Chapter Text
Shadow had awakened, much to his dismay, to the first week of November and the weather had been unseasonably, insistently peaceful. The air was a digit away from freezing, windless and still, while the sun beamed smugly down at the muddy ground and every glinting droplet tracing the contours of his muzzle.
It’s pouring, but the sky is getting bluer before his eyes.
And Maria was still nowhere to be found. He searched for her at sunset, and at sunrise, again; and at noon, and forenoon, and afternoon, and again, and again, until the final drop of rain fell on him.
Not that he’d actually moved. Hardly a quill had shifted. But what were the odds, really, that if he just stared—no, glared—at the heavens hard enough, they’d crack open and take him to wherever she was?
Now, sickness was clawing up his throat, and every nerve in his body screamed with an unfamiliar, searing burn. It forced him to move, to stand and take in the wasteland around him.
The destruction of his fall had taken all it could– the ground stretched into a barren, town-sized crater, the downpour hours gone, the dust and dirt baked under an unrelenting sun. It was the warmest winter Shadow had ever felt, and his heavy, sweat-rain-soaked fur was starting to piss him off.
Seriously, where was Maria?
He clenched his fists, claws biting into damp, soot-matted gloves. He’d done everything right, hadn’t he? He stopped Gerald. He stopped that lunatic grandson of his... though he wasn’t sure how. He fell—fell through pain, through fire, through the void itself. And everything hurts. Every damn thing.
He stumbled across the crater, walking like his limbs didn’t belong to him, until he froze.
There was movement—faint at first, but unmistakable. The distant hum of engines grew louder, accompanied by the steady, rhythmic thump of helicopter blades slicing through the air.
Shadow’s gaze snapped up, sharp and alert, scanning the horizon. His ears twitched as the sound drew closer.
G.U.N.
Of course, they were tracking him—why wouldn’t they? A living weapon who tried to just annihilate their entire planet, and proceedingly crash-landed like a meteor which… left a hell of devastation.
The sky was still so blue, and it mocked him, unrelenting, taunting him with a peace he couldn’t grasp.
That blue, that damn blue–
Shadow winced, his hand instinctively clutching his head as a wave of nausea overtook him.
A sharp, fleeting image flashed through his thoughts—a streak of the same haunting color, though vivid and electric, cutting through the haze of his thoughts. It felt important, but the details refused to materialize. Was it a person? A memory?
He shook his head, growling under his breath.
Whatever—or whoever—it was, it didn’t matter. Not right now.
The sound of the helicopters grew louder, their shadows now visible against the treetops on the crater’s edge. Shadow took a deep breath, steadying himself. He wasn’t about to let G.U.N catch him. Not again.
With a blast of energy, he bolted, boots skimming over damp earth, the crater fading behind him. The sound of pursuit swelled, but it didn’t matter.
The trees had already swallowed him whole.