Taken to the Grave (Tag: Open)

"The ultimate weapon." Chat said.

He was a little uncomfortable with the idea of it. But then again, this was Shadow. Shadow wasn't dangerous. He could be capable of it, but he wasn't about to go and burn the city down for shits and giggles. Still, to have all of those traits in one being... He shook his head and stood a bit straighter. He looked down at his hands. His touch alone could destroy anything and everything. Aging it and destroying. He hated the power. He could only imagine how Shadow felt about it.

"But a big softie... Who would have guessed?"

Anna gave one more look at the graveyard of Maria before moving over to where the others stood around Elsa. She pressed closer so that she could look at the notes Sunshine was holding in her hands. One thing was for sure, whoever had created Shadow definitely had the 'mad scientist' vibe going for them.

As she read through the complex calculations, Anna realized that the ones who had made the homunculus were extremely intelligent to say the least. The calculations and computations on the paper were extremely complex, but it boiled down to the same thing. Someone had wanted to made a being who had all the best, most powerful characteristics of Others and none of their weaknesses.

"Looking at all this.... its amazing something like this could ever been made. I mean, people have tried to create hybrid Others before but had no success at all. Their DNA is just too different to hold together. About the only way you could ever make something like this would be with incredibly strong magic. Dark magic...."

She looked up uneasily from the notes. She'd dealt with her fair share of dead Others in her time as a medical examiner and knew firsthand that the biology of most of them was extremely different. The fact that Shadow could be a combination of who knew how many types of Others was simply amazing....and more then a little frightening.

Chat folded his arms across his chest. There wasn't much he could say. The ultimate weapon was created, not to destroy but to heal. The ultimate weapon was an attempt at the ultimate cure. Too bad it wasn't successful. He glanced to Maria's headstone. If it had worked, Maria might have lived a full and happy life. If the government had been more open minded about Others things might have been different. At the same time, genetic modification and artificial life was kind of a grey line. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Chat wasn't entirely sure he could blame either side there. Professor Gerald was trying to save his granddaughter but the government saw Shadow as a weapon and if more were made like him who were not as morally aligned as he was...

"What a mess."

"It depends on what exactly was used to fuse all these genetics," Elsa pondered. Unethical was a good word choice, but science and magic could be blurred. She was speaking from personal experience. The notes had been shockingly vague. Professor Gerald must have done something shady to keep Shadow's creation quiet.

"Fools. You should have known better.

The disembodied voice shook the entire cemetery. Sunshine whipped out her gun, whipping her head to try and identify the voice's source. Pulsing through the air, with its red eye locked onto the group, floated in front of the group.

You all don't know your place? For ten years, the professor has served me well, creating a leader for my army. It took some work, but he has finally realized his purpose; to inflict the wrath of hell on all humans."

The black and red masses didn't appear until their heavy pants and demonic language echoed all around the cemetery. Sunshine shrieked as a clawed hand gripped her ankle. She shot it directly between the eyes only to be roughly shoved down by several other creatures. As she struggled, she opened her mouth to call for help, only for a palm that smelled like rotten meat to clasp over her mouth.

No one will come to the aid of the Others who swore to protect humans

"Wanna bet?"

Sunshine knew that gruff, low voice from anywhere. A bullet was fired at the floating eye. It swerved away, and several demons shrieked and recoiled. In the fog, Sunshine saw him, well his silhouette was unmistakable with the quills and his irate red eyes, holding the smoking gun.

Shadow was there, and he was mad.

"Yes, but..."

However, Anna wasn't given a chance to respond to Sunshine's statement when suddenly the graveyard around them seemed to visibly darken. Immediately she felt her body shivering violently as goosebumps covered her arms and that was even before the giant floating red eye appeared.

Anna stared up at the demonic eye in shock before shaking her head and grabbing the knife she now kept on her person at all times. Ever since the incident with the men that had tried to accost her and Axel's timely arrival, she had felt it was a good idea to keep some form of protection on her. Now it looked like that had been a good idea.

The floating eyeball continued to speak in a truly horrible voice that grated like a knife against bone. Anna was still trying to make sense of what the thing was talking about when suddenly the ground rumbled and a series of red and black monsters appeared. Anna couldn't help but make a gagging noise at the stench that came off of them, a mixture of rotting flesh and swamp water.

In an instant they were surrounded. Anna slashed out with the knife at the monsters that came towards her, aiming for their faces and sending them away with deep lacerations. However, her mind knew even as she struggled to keep the monsters at bay that there were simply too many to stop. As if to confirm this, Sunshine suddenly screamed and Anna couldn't help but look to where her friend stood with a mob of the ugly things surrounding her.

"Sunshine!"

However, before she could do more then take a step towards her friend, one of the monsters she had slashed across the cheek slammed into her so hard she hit the ground facing downwards, the air rushing out of her lungs.

"Ouf!"

Immediately the monster pushed her down so that she was pinned to the ground. Anna kicked her arms and legs out wildly, trying to rid herself of the creature's weight but it was useless. Soon, other monsters had pinned her limbs down as well so that all she could move was her head and watch as the others struggled against the sudden and overpowering assault.

"You giant pus-filled orb! Leave them alone!"

Anna yelled the words at the floating eyeball but knew it was all she COULD do in that instant. Things looked very bad even to her in that instant when suddenly a voice called out. Immediately she turned her head and saw a familiar figure, someone she had been worrying nonstop about lately and the very person they had come together to find.

"Shadow!"

The demons that were holding, or being attacked, all hissed at the arrival. Shadow was stalking through the masses just like he was simply walking over. He would have made acknowledgements to his friends, but right he had to focus. Too much damage had been collected by his rage, people have been killed or were almost killed. He pumpedhis gun with the shells clicking into place.

"You disobeyed my orders!" the demonic eye roared.

"Yeah, well last I checked, I told you to leave them out of it. So who's upsetting who, Disparion?"

The name put both Sunshine and Elsa in edge. There had been many names whispered through time of the dark entity who ruled all demon kind. The guy who was banished from heaven for defying the higher up. The guy who brought the fall of man. Prince of darkness, father of lies, blahblahblah. But Disparion was the name used for him in Bellerouge. If Shadow was the leader of Disparion's legions, which would explain why the creeps backed off and...well...why they were red and black like Shadow...then that meant the demonic force keeping Shadow alive must have come...

The eye just laughed. "So it would seem. But remember, you and I are forever connected. You are a part of me. You cannot escape me, nor can you escape your past. These humans and creatures you call friends...they do not deserve your mercy."

"Yet you stand by a girl who died," Shadow counteracted. "Maria wasn't a threat to anyone. None of those scientists were a threat. The same goes here. This time, you're facing my wrath, because you crossed the line I warned you not to."

"Shadow...you think you have a chance? I can control you. I did it with the one fool, I can do it again..."

The answer was a pop of a gun. The tentacled creation sprawled to limpness and fell like a starfish. Shadow glared at the other creatures who were fleeing from the light. The dark aura was dissipating. But the eye had one last thing to say.

"You...you traitor. This isn't over yet! We will rise again..."

The eye, the demons, the fog. They were all gone. Shadow was staring where it was before collapsing. The stab Frollo gave him had been pulsing. His already bloodstained glove came up to grip the injury. Amid pained pants, he said,

"This was why I disappeared...because of Disparion found you...or this grave...the one weakness of the ultimate creature..."

Anna watched from where she was pinned to the ground as Shadow walked towards the floating eye, his passage causing the monsters to stir. She could only stare in silence as he confronted the demonic orb that was Disparion, no trace of fear or uncertainty present on his face. All she could feel in that instant was an overwhelming sense of shock, her mind trying to process what she was seeing.

Suddenly, Shadow shot the eye out of the air as if it were nothing more then a pesky insect. However, the eye gave one more warning of what was to come as it lay limply on the ground before disappearing. And with the suddenness of a shifting wind, the monsters and the fog disappeared, fading away as if they were no more substantial then clouds.

Anna slowly picked herself up off the ground, rubbing her arms where the monsters had pinned her down but her gaze fixed completely on Shadow. Her expression was one of astonishment and she seemed to have temporarily lost the ability to speak. She didn't even look around at her companions in that instant as she gazed at Shadow, processing everything that had suddenly happened.