Post by Zuyuri on Oct 5, 2018 6:10:15 GMT
Shadow had spent a week in the strange lanes between that he had found Maria in. In fact, she had not once left his side as he explored the regions of this new world. There were seven layers dedicated to each one of the seven sins, and the locals wee divided into living based on their worst attribute when they were still alive; if they were especially bad, they were sent to an identical wing in hell by creepy black shadows to face punishment. The place was filled with driftings spirits, some were solid mass as if they were human and others were floating as if gravity never worked on them to begin with. According to Maria, the floating spirits were what people in the regular world called "ghosts" or "poltergeists". Their spirits were unable to rest because of things that didn't meet immediate closure. Shadow had nodded, hoping some of the ghosts weren't deceased victims of the murders he and the Others Unit had studied. He had even run into some faces while in this strange existence. Among them was Terrance Nobel, Aqua's ex-boyfriend. It had been strange seeing someone buried about a year ago look healthy and walk around. Shadow didn't have the guts to go over and say hello. The sting of him being the one to uncover the big secret of the crime was still heavy.
"So, you became a police officer?" Maria was asking him. The two of them had found a glade resembling a fraction of Raoul Park. They had spent these days telling each other stories about what the other had been doing in their respective zones.
Shadow nodded. "I went through three partners. The first was a Giant named Ralph LaCouer. We bonded over being social outcasts, but he left the force for personal reasons. The second was a vampire named Rouge. She was good at her job, but she clearly had something more than partnership on her mind."
Maria gagged. It was strange. In the real world, she would have been a woman in her late twenties or early thirties. Yet here she was, sitting under a tree in her soft pastel dress with her fair hair pulled back; Alice choosing to stay away from the rabbit hole. She was still the twelve-year-old girl he knew, even acting like a twelve-year-old with her reaction to adults making kissy faces. But instead of showing the symptoms of her sickness, she looked healthy and happy. Horrible to say, but her death was perhaps the best thing that could have happened to her.
"So what about that girl that looks like Rapunzel?"
"Rapunzel? You mean Sunshine? But...how did you...?"
Maria looked away. With an anxious giggle, she looked back. "I...might have been watching you from this lane."
Shadow froze. So Maria had been watching him all this time. She had seen the events that had gone on through his life since she released him. She had seen him talk to Pitch about his memories and how they were sapped away. He hoped he hadn't seen other moments. Oh, grow up, he scolded himself, you're acting like an immature kid finding out their significant other is invisible and watching. Watching...just because he couldn't get back to the main world didn't mean he couldn't see what was going on. Interacting with people like a ghost wasn't working. He was on the same field of existence as Maria, but unlike her, he hadn't accepted death. The only answer he had to this was Disparion's blood in him had kept him from completely disappearing.
"Maria...how can you...watch someone?"
She looked out at the dipping purple-red sky. The crystals in the light faintly resembled stars. Streaks of pale blue, which were ghosts coming in and out from their hauntings, painted the hemisphere. "I want to show you, Shadow. But I'm scared."
'Of what?"
"If someone followed us, they could abuse the power of watching, twist it into something else. Grandpa already did that with summoning Disparion, I don't want that to happen again with someone else."
Her blue eyes were widened with fear. As Shadow looked at her, once again he saw her as the child she had been when she died. She was scared and had every right to be. He himself still remembered his own fear trying to escape the militia when they attacked the labs. As he looked at her, he saw other faces. The fear in Sunshine's eyes when they first met tied up in Thorn Manor. The nervousness Namine held as she stared at him when he complimented her drawings. The confusion in Jane's eyes at being chosen to help Disparion's rise. The concern Yang expressed of her kids being forced into foster homes when they talked. Every time they had looked at him, they shared the same quivering liquid filled irises of Maria.
Shadow took her hand, locking his red eyes onto hers. "Maria. You know I'd never abuse that power. If someone was following us, I would protect you. I made a promise and it doesn't matter if I'm dead or alive, I'm keeping it."
___
Time was different in this weird zone, too. Locals said that if it was twilight in this zone, then it was dawn or midnight or other time zones in the other world. When the sky became indigo, Maria had led Shadow to where she liked to 'watch'. The fields were replaced with small black sands lined with minerals that appeared silver. A body of water resembling an ocean, but rather than pristine blues the waves were a dull gray, lapped along the lanes. The cliffs jutting up resembled stairs. Shadow and Maria had finished descending the juts and hopped to the shore. Shadow stared at the horizon. A strange natural satelite that was somewhere between a sun and a full moon, hung in the air.
"This is the shore that divides our lanes from Disparion's thone." Maria explained. "The water is what I use to see."
She walked to the shore line, holding a small handheld mirror. She dipped it into a rolling wave, catching the water. The sheen turned white like ice before it crystallized with a greenish glow. In the green glow, the mirror showed people running for cover as a swarm of vampires ravaged innocents.
"So, how did you see me?" Shadow asked.
Maria dunked the mirror again. "I ask it how things are." She held it out. "How is Sunshine?"
The mirror rippled like someone threw a stone in a pond. The image beam the blonde cop sitting in a booth at Nevermore. Across from her, sharing a laugh, was Yang. Shadow raised a hand to wave. If they could see him, that would make the trip here less miserable. He could finally communicate with them. Unfortunately, he wasn't noticed. He was only an observer on this side. Shadow stared at Maria, silently asking if he could have a go. She gave him the mirror and he was able to watch whoever he called as witness. He saw Adrien comforting people in his manor. He saw Vanitas, surprisingly, facing down his own kind. He saw Jane herding children someplace safe with a gun on her back. He wasn't aware of his finger brushing her face on the glass. He even checked on the Others Unit. So they found the clue he laid out for them in the mausoleum. Good.
"You really care about those people," Maria remarked.
He handed her the mirror. Something came up in his throat that tasted salty and slimy, like an oyster he swallowed the wrong way. "But what will they think of me? I had a way to Disparion's throne all this time. I could have climbed up and dismounted him. Instead, I spent it hiding in here like a coward. I brought this pain to the world. If I came back to them..."
"You really want to go back," Maria said sadly.
Shadow nodded. "I have to stop Disparion from hurting them. Your grandfather created me for a specific purpose, but I made you a promise to help the people of Bellerouge. I don't think the apocalypse was the purpose I was made for."
Maria hummed thoughtfully. As she stared in the glass, she gasped. "Your friends found my grandfather's diary! It has clues! He liked to hide them in the pages of his research. And he..." she held up the mirror, "he copied that one inventor who wrote his notes backwards!"
The only person who would know about that was Sunshine. The only way he could contact her was...well...he'd find someway to talk to her. It wasn't like Pitch o Lilith would be making nightly visits down here.
_______________
The code, according to Anna, had actually been a page written in mirror writing. The only other professor that had done that in recorded history had been Leonardo da Vinci. Sunshine had received the call and translation when her patrol was done. She had succesfully shot down a burrowing demon worm that had nearly razed a parking garage with the help of her fellow cops. It was only after she hung up the phone and started typing in the coordinates that the smell of worm guts, something like a fart mixed with moldy fruit, filled the police car.
"Gross," Aqua muttered, shaking gunk off her wings. "I call dibs on first shower."
"Yeah, well, good luck," Dimitri quipped next to her. He was Sunshine's impromptu partner today. He looked down at the coordinates being dialed in. "Any reason why we're driving well out past the bayou?"
"It was an address and a keypad code, according to Anna," Sunshine said. "That journal belonged to Professor Edgar Gerald. If we're going to get clues about Shadow and how to contact him, it's our only lead."
Aqua pursed her lips tightly. Whenever his name came up, she seemed to want to say something. A lot of it looked resistant, like she wanted Sunshine to call off the hunt. But Sunshine had kept saying the reason Shadow never came to them was for them not wanting to get hurt. Frankly, it was getting on the blonde's nerves. She liked Aqua, and the fact the Seelie was keeping something from her stung a bit. She flew overhead with her com still on as Sunshine and Dimitri rounded corners and drove through the driving Lousiana rain.
The drive took them to was appeared to be a cliff wall. They parked and stared at it, frowning. Aqua descended next to them. All this to come to a dead end. Yet there was no fooling. This was some sort of secret entrance to somewhere. Dimitri began rubbing at the stone walls. Aqua splashed water onto stones, wondering if anything would react. Sunshine tapped the walls and listened for somthing like metal. Eventually, something did cave in. Literally. A wall the three of them were studying crumbled, revealing steel doors that over time succumbed to rust and had been blown into sharp dangerous scraps of iron. Aqua shivered and stepped away.
"You two go on ahead" she murmured quietly. "I'll keep watch for any monsters."
Sunshine and Dimitri nodded. They turned on their flashlights and explored the halls. What they were walking into were tangled of wires and scraps of metal torn like paper. The lights were long gone. Sunshine started singing so her fair could provide extra light. Aqua would have been useless in this maze of iron, stone, and glass. Windows lined sections of walls, providing a view to Bellerouge. If the town wasn't literally up in flames and in the fires of hell, the view would have been beautiful.
"Sun!"
Jim's distressed cry came from somewhere. Sunshine cocked her gun and ran to find his voice. He was pointing it at a strange, skeletal being lying on the floor. Behind it were odd developing beings floating in fluids. Without power, these things were long dead, but she did notice something interesting. The beings resembled animals with natural defenses. There was even a lizardlike one.
"Ntaural defenses...regenerative properties..." Sunshine mused.
"I don't see any connections to this," Jim said pointedly.
Sunshine gave him a look. "These all were ideas for the professor's plan to cure Maria. He was studying properties and what would make.."
'Well, he was looking at more than zoos," Jim pointed to one flask. A perfectly preserved werewolf sat in one tank. Notes were written about speed and contagion. A huge red 'REJECTED' stamp was one the pile.
Sunshine looked at one final vessel. Unlike its predecessors, this one was completely empty. It hung open and the servos were unlocked. This creature had been let loose. But how long ago? Nothing indicated signs of a struggle or a forced escape. She frowned at the screen. Black. Dead. Nothing that would help her identify which test tube baby came out of this said test tube. But she did recognize the eye insignia.
"Jim..." she said breathlessly, "this was where Shadow was created."
Jim gasped. "But...why would Disparion help out something...you know...good?"
Sunshine frowned. That was a good question. Why did the professor seek out Disparion in the first place? Her first guess was maybe it wasn't him but some cultist apprentice. Nah, been there done that. Had the deal been made because the lab happened to be built on some ground sacred to Disparion? Only in the movies. No, there was always a strange thing about making deals with the Devil. She glared at the eye insignia.
"Thanks for nothing, you cycloped bastard!"
She punched the container, and at first she thought it broke. Instead, something popped out. She studied it. Veins of metal lined te device, meaning it was meant to go into some sort of wiring system. Engraved on it was a date. Specifically, the date of Maria Gerald's death.
Sunshine set it down, her mind whirling with evidence piecing together. The day Maria died was also the day Project Shadow was shut down. All details portaining to Project Shadow were nothing but ash, but she did remember enough to know the professor had been incredibly meticulous with genetics and what to do, otherwise his "ultimate creature" would be unstable. He had created Shadow successfully by obtaining Disparion's blood, making Shadow the first biological son of the Devil. The carving in the mausoleum hadn't been a blood sacrifice to save people, it had been the Devil himself giving blood and the person who had it running through the veins would be the one to do the end of the world. THAT was what the professor agreed to with Disparion. If the Devil provided genetic makeup to keep the creature from becoming a monster and be the key into finding a cure for Maria's condition, then the professor's ultimate success would spell the end of the world for everyone. Shadow would help them do both, thus leading to his creation.
"And that's why the government came in to stop Project Shadow," Sunshine murmured out loud.
"Huh?" Dimitri asked, cradling the odd amulet.
"Oh, sorry," Sunshine laughed nervously, "Um, I'll catch you up." And so she did, after stepping outside of the lab and meeting with Aqua so she could hear the story herself, stopping her story at the part with the government involvement, knowing Dimitri and Aqua were smart enough to figure out the rest, which he was.
"So they didn't like the apocalypse business and were sent to apprehend everyone who was tied to Project Shadow..." Dimitri murmured.
"And those who didn't come quietly were killed..." Aqua said in horror. "Maria was killed right in front of Shadow, all because she was making sure he got away."
"And then Shadow came to Bellerouge where he and Pitch had a memory exchange," Sunshine nodded. She looked back. "The fate of the professor is our only mystery about this now."
"Um, spoiler alert; he gets executed for creating a doomsday device," Dimitri answered. He was glowered at by the Unseelie and the gifted human and he went back to the car to put himself in time out.
'Sunshine," Aqua mumbled, "Are you sure this amulet-chip hybrid can help us? What if it gets us into more trouble?"
"Aqua, it's the end of the world. We literally have nothing to lose, and have come full circle when it comes to the whole Project Shadow mystery."
_______________________
While Maria had gone back up the cliffside, Shadow stayed at the shore. Apparently, Disparion's throne was just across the water. What would happen if he touched it? The only thing he did now was that he had to find his father and have a little talk. If it was up above in the real world, it was his return ticket to Bellerouge. He had the home filed advantage. He had allies both down here and in the upper world. He would never know and would never get answers without risks. He charged energy into his rocket skates, and propelled over the water. For a while, the horizon looked exactly the same. The silver water, the purple sky, the strange etheral sphere floating around.
"I gave you life, and this is how you repay me? By disobeying my orders?"
Disparion's voice echoed as Shadow sped across the water. Well, the good news was the Devil could see him. He was getting closer. A large red, black, and purple tentacle oozed suddenly, and Shadow veered to dodge it. He sneered up at the sky where a red mass was forming, the source of the tentacles. "About that; I gave away my memories so I don't remember what it is you wanted me to do, Dad."
Such Irony, Disparion laughed, I gave you life, and now I'm taking it back. Turn back if you value it, Shadow."
The ocean ended when a toppled skyscraper came into view. Shadow hopped over it, gliding along the destruction that had rained down from above no doubt. There was one direction to go. Up. He ascended in every where he knew; by glding along trails of demonic sludge which smelled worse than the bayou, by hopping on stacks of stone, and by trying to pulse the rockets to thrust so he could gain altitude. Waves of demons were sent by rips no doubt created by Disparion, but he fought through them. All this without his inhibitor rings and gun. The darkness was disappearing, being replaced with the red he remembered seeing hover over Bellerouge. He was so close. So close..
Until a ghost cut him off his path.
Ghosts. With enough help from them, he could get there faster. He followed streams upon streams of furious souls and shot several chaos based attacked The spirits were chasing him or being redirected, but at least the mass was huge. He surfed on the ghosts as they spiraled up the mountain. Some split off to go to their designated hauntings, but he had buoyancy with them. He was pretty sure some solid people from purgatory got sucked with him. He'd worry about them later
"Are those gates still open?" he asked no one in particular. He received groans of responses. "Guess that's a yes."
Almost on cue, he felt all the emotions used push him. The biting chill of Elsa's sadness. The somehow hot and cold of Weiss' anger. The speed of Wally's fear. And the defensive force of Jane's disgust. The gates had gone against Disparion. Shaodw was rocketing up, getting closer and closer until he saw a glow in a burst of light.
Disparion's throne was not on the surface. Instead, what they called a throne was an unfurnished room. The sky was somewhere between black and red like both creatures in the room. Disparion floated in front of him, just as disgusting and vile as he was before. Pillars made from charred bone held candles that flickered at Shadow's arrival through the strange force field. Below them was Bellerouge, engulfed in fire and brimstone. He was so close and yet so far.
"I'm impressed, Shadow. You managed to break out of purgatory and cross the sea separating it from my throne. Such bravado for a...little hedgehog."
"Cut the insults," Shadow glared at him.
"You still don't understand your true purpose. You defy me when you were created for my return. Hmph. No matter. I see my punsihment of imprisoning you till the end of time was useless. Instead, I'll do the same thing you wanted to avoid...
With a raised claw, Disparion's lone eye gleamed. Shadow felt everything in his body resist. His muscles spasmed. The bones in his body began to feel like iron. The very blood in his veins felt as if it were on fire. His heat began beating rapidly. As sweat poured through his red and black fur, he fell into a kneeling position. He tried to move voluntarily, but nothing worked. Disparion had puppeteered him before, to try and hurt his friends, but he had been able to shake that off in the real world.
"Don't fight what you truly are, my son." Disparon's compassion was...twisted. "You cannot escape me, no matter how much you erase your memories. How much you fight to meet your worthless little friends. I'll let your mind blacken with anger, then I will let you go. Your rage will erase humanity off the planet. This city is the perfect starting place; where you were born."
Shadow grimaced in pain. "And how long do you plan on holding me here?"
Disparion chuckled grimly as his only answer.
"So, you became a police officer?" Maria was asking him. The two of them had found a glade resembling a fraction of Raoul Park. They had spent these days telling each other stories about what the other had been doing in their respective zones.
Shadow nodded. "I went through three partners. The first was a Giant named Ralph LaCouer. We bonded over being social outcasts, but he left the force for personal reasons. The second was a vampire named Rouge. She was good at her job, but she clearly had something more than partnership on her mind."
Maria gagged. It was strange. In the real world, she would have been a woman in her late twenties or early thirties. Yet here she was, sitting under a tree in her soft pastel dress with her fair hair pulled back; Alice choosing to stay away from the rabbit hole. She was still the twelve-year-old girl he knew, even acting like a twelve-year-old with her reaction to adults making kissy faces. But instead of showing the symptoms of her sickness, she looked healthy and happy. Horrible to say, but her death was perhaps the best thing that could have happened to her.
"So what about that girl that looks like Rapunzel?"
"Rapunzel? You mean Sunshine? But...how did you...?"
Maria looked away. With an anxious giggle, she looked back. "I...might have been watching you from this lane."
Shadow froze. So Maria had been watching him all this time. She had seen the events that had gone on through his life since she released him. She had seen him talk to Pitch about his memories and how they were sapped away. He hoped he hadn't seen other moments. Oh, grow up, he scolded himself, you're acting like an immature kid finding out their significant other is invisible and watching. Watching...just because he couldn't get back to the main world didn't mean he couldn't see what was going on. Interacting with people like a ghost wasn't working. He was on the same field of existence as Maria, but unlike her, he hadn't accepted death. The only answer he had to this was Disparion's blood in him had kept him from completely disappearing.
"Maria...how can you...watch someone?"
She looked out at the dipping purple-red sky. The crystals in the light faintly resembled stars. Streaks of pale blue, which were ghosts coming in and out from their hauntings, painted the hemisphere. "I want to show you, Shadow. But I'm scared."
'Of what?"
"If someone followed us, they could abuse the power of watching, twist it into something else. Grandpa already did that with summoning Disparion, I don't want that to happen again with someone else."
Her blue eyes were widened with fear. As Shadow looked at her, once again he saw her as the child she had been when she died. She was scared and had every right to be. He himself still remembered his own fear trying to escape the militia when they attacked the labs. As he looked at her, he saw other faces. The fear in Sunshine's eyes when they first met tied up in Thorn Manor. The nervousness Namine held as she stared at him when he complimented her drawings. The confusion in Jane's eyes at being chosen to help Disparion's rise. The concern Yang expressed of her kids being forced into foster homes when they talked. Every time they had looked at him, they shared the same quivering liquid filled irises of Maria.
Shadow took her hand, locking his red eyes onto hers. "Maria. You know I'd never abuse that power. If someone was following us, I would protect you. I made a promise and it doesn't matter if I'm dead or alive, I'm keeping it."
___
Time was different in this weird zone, too. Locals said that if it was twilight in this zone, then it was dawn or midnight or other time zones in the other world. When the sky became indigo, Maria had led Shadow to where she liked to 'watch'. The fields were replaced with small black sands lined with minerals that appeared silver. A body of water resembling an ocean, but rather than pristine blues the waves were a dull gray, lapped along the lanes. The cliffs jutting up resembled stairs. Shadow and Maria had finished descending the juts and hopped to the shore. Shadow stared at the horizon. A strange natural satelite that was somewhere between a sun and a full moon, hung in the air.
"This is the shore that divides our lanes from Disparion's thone." Maria explained. "The water is what I use to see."
She walked to the shore line, holding a small handheld mirror. She dipped it into a rolling wave, catching the water. The sheen turned white like ice before it crystallized with a greenish glow. In the green glow, the mirror showed people running for cover as a swarm of vampires ravaged innocents.
"So, how did you see me?" Shadow asked.
Maria dunked the mirror again. "I ask it how things are." She held it out. "How is Sunshine?"
The mirror rippled like someone threw a stone in a pond. The image beam the blonde cop sitting in a booth at Nevermore. Across from her, sharing a laugh, was Yang. Shadow raised a hand to wave. If they could see him, that would make the trip here less miserable. He could finally communicate with them. Unfortunately, he wasn't noticed. He was only an observer on this side. Shadow stared at Maria, silently asking if he could have a go. She gave him the mirror and he was able to watch whoever he called as witness. He saw Adrien comforting people in his manor. He saw Vanitas, surprisingly, facing down his own kind. He saw Jane herding children someplace safe with a gun on her back. He wasn't aware of his finger brushing her face on the glass. He even checked on the Others Unit. So they found the clue he laid out for them in the mausoleum. Good.
"You really care about those people," Maria remarked.
He handed her the mirror. Something came up in his throat that tasted salty and slimy, like an oyster he swallowed the wrong way. "But what will they think of me? I had a way to Disparion's throne all this time. I could have climbed up and dismounted him. Instead, I spent it hiding in here like a coward. I brought this pain to the world. If I came back to them..."
"You really want to go back," Maria said sadly.
Shadow nodded. "I have to stop Disparion from hurting them. Your grandfather created me for a specific purpose, but I made you a promise to help the people of Bellerouge. I don't think the apocalypse was the purpose I was made for."
Maria hummed thoughtfully. As she stared in the glass, she gasped. "Your friends found my grandfather's diary! It has clues! He liked to hide them in the pages of his research. And he..." she held up the mirror, "he copied that one inventor who wrote his notes backwards!"
The only person who would know about that was Sunshine. The only way he could contact her was...well...he'd find someway to talk to her. It wasn't like Pitch o Lilith would be making nightly visits down here.
_______________
The code, according to Anna, had actually been a page written in mirror writing. The only other professor that had done that in recorded history had been Leonardo da Vinci. Sunshine had received the call and translation when her patrol was done. She had succesfully shot down a burrowing demon worm that had nearly razed a parking garage with the help of her fellow cops. It was only after she hung up the phone and started typing in the coordinates that the smell of worm guts, something like a fart mixed with moldy fruit, filled the police car.
"Gross," Aqua muttered, shaking gunk off her wings. "I call dibs on first shower."
"Yeah, well, good luck," Dimitri quipped next to her. He was Sunshine's impromptu partner today. He looked down at the coordinates being dialed in. "Any reason why we're driving well out past the bayou?"
"It was an address and a keypad code, according to Anna," Sunshine said. "That journal belonged to Professor Edgar Gerald. If we're going to get clues about Shadow and how to contact him, it's our only lead."
Aqua pursed her lips tightly. Whenever his name came up, she seemed to want to say something. A lot of it looked resistant, like she wanted Sunshine to call off the hunt. But Sunshine had kept saying the reason Shadow never came to them was for them not wanting to get hurt. Frankly, it was getting on the blonde's nerves. She liked Aqua, and the fact the Seelie was keeping something from her stung a bit. She flew overhead with her com still on as Sunshine and Dimitri rounded corners and drove through the driving Lousiana rain.
The drive took them to was appeared to be a cliff wall. They parked and stared at it, frowning. Aqua descended next to them. All this to come to a dead end. Yet there was no fooling. This was some sort of secret entrance to somewhere. Dimitri began rubbing at the stone walls. Aqua splashed water onto stones, wondering if anything would react. Sunshine tapped the walls and listened for somthing like metal. Eventually, something did cave in. Literally. A wall the three of them were studying crumbled, revealing steel doors that over time succumbed to rust and had been blown into sharp dangerous scraps of iron. Aqua shivered and stepped away.
"You two go on ahead" she murmured quietly. "I'll keep watch for any monsters."
Sunshine and Dimitri nodded. They turned on their flashlights and explored the halls. What they were walking into were tangled of wires and scraps of metal torn like paper. The lights were long gone. Sunshine started singing so her fair could provide extra light. Aqua would have been useless in this maze of iron, stone, and glass. Windows lined sections of walls, providing a view to Bellerouge. If the town wasn't literally up in flames and in the fires of hell, the view would have been beautiful.
"Sun!"
Jim's distressed cry came from somewhere. Sunshine cocked her gun and ran to find his voice. He was pointing it at a strange, skeletal being lying on the floor. Behind it were odd developing beings floating in fluids. Without power, these things were long dead, but she did notice something interesting. The beings resembled animals with natural defenses. There was even a lizardlike one.
"Ntaural defenses...regenerative properties..." Sunshine mused.
"I don't see any connections to this," Jim said pointedly.
Sunshine gave him a look. "These all were ideas for the professor's plan to cure Maria. He was studying properties and what would make.."
'Well, he was looking at more than zoos," Jim pointed to one flask. A perfectly preserved werewolf sat in one tank. Notes were written about speed and contagion. A huge red 'REJECTED' stamp was one the pile.
Sunshine looked at one final vessel. Unlike its predecessors, this one was completely empty. It hung open and the servos were unlocked. This creature had been let loose. But how long ago? Nothing indicated signs of a struggle or a forced escape. She frowned at the screen. Black. Dead. Nothing that would help her identify which test tube baby came out of this said test tube. But she did recognize the eye insignia.
"Jim..." she said breathlessly, "this was where Shadow was created."
Jim gasped. "But...why would Disparion help out something...you know...good?"
Sunshine frowned. That was a good question. Why did the professor seek out Disparion in the first place? Her first guess was maybe it wasn't him but some cultist apprentice. Nah, been there done that. Had the deal been made because the lab happened to be built on some ground sacred to Disparion? Only in the movies. No, there was always a strange thing about making deals with the Devil. She glared at the eye insignia.
"Thanks for nothing, you cycloped bastard!"
She punched the container, and at first she thought it broke. Instead, something popped out. She studied it. Veins of metal lined te device, meaning it was meant to go into some sort of wiring system. Engraved on it was a date. Specifically, the date of Maria Gerald's death.
Sunshine set it down, her mind whirling with evidence piecing together. The day Maria died was also the day Project Shadow was shut down. All details portaining to Project Shadow were nothing but ash, but she did remember enough to know the professor had been incredibly meticulous with genetics and what to do, otherwise his "ultimate creature" would be unstable. He had created Shadow successfully by obtaining Disparion's blood, making Shadow the first biological son of the Devil. The carving in the mausoleum hadn't been a blood sacrifice to save people, it had been the Devil himself giving blood and the person who had it running through the veins would be the one to do the end of the world. THAT was what the professor agreed to with Disparion. If the Devil provided genetic makeup to keep the creature from becoming a monster and be the key into finding a cure for Maria's condition, then the professor's ultimate success would spell the end of the world for everyone. Shadow would help them do both, thus leading to his creation.
"And that's why the government came in to stop Project Shadow," Sunshine murmured out loud.
"Huh?" Dimitri asked, cradling the odd amulet.
"Oh, sorry," Sunshine laughed nervously, "Um, I'll catch you up." And so she did, after stepping outside of the lab and meeting with Aqua so she could hear the story herself, stopping her story at the part with the government involvement, knowing Dimitri and Aqua were smart enough to figure out the rest, which he was.
"So they didn't like the apocalypse business and were sent to apprehend everyone who was tied to Project Shadow..." Dimitri murmured.
"And those who didn't come quietly were killed..." Aqua said in horror. "Maria was killed right in front of Shadow, all because she was making sure he got away."
"And then Shadow came to Bellerouge where he and Pitch had a memory exchange," Sunshine nodded. She looked back. "The fate of the professor is our only mystery about this now."
"Um, spoiler alert; he gets executed for creating a doomsday device," Dimitri answered. He was glowered at by the Unseelie and the gifted human and he went back to the car to put himself in time out.
'Sunshine," Aqua mumbled, "Are you sure this amulet-chip hybrid can help us? What if it gets us into more trouble?"
"Aqua, it's the end of the world. We literally have nothing to lose, and have come full circle when it comes to the whole Project Shadow mystery."
_______________________
While Maria had gone back up the cliffside, Shadow stayed at the shore. Apparently, Disparion's throne was just across the water. What would happen if he touched it? The only thing he did now was that he had to find his father and have a little talk. If it was up above in the real world, it was his return ticket to Bellerouge. He had the home filed advantage. He had allies both down here and in the upper world. He would never know and would never get answers without risks. He charged energy into his rocket skates, and propelled over the water. For a while, the horizon looked exactly the same. The silver water, the purple sky, the strange etheral sphere floating around.
"I gave you life, and this is how you repay me? By disobeying my orders?"
Disparion's voice echoed as Shadow sped across the water. Well, the good news was the Devil could see him. He was getting closer. A large red, black, and purple tentacle oozed suddenly, and Shadow veered to dodge it. He sneered up at the sky where a red mass was forming, the source of the tentacles. "About that; I gave away my memories so I don't remember what it is you wanted me to do, Dad."
Such Irony, Disparion laughed, I gave you life, and now I'm taking it back. Turn back if you value it, Shadow."
The ocean ended when a toppled skyscraper came into view. Shadow hopped over it, gliding along the destruction that had rained down from above no doubt. There was one direction to go. Up. He ascended in every where he knew; by glding along trails of demonic sludge which smelled worse than the bayou, by hopping on stacks of stone, and by trying to pulse the rockets to thrust so he could gain altitude. Waves of demons were sent by rips no doubt created by Disparion, but he fought through them. All this without his inhibitor rings and gun. The darkness was disappearing, being replaced with the red he remembered seeing hover over Bellerouge. He was so close. So close..
Until a ghost cut him off his path.
Ghosts. With enough help from them, he could get there faster. He followed streams upon streams of furious souls and shot several chaos based attacked The spirits were chasing him or being redirected, but at least the mass was huge. He surfed on the ghosts as they spiraled up the mountain. Some split off to go to their designated hauntings, but he had buoyancy with them. He was pretty sure some solid people from purgatory got sucked with him. He'd worry about them later
"Are those gates still open?" he asked no one in particular. He received groans of responses. "Guess that's a yes."
Almost on cue, he felt all the emotions used push him. The biting chill of Elsa's sadness. The somehow hot and cold of Weiss' anger. The speed of Wally's fear. And the defensive force of Jane's disgust. The gates had gone against Disparion. Shaodw was rocketing up, getting closer and closer until he saw a glow in a burst of light.
Disparion's throne was not on the surface. Instead, what they called a throne was an unfurnished room. The sky was somewhere between black and red like both creatures in the room. Disparion floated in front of him, just as disgusting and vile as he was before. Pillars made from charred bone held candles that flickered at Shadow's arrival through the strange force field. Below them was Bellerouge, engulfed in fire and brimstone. He was so close and yet so far.
"I'm impressed, Shadow. You managed to break out of purgatory and cross the sea separating it from my throne. Such bravado for a...little hedgehog."
"Cut the insults," Shadow glared at him.
"You still don't understand your true purpose. You defy me when you were created for my return. Hmph. No matter. I see my punsihment of imprisoning you till the end of time was useless. Instead, I'll do the same thing you wanted to avoid...
With a raised claw, Disparion's lone eye gleamed. Shadow felt everything in his body resist. His muscles spasmed. The bones in his body began to feel like iron. The very blood in his veins felt as if it were on fire. His heat began beating rapidly. As sweat poured through his red and black fur, he fell into a kneeling position. He tried to move voluntarily, but nothing worked. Disparion had puppeteered him before, to try and hurt his friends, but he had been able to shake that off in the real world.
"Don't fight what you truly are, my son." Disparon's compassion was...twisted. "You cannot escape me, no matter how much you erase your memories. How much you fight to meet your worthless little friends. I'll let your mind blacken with anger, then I will let you go. Your rage will erase humanity off the planet. This city is the perfect starting place; where you were born."
Shadow grimaced in pain. "And how long do you plan on holding me here?"
Disparion chuckled grimly as his only answer.
