Chapter Text
The murmurs of the world awaken him.
Such a noisy thing it was, even as it was low in volume. Their hissing and hushed tones felt like magma cascading on his head, their cracked teeth spilling their lies and empty promises.
“And you’re sure it’s responsive?”
“For God’s sake, Maia, it was just an overdose of sedatives! Not like we killed the bastard.”
That’s all it was.
That’s all it ever was.
Never a small worry as to whether or not it hurt him. Just tossed aside without a care and acknowledged with glass eyes. Eyes that reflected and never took any heed as to whether or not it truly saw.
Empty, but full, as all mirrors were.
The sudden jolt of energy from his collar makes him shriek. His body seizes and convulses from his small bed. Well, if you’d call it such. Merely it was just a large slab of metal jutting from the wall. No blanket. No pillow.
Minimal.
“Project Shadow,” they hiss through the intercom. “You know the drill. Step forward to the glass and put your hands through.”
“If he knows the drill, then you wouldn’t have to explain it to him.”
“Johnny, please just shut up.”
You could say that was his name. Project Shadow. Was it short for anything? Yes and no. As in it’s not an acronym, but a secret only he knew. And it wouldn’t be much of a secret if he told you, now would it?
Just because he was confined in this prison doesn’t mean his sense of humour had to be chained as well.
So yes, he did step to the glass and stuck his hands through. Ouch. The shackles seemed a little tighter tonight.
‘For little old me?’ he thinks. ‘Why, you shouldn’t have.’
“Agent, you are cleared to enter. Project Shadow, you will answer to the agent presented. Is that clear?”
Shadow gives a stiff nod. They didn’t deserve his words. They certainly didn’t ask for them, either.
And true to their word, the agent enters. It’s a woman this time. She motions for him to follow, but says nothing. That’s good. He hates the ones who gloat, say they’re better than him, a feral beast that barely earned his keep.
The boisterous and egotistical ones made up the majority. But his hatred means nothing if he can’t act upon it. A lesson that’s swelled with time, unfortunately.
“Scheduling for today is…”
“Yes, yes, but I’m telling you the results…”
“...and then he slams the dude’s face into the ground, like, three times!”
Noisy. Noisy and stupid.
The sharp snap of the agent’s fingers make him halt. A dance he’s performed for quite some time, now. How many years was it? Over fourty, he knows. Perhaps nearing fifty? Or was it already past that?
Memory wasn’t Shadow’s strength. Not when the chipped teeth replace themselves so often. Some a nonsensical white, as though they deemed themselves heroes despite their abusive treatments. Some were blackened, showing they knew of the abuse, but didn’t care enough to change it.
It wasn’t broken, after all. Why fix it?
“Stand still and do not move an inch.”
‘Wouldn’t dream of it, ma’am,’ Shadow thinks with a twisted curl to his words. He liked to think that, if he did get around to speaking to them, he’d twist them around like little puppets.
Arteries made such good strings, didn’t they. So easily ripped out from their feeble human flesh, and so easily they could be tied around his fingers. All for a wonderfully gruesome puppet show only he could enjoy–
The agent’s jingling of keys snap him out of his trance. His ears perk up as he lifts his hands, despite her order. She raises a brow, but unlocks his cuffs anyways.
“You the new one?” a scientist walks up to them, a warm smile on their face.
Shadow cringes. The smile doesn’t suit their skin at all. Their face hangs on by loose threads, as though carelessly put on with little care of its result.
Alas, these were things only he could see. The agent gives a stiff nod, unaware of the happy face being just one of many that the doctor owned.
“Yes, sir. Agent Topaz of Unit L-525.”
“Happy happy,” the doctor nods. “If you would, Project–“
The lights go out.
There’s startled screams all around. People rush around, talking over one another.
Shadow’s senses are hurt by their screams, by their words, but most of all… by their lack of presence.
The sudden realization washes over him like an ice bucket. No one is beside him. The testing doors all relied on electricity to open, to ensure that in times of war the enemy wouldn’t be able to get inside.
An old facility. Which meant it wasn’t up to date. Everything’s evolved from back then, he remembers hearing about every little interesting technology tidbit. Like when phones started to get so small, you could fit them in your hand!
They weren’t beside him.
No one was.
Which meant…
“Dammit! Agent Topaz, secure the project!”
“Right away, sir!”
She shines her flashlight right where the project was standing. Was standing.
“Dear God,” she whispers. “Doctor, it’s not there!”
“What?!”
“WHERE ARE THOSE BACKUP GENERATORS?!”
The emergency doors flail open, and the lights give the faint glow of electric blue before exploding in a small flair of sparks.
“...my guess would be they’re fried, Maia.”
“Agent, would you be so kind as to lend me your gun?”
Shadow can’t run as fast as he’d like, but it doesn’t matter. Casual speed is better than life-or-death speed. The rings around his feet hurt, but they’re okay. They’re safe. They weren’t implanted with any sort of chip, not like his arm was.
And speaking of that, he’ll need something sharp to carve it out with. He’ll find it sooner or later.
Why?
Because he was free.
He did it. After years and years, he was finally out.
The snow felt wonderful against his feet, even as they pounded harshly against the ground. Gaia’s cold breath did little to contain his excited and exhausted laugh.
He keeps running, away from the startled guns, away from the poking and prying doctors.
Shadow is free .
And he knew there was someone to thank for it. That power felt so natural, so raw, and so… so familiar.
It wasn’t like his own, no, this was powerful.
But where to start in his search, he wondered…
Well. Nowhere to go but forward. And the search could wait for a little longer.
Because he was free. And he wanted to soak it all in before it was ripped away from him.