?'

I only remember nightmares.

He curled up, tenshing until his quills stood on end.

'… I see.' Rouge squeezed his shoulder and looked up. He heard a soft sigh. 'We really need to get those ceiling panels fixed. What star system is that supposed to be, anyway?'

He closed his eyes again and didn't respond.

'Well, someone's feeling chatty.'

If he waited long enough, then she would get bored and leave. But the seconds ticked by, and she didn't move. 'I got your coffee.' He heard a clink as she set a mug down on the bedside table, followed by the dull tapping of a gloved finger on ceramic.

He didn't turn over, and she shifted her weight. 'I know you don't like getting up late, but I unplugged your alarm clock anyway. It's already past noon, hon.'

After a long pause, she said, 'I'd ask if you wanted to talk about it, but you clearly don't.'

Shadow gritted his teeth and forced himself to sit up. His limbs felt like lead, his chest felt hollow, and his head felt like it was filled with television static. With all of his strength and power, why did something as simple as sitting up feel so difficult?

'There we go.' Rouge passed him the coffee mug, but he turned his head away. She pursed her lips and set the mug back down. '… Right.'

He let his legs drop over the side of the cot and leaned forward, resting his folded arms on his knees and lowering his head. His shoes, gloves and wrist guards were scattered across the floor. His inhibitor rings glimmered on his bare wrists and ankles.

Rouge put a hand on his back, and her fingers found the crevice of the diamond-shaped scar between his shoulder blades. Shadow abruptly stood up and stumbled over to the bathroom cubicle in the corner, knocking his shoulder against the wall of the shower. He could still feel the blood that had oozed out of his back, as well as the splinters that had dug into his hands.

'Shadow?'

He turned the water on full-blast. An ice-cold torrent cascaded over him, and he braced his hands against the wall. His claws left scratch marks on the worn tiles. The red streaks in his fur that extended from his forearms to his fingertips looked like bloodstains. Traces of dried red paint from yesterday ringed the drain cover.

Suddenly, Rouge hugged him from behind. He tensed, digging his claws into the cracks in the tiles. 'Get out.'

'I don't think I will.'

After a moment, he turned the tap until the flow was a faint trickle. 'You don't need to do this.'

'There isn't much else I can do.'

He turned, and her hands fell to his waist. Her mascara was beginning to run. '… You damn fool.' Even though his voice was rough, he couldn't bring himself to be caustic. 'You're not even wearing waterproof makeup, yet you still pull a stunt like this.'

Despite her obvious concern, she still smiled. 'I don't believe in waterproof makeup. Boys aren't worth crying over – and I'm not going to make an exception for you.' She cupped his face with her hand. 'Nevertheless, you still make me worry.'

'There's nothing I can do about that.'

'I know. "Price of admission", as they say.' She examined his eyes, and he lowered his gaze. 'Natural red eyeliner and thick lashes … you lucky bastard.'

Her eyes were the wrong shade of blue. They weren't a pale, vivid blue illuminated by iridescent flecks, like the first stars in an early evening sky. They were mint aqua, like shallow water on an island shore.

'Shadow?' He felt the weight of her hands on his hips. 'Talk to me, darling.'

He tried to take a deep breath, but his lungs felt like sieves, unable to hold air for more than a moment. 'Why did I leave that photograph on the Ark? It felt right at the time, but … ' He took another breath, and it was shallow. 'I haven't forgotten her face. But whenever I think of her now, the first thing I see are those red crosses on that damn placard.'

Rouge's face crumpled. 'Oh, sweetheart.'

'I don't have any pictures of her,' he said, and the depth of the realisation twisted in his gut like a knife. 'And have no one to blame but myself for that.'

'Hey. Look at me.' Rouge said. 'You shouldn't blame yourself for doing what you felt was right.' When he didn't answer, she tapped his chest and said. 'Deep down, you'll always remember her – what she looked like and who she was to you – even if her memory is clouded by darkness right now.' She stepped back, and her concern was swiftly replaced with a coy smile. 'And if it means that much to you, we can steal another spacecraft from GUN and go for a joyride. That photograph still has to be floating around on the Ark, right?'

Shadow turned the water off. '... No.'

'No?'

'"No" as in "No, we're not stealing another spacecraft". Abraham will have our hides.' Shadow shook himself off and stepped out of the bathroom.

'Hmph! I thought it was a fabulous idea.'

'It was … thoughtful,' he said, putting on his shoes. 'But I don't want to let myself forget what these people did to her.' He strapped on his wristguards and slid his inhibitor rings down, snapping them into place. 'What they did should bother me …' For a moment, his shoulders slumped, and he dug his fingers into his palm until he could feel his claws bite into the skin. 'But this would be easier to deal with if there was something I could do about it.'

'Whoa, easy.' Rouge prised his hand open and passed him his gloves, which he pulled on. 'I understand. But Abraham still hasn't cleared you to begin investigating, and he isn't planning to any time soon.'

Shadow took his jacket off the hook behind his door, unpinning a dry cleaning label from the collar. '… I know.' He shrugged the jacket on and fastened the zipper.

'And what's more,' Rouge said pointedly. 'You don't officially start working with the Central City Children's Hospital until tomorrow.'

Shadow walked over to his workbench and picked up an electronic key, tossing it in the air and catching it as he walked out of his room. 'I know.'

She leaned over the back of the couch in their living area, watching him walk to the door. She sighed. 'Just don't do anything reckless, all right? So help me if I see you on the evening news.'

'Reckless?' Shadow opened the door of their flat and held up the key in his hand. 'What are you talking about? I'm just going for a drive.'

To be continued...

A/N: ... I may have cooked way too hard with this one. I hadn't planned to do a Space Colony Ark scene – let alone weave in what happened in the previous chapter – but it practically wrote itself.

I also ended up drawing something based on this chapter. The art style is inspired by the work of Yui Karasuno! Shadow and Maria deserve the world, and I wanted to capture the happiness they used to share (especially after the recent events in the story). (You can view the artwork by going to Chapter 19 of Artificial Hope on AO3!)

Also, welcome back for Part 2! I'm aiming to write slightly longer chapters in this part, so we'll see how that goes. I'm also going to try to come up with chapter titles from now on as well. Updates will definitely be further apart once I have to start researching for medical accuracy ... but for now, it's great to hear what people think of each chapter as I work on the next one, as opposed to writing too far ahead.

Thanks for reading!