Light of Ichor 2

“It's been a long day without you, my friend
And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
We've come a long way from where we began
Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
When I see you again”

See You Again __ Wiz Khalifa



After a bout of rage, Shadow’s anger finally simmered as he stared at the grave.

Nolan Schmidt.

Breathing deeply through his nose, Shadow looked down at the grave with a combination of frustration and ire. Of course he was dead. He never really thought about it, but he had been sealed in that pod for fifty years before Eggman released him. It only followed that the man was dead. Of course a heart attack had taken the man at the age of 75 before Shadow had the chance to exact any revenge. The world was unjust like that, and he had come all this way for nothing.

He briefly considered bashing the headstone. Deciding he wasn’t that petty, Shadow huffed to himself and skated away, muffled anger stewing just beneath the surface.

Good luck finding him. Shadow’s teeth ground together. The doctor had known all along that Nolan Schmidt was dead and had given him worthless information. Shadow would twist something useful out of the doctor for deception like that.

Igniting his skates, Shadow left the graveyard and his feet hit the pavement as he picked up speed. He was clenching his jaw so tightly at this point that he was sure he would completely shatter his teeth. Racing along the roads, whizzing between traffic and sweeping around curbs, Shadow thought he would never have peace again. He felt blinded by anger constantly:  the rage seemed to consume him from the inside out. It blinded him, it fueled him, it exhausted him. And at this point, it was all he had. If he let go of it now, he had nothing. He WAS nothing without it.

Driven along with this fury, Shadow left the cities of humans, sped over the connecting bridge above the sea, and instead raced through Green Hill Zone on South Island. Faintly Shadow allowed his mind to dwell on cemeteries. Perhaps he could visit Maria’s grave? He bit his lip as he tried to swallow the idea of it. It was customary to bring flowers too, right? Daisies and sunflowers had always been her favorite flowers.

Shadow’s brows knit as he raced through Green Hill Zone. Trying and failing to shake off the negative thoughts, Shadow skated across the expansive fields of grass, eyes lidded against the bright sun rising higher that afternoon.

In the distance, he heard a sonic boom.

On edge when he heard Sonic running in the same area he was, Shadow diverted his path towards what he hoped was the opposite direction. He didn’t have the time or effort to deal with that hedgehog today. Even if he had to take the long way around to the Scrap Brain Zone, he would try his best to avoid Sonic.

And as it turned out, he didn’t try hard enough to stay away from him.

“Shadow! Stop!”

The blue blur zipped in front of him, and Shadow skidded to a halt, a small burst from his shoes stopping him quicker. Instantly on edge, Shadow’s shoulders stiffened. Sonic’s quills were rigid and his fists clenched as he stared at Shadow. “All right, for real this time, what’s your issue?”

“You are, if you don’t get out of my way!”

“Rogue tells you Maria is alive and all the thanks she gets is a Chaos Spear?”

A feral growl rose up from Shadow’s chest. His hackles rose aggressively. “You’ll get the same if you speak her name again!” At least with Sonic it was easy to be angry. Far too easy. The blue hero rubbed him wrong all the time, and insisting on the impossible made it worse. Feeling helpless and confused, Shadow stuck even closer to what he knew.

Releasing a sound of frustration, Sonic splayed his legs as he stood in Shadow’s way. “Eggman’s really got you fooled, doesn’t he?” Shadow’s jaw clacked together. “But then again, I doubt it’s just Eggman. I bet you won’t even let yourself believe for a second that Maria’s alive!”

Temper snapping, Shadow charged at Sonic blindly. Lunging with the intent to shatter the blue hero’s teeth, Shadow’s weight pitched forward when Sonic evaded him. A swift kick pounded into his side before he could recover, and Shadow stumbled back as Sonic skidded out of reach again.

He attacked again, curling up tightly with a violent spin dash. Sonic mimicked him and the two collided, spines ripping like chainsaws against one another. Falling apart and pressing the attack, Shadow leapt with a kick and missed the blue hedgehog’s head by inches. Leaning back, Sonic’s knuckles whizzed past his cheek, and he grabbed his arm, giving him a furious head butt.

A heavy sound grunted from Sonic. A solid punch landed on Shadow’s jaw, and Shadow reeled backwards at the hit, pain flaring from his mouth. He tried to spin dash the speedy hero, but Sonic fled out of his reach again, trying to put distance between them so he could speak.

“And people call ME the drama queen!” Sonic exclaimed in exasperation. He wiped some sweat from his forehead, and Shadow did the same, uncomfortably warm in the afternoon heat.  Shadow sucked on his bleeding lip, one of his incisors having cut the softer flesh when Sonic’s knuckles connected to him. Sonic snapped, “Get it through that thick head of yours, Shadow, Maria’s alive and she wants to see you! I told her I didn’t think you’d listen after what you did to Rogue, so don’t think I’m not above beating you until I can drag you to that house.”

Shadow bristled at the mild threat. Sonic was a smack-talker, sure, but a threat? Shadow spat the glob of blood out on a flower. “You just picked the wrong fight, faker,” Shadow growled dangerously at him. Sonic’s gaze flattened just as Shadow charged like a battering ram. Sonic took off running, baiting Shadow along as they tore along Green Hill Zone’s plains in the afternoon sun.

Shadow’s fingers tingled with the urge for a Chaos Spear, for any Chaos energies whatsoever. He poured the energy into his shoes to keep up with Sonic while at the same time he yearned for more—a Chaos Emerald. The Doctor sure was keeping his grubby fingers on those gems, wasn’t he?

Growling, Shadow swept into a swift spin dash and collided with Sonic. The blue hero flew to the side, skidded on his feet, and lurched forward running again. Blue spines sliced at Shadow, and he combated them with his own, searching to overpower his counterpart. When Sonic began to pull ahead in their fervid race, Shadow poured a burst of Chaos energies into his shoes to catch up, fist raised high. His knuckles passed through thin air as Sonic stopped on a dime—Shadow inwardly seethed at his ability for sharper stops and turns—and a violent homing attack crashed down on his face.

Pain cut across his eye at the blue hero’s lethal spines, and he staggered back, blinking through a rivulet of blood. Sonic’s gaze was serious without being angry, and Shadow’s hackles rose again. How come he was bleeding and Sonic wasn’t? He’d fix that.

“C’mon, Shadow,” Sonic tried to persuade him again. He jerked his head towards civilization. “What have you got to lose at this point? Look, we can just check it out, and if you don’t think it’s Maria—”

“It won’t be!” he shouted, feeling as if his heart was being put through the grinder. By Chaos, this was why he never let himself hope. He couldn’t . . . dare hope . . . but if she was, that meant she had seen everything he had done when Eggman woke him from his slumber. She would have seen him trying to destroy the world, the very thing she had asked him to save. If she was alive, he couldn’t face her after that. She would have seen exactly what he had become . . . He shook his head, crimson eyes blazing with fear. “She’s dead, Sonic, so don’t waste my time!”

“I was just at her house, Shadow!” Sonic tried again. “There! In the flesh!”

A tiny tremble shook Shadow’s ribcage, and he swore it wasn’t because he was beginning to hope. This was ridiculous. He was at a place beyond hope. He clenched his hands into fists, reacting the only way he knew how with his re-colored doppelganger. “For the last time, Sonic, get out of my way and out of my life!”

The two blurs engaged furiously again, whirls of black and blue punching and kicking each other until they really were black and blue. The wear of the battle wore on Shadow as his lungs began to ache for air and his body began to weaken beneath Sonic’s onslaught. However, for how hard Sonic fought, he pivoted sharply and swung wide for the side of Shadow’s head. Body reacting quicker than his mind did, Shadow let his momentum carry him out of the blue hero’s reach and then, with a burst of Chaos energies in his skate, gave Sonic a vicious roundhouse kick to the face.

Sonic flipped over and landed hard on his back with a heavy whump. Skates blazing with fiery heat, Shadow stamped down at him only for Sonic’s reflexes to whirl him out of harm’s way. Rolling to a stop some distance away, Sonic flipped back up to a standing position, chest heaving with exertion. Shadow allowed his lip curl with satisfaction that the hero’s nose was bleeding more than enough for his pleasure. Perhaps he had broken it?

Sonic wiped his arm under his nose, the fur coming away streaked with blood. Shadow gnashed his teeth, sucking up precious air as they stalemated again. Sonic persisted, “I know you’re hard-headed, but this is ridiculous! Why don’t you believe us?”

Shadow’s jaw locked stiff at the question. Restless, he shifted to a more aggressive position and refused to answer the question. Deep down, he thought he knew, but he didn’t want to face it. He couldn’t bring himself to believe in anything at this point when he had already let a part of himself die along with her. And if he could have Maria back, how in the world could he possibly find that part of him that he thought had died with her?

“C’mon, she’s less than half an hour run from here! Come see for yourself, and if you still think it’s not her, then fine! We’ll be off your back, right? We’ll leave you alone.”

That in itself was tempting enough for Shadow. Eyelid twitching as blood ran down from a cut on his forehead, he considered it. He could get them all off his back by taking one worthless trip to the city? Teeth stained red from his bleeding lip, Shadow bared his sharp incisors at Sonic.

“Fine! If it will keep you idiots out of my business, let’s go!”

He took off towards the city without even knowing where he was going. Sonic followed as they raced along at incredibly high speeds, and after a few minutes of being too angry to slow down, Shadow finally allowed Sonic to lead the way.

They backtracked over the connecting bridge and back into Station Square. The massive city was eaten up beneath skates and sneakers as the two blurs zipped along, one in a far more volatile mood than the other. Shadow scrubbed irritably at the pain in his forehead, annoyed that it wasn’t stopping bleeding. He was upset about everything. The entire futility of the situation. Once he got this idiocy sorted, he’d shake the girl pretending to be Maria and punch Sonic in the mouth hard enough that the hero would be missing some teeth from his trademark smile.

Sonic cut some sharp turns that Shadow fought not to fall behind with. Station Square fell behind into a series of sprawling highways over rough terrain. He was sucking wind at this point, his ribs hurting more than he cared to admit, but he smugly saw that Sonic’s ribcage was heaving just as much as his was. Served him right, poking his nose into business it didn’t belong in.

The cross between cities was short as Sonic suddenly slowed in a series of neighborhoods on the edge of Central City. Shadow followed him into a neighborhood called Melrose until Sonic stopped short at an open gate in front of a yellow house.

Shadow heart leapt, and his first thought was, that’s too young to be Maria, isn’t it?

It certainly LOOKED like Maria. Well, it looked like her when she was younger. In the pictures he had seen. The girl was only a toddler, her blond hair and blue eyes enough to send Shadow’s heart into a skipping fit. She was squatting down; her orange sundress puffed out around her knees as her hands sought to contain whatever was skittering inside them.

Blinking rapidly, he tried to hide his confusion—and get that infernal blood out of his eye. He wiped his arm over the bleeding cut on his forehead again. Instead of proclaiming that she was Maria, Sonic grinned and waved a cheerful hand.

“Hey! Rosie!”

The child looked up. She gasped, popped up to a standing position immediately, and her hands let go of what turned out to be a grasshopper. Her hands clapped over her mouth loudly, and Shadow shrank a little under her overwhelmingly excited gaze. She bounced on her feet.

Sonic laughed at her reaction, wiping his own bleeding nose again. “I told ya I’d get him here one way or another! Now where’s Maria at?”

Rosie immediately squealed and fled up the porch steps of the house, hollering at the top of her lungs, “Gramma! Gramma, Sonic brought Shadow! Shadow’s here! Shadow’s here!” The screen door slammed shut noisily behind her as she disappeared into the house.

Feeling increasingly uncomfortable about what he had walked into, Shadow cut his eyes towards Sonic. He just pinched his bleeding nose and gave a little grin, rocking back on his heels. “That’s Rosie,” he said, as if Shadow hadn’t deduced that already. “Met her last time I came here.”

Shadow narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him, but the screen door opened again and slammed once more as a new figure emerged. On the steps, a small voice gave a tiny gasp.

“Shadow . . .”

He jerked his head towards the porch, and he stared uncomprehending at the person he was looking at. She was an elderly woman with blond hair peppered with grey. She was a little frail, and her high-waisted skirt made that more apparent. She was barefoot. But what really made Shadow freeze between his fight-or-flight instincts were her eyes, as blue as the planet itself.

Those eyes KNEW him.

She smiled weakly, crow’s feet crinkling around her eyes. She was crying, tears welling up quickly at the sight of him, and Shadow stood helplessly in the driveway without an idea what to do. The uncanny urge to flee suddenly seized him when she descended the steps of the house and approached him, arms extended toward him.

“Shadow—Shadow, it’s me,” she said. Her voice was all wrong. But it sounded just the same. She was too old to be Maria. But her breath hitched as she said, “I—I just can’t believe it . . . It’s really YOU. I thought—I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

Dumbfounded, Shadow stood stupidly as she carefully got on her knees before hugging him tightly. Her arms threaded through his dangerously sharp quills with a skill that spoke of familiarity with hedgehogs. His face was squished into her chest, and he stared uncomprehending over her shoulder. Rosie was on the porch, giggling quietly and grinning. She waved at him.

After a crushing hug that went on long enough to make Shadow sufficiently uncomfortable, the elderly woman let go of him and turned to look at their company. She smiled, wiping her tears. “Thank you for bringing him back to me, Sonic,” she said to him.

Sonic let go of his nose to see if it had finally stopped bleeding. “Aw, it’s no big deal! I know how to handle ol’ Shads here.” Shadow’s attention finally was able to focus, and he shifted his gaze to Sonic, trying to feel as offended as he should be. Instead, Sonic just winked at him—he WINKED at him—pointed a finger, and chirped, “You two have some catching up to do, so I’m out. See ya on the flip side!”

Panic seized Shadow. He was leaving him alone with these two girls he didn’t even know? For one wild moment, Shadow nearly called out for Sonic to come back, but the blue hero was gone in a flash, the air rippling lazily around them.

“Oh, you’re bleeding.” Shadow’s wide eyes snapped back to the stranger. She was reaching out to wipe the blood trickling into his eye. Alarmed, Shadow jerked back and lifted a hand to his forehead, covering the cut.

Maria finally slowed. Her hand dropped. “Shadow? Are you all right?”

No. No, he wasn’t all right. He was looking at an old woman who claimed she was the fragile girl he had seen get shot and die. He was trying to wrap his mind around the thought that if Maria had survived the bullet, then that meant she had been alive for the fifty years he was asleep. Which placed her age . . . roughly around where this woman was? But it wasn’t even possible. Her NIDS should have killed her if the bullet didn’t. She couldn’t possibly survive on Earth, that was why she had been on the ARK . . . But the hair, the eyes, the mannerisms . . . They all mirrored her. He couldn’t dare let himself believe it was really her, but by Chaos he desperately hoped it was.

Instead of voicing his internal turmoil, Shadow stuttered out an intelligent, “I—I . . .”

Her worried expression gentled. She took his hand, and the contact with her made him jump. “Come here,” she said, “come inside.”

With wooden legs, Shadow followed Maria up the porch steps and into the strange house. Rosie followed after them, eyes only for Shadow. The first room of the house was a living room, and Maria led him to a blue and green couch that had some sort of faint, pink flower pattern on it.

“Sit down,” she told him with a reassuring smile. Mechanically, he did exactly as she asked. “I’ll get something to stop the bleeding.” Shadow’s eyes trailed after her as she headed towards the kitchen but took a left up some stairs he couldn’t see from where he sat.

Awkwardly left with Rosie, Shadow fidgeted and avoided her gaze. Did she have to stare like he was some sort of mutant freak? She barely blinked, and Shadow grew a little claustrophobic in the colorful room. The curtains were blue, the couches floral, the throw pillows an off-colored green and pink; they had a tacky pink daisy on the front. The coffee table between the couches was glass but had a glaringly bright orange vase on it with a shabby fake bouquet in it. At least the carpet was a merciful beige color. Clearly this woman wasn’t an interior decorator.

When Rosie stared long enough that Shadow was afraid she would treat him like a petting zoo, he scowled. He barked, “Didn’t anyone teach you not to stare?”

He said it too sharply. Rosie took a step back and guiltily averted her gaze from him. Dipping his own head remorsefully, he reminded himself that this girl wasn’t like the scientists from the ARK. She was just curious—but then again, so were the scientists on the ARK.

Before he could formulate what he hoped was a good apology, Maria came back down the stairs with a small cloth, peroxide and a band-aid. Quietly, biting her lip, Maria dabbed the cut clean and placed the band-aid in place even if with his fur it wouldn’t stay stuck for long. When he continued to gawk at her, she finally pleaded, “Shadow, say something.”

After one more completely bewildered moment, Shadow tore his eyes away from her and his brow knitted. He shook his head, fists clenching up as he sought to explain himself. Explain HER.  “You’re not—She can’t have—” The words were coming out garbled again. Angry that he couldn’t even express himself properly, Shadow stood to his feet, muttering to himself, “She couldn’t have survived . . . They said she died . . .” Finally, his red eyes looked at her again, and he shook his head. “Maria died,” he told her even though he doubted himself more and more. “You’re not her.”

Her eyes dropped and her shoulders caved at his harsh words. Frustration rose in Shadow knowing he’d hurt her. It was all impossible. Everything they were saying, nothing—

“What if I told you how I survived?” she asked him gently.

“You didn’t survive!” Shadow threw out at her. Shaking his head at the slip, he paced towards the door. “MARIA didn’t survive,” he corrected himself, shaking as he clung to the only thing he thought he knew.

“Shadow.”

He flinched at the tone of her voice that sounded so insufferably close to the tone Maria used. Patient and calm and intelligent, ready to talk him through whatever he didn’t understand. That reassuring tone when he was frustrated.

“Shadow, come here. Sit down.” His ear twitched, and he looked back at the woman to see she was patting that ugly floral couch again. Where did she even find such a revolting piece of furniture? “Give me a chance, Shadow. Let me talk before you make a decision.”

Her voice was soothing. Reluctantly, Shadow relaxed his fists and returned to the couch and sat down. Rosie, curious as ever and apparently over the fact that he had snapped at her, scrambled up on the opposite chair, staring with wonder.

Maria clasped her hands in her lap and wrung them as she chose where to begin. “I know what you saw,” she started carefully. “I was shot getting you inside that escape pod, and I know you think I died of either blood loss or just the trauma alone.” Shadow’s ears flattened against his head at the reminder of the scene before lifting back up to listen.

“I didn’t die, though,” Maria said, “I passed out. The G.U.N. soldiers broke in the door and tried to stop the bleeding. I was a civilian, not a scientist, so—” and Maria faltered for the first time with a small knit of her brows, “so I was supposed to live. Even if I was the granddaughter of a scientist.”

When Shadow just stared, Maria smiled gently at him and placed a hand on top of his. His entire arm twitched with the urge to yank it away. “I was taken into emergency care immediately, but I was dying quickly. Even after grandfather and you helped my body get closer to health, I still couldn’t handle the trauma. They said I faded into a coma.”

She paused to see if he wanted to say anything or comment, but Shadow kept his mouth shut. He didn’t trust himself to speak at this point. He couldn’t believe he was entertaining the idea that she was telling the truth, but he had no reason to distrust her—if anything, he had every reason to hope that it was as she said. Unable to reconcile his past with his present, Shadow waited tensely for her to finish her story.

Her thumb stroked along the back of his hand as she murmured, “They had to contact my mother and father. They made up some story suggesting that I had been caught in the crossfire from one of the experiments since only the scientists were supposed to die during the routing. Mom and Dad didn’t want to give up on me, but before the week was over, I was surviving only because of life support.”

Shadow’s chest squeezed uncomfortably at the thought of frail little Maria hooked up to life support. Looking down at the floor to hide his unease, he heard her say, “When G.U.N. was apprehending everything on the ARK, they found one of Grandfather’s unfinished serums for me along with samples of your blood.” Shadow looked up sharply then, wondering if she was going to go there.

She did, saying, “They tried the serum first. It did little to help at all. It steadied my heartbeat for a week, but I was still dying. Mom and Dad couldn’t pull the plug on me, so when G.U.N. said they could try one more thing, they decided to try it.” Maria gave a weak smile. “After all, if I was going to die regardless, what was a little desperation?’

His breathing thinned. They had no idea what that could have done to her. His mouth opened to say such, and then he shut his mouth. Clearly, if this was true, it had done . . . perfectly fine for her . . .

Maria hesitated to see if he would speak, and when he didn’t, she continued, “They injected me with a vial of your blood. No one knew what the effects would be, and . . . honestly, we’re still not sure if there were any effects.” She looked away, chewing her bottom lip in thought. Shadow’s eyes glued to the motion he remembered so well. “It . . . was like a miracle, Shadow. After being in a coma for six months, my health improved. The wound was finally healing properly, my immune system strengthened, and I—well, I woke up seven months after that day on the ARK.”

His mouth dried out. Shadow avoided her gaze, looking down on his shoes. She spoke with such conviction he was actually starting to believe her. She squeezed his hand, unable to offer more support since she couldn’t know what was going through his mind. “They kept me in recovery for far longer than I needed. They were afraid my NIDS wasn’t really cured, but they couldn’t find any traces of it. The only reason they could even tell I was sick in the first place was because my immune system was still weak for someone of my age. They took blood samples, they ran tests and X-rays and performed every medical procedure in the book, but they couldn’t find anything. I was just . . . healed. No explanation able to be found. When it became apparent they couldn’t keep me any longer, they finally sent me home with my family.”

Maria took a deep breath. “I was obsessed with finding answers,” she said with a shake of her head. “I couldn’t believe that your blood had cured me just like that. When I thought . . .” She turned away too, making them nearly back to back they had turned from one another so much. “When I thought you were dead,” she said softly, “and Grandfather executed, I . . . I felt like I had lost so much. My parents,” and she gave a weak laugh, “they were so good to me, but they couldn’t really fill what holes had been left. No one could. So instead I filled myself with science. I chased after knowledge with the fear that perhaps your blood really could have devastating side effects.”

Shadow’s hands knuckled into fists, but Maria didn’t move her hand from his. She kept talking as if she had to fill the silence, saying, “I studied biochemistry, molecular biology, immunology, pharmacology, physiology; anything I could possibly get my hands on regarding the human body, and Mobian biology too. I studied everything I could, even Chaos Theory! I thought . . . the answers had to lie SOMEWHERE. I didn’t believe in miracles. Grandfather had brought you to life through the power of science, and I was determined to find out how.”

She paused from her fervid speaking. Finally, she sighed softly. “However, for all I wanted to know, there was very little information to be found. Much was lost or destroyed in the ARK raid, and G.U.N. had confiscated what was left of Grandfather’s research. They didn’t have much regarding your creation and biology—mostly they retained the,” and she faltered slightly again, “the weapons research. There was nothing to assist me. I even tried analyzing my own biology for years, experimenting with my own blood, but . . . I still can’t find the answer.”

Finally, she seemed to slow down. Shadow stared at the carpet some more, trying to swallow the story. It sounded so real. So true. And she sounded so much like Maria with the way she unconsciously began to ramble about her science. Shadow could only be thankful that this time it was in terms even he could understand with what education he had.

“Shadow? Shadow, please, say something.”

He blinked, coming back into himself. Taking a sharp breath, wondering when he’d stopped breathing, Shadow glanced down on their hands. Hers were just as big as his were now, weren’t they? Slowly, he relaxed the tension that had built up within him and let his tight fist uncurl.

“SHADOW. Please, do you believe me?”

After a moment of gathering his courage, Shadow looked up at her. Those wide blue eyes were open and bared with nervousness and a painful hope that Shadow shared. His belly clenched. He wanted to believe her. Chaos, he wanted to believe her so badly, but he wasn’t even sure if he did or not.

His throat bobbed. “I—”

The doorknob to the house turned, and Shadow gave a full body twitch as the door opened. Voices filtered in, “Walter, I said I was fine! Geez, won’t even let a lady carry her own bread—Oh!”

In walked a belly, and attached to the overly large belly was another woman with blond hair and blue eyes. She stopped short, blinking widely at Shadow before she looked at Maria and stuttered, “Oh, I-I didn’t know you had company, Mom. Do we need to come back later?”

Shadow’s brain froze. Mom?

Maria stood immediately, saying, “No! No, come in, come in. It’s fine.”

At the same time, Rosie hopped off the couch, squealing, “Mama!” and raced to hug the woman walking through the door. Behind her a man with a mop of brown hair had several grocery bags on his arms and was looking curiously into the home.

“Mom? What’s going on—? OH! Oh, this must be Shadow! Hey, Shadow, good to meet you! I’m Walter!”

Standing uncertainly, Shadow approached the man who deposited one armful of bags on the living room floor and kicked the door shut. Shadow took the proffered hand, shaking it awkwardly as the younger woman turned and nearly bumped him with her exceedingly pregnant stomach.

She first handed everything she was carrying to her husband—that being a bag of sandwich bread and her purse. She stretched a slender hand down to him. “How do you do, Shadow? My name is Clara.”

He shook her hand too, feeling even more like a deer in headlights. A little body flung herself in between them and Shadow jumped, taking a swift step backwards as Rosie grinned widely at him. “I’m Rosie!” she said brightly. “Hi!”

Timid now at meeting regular people in a clearly domestic setting, Shadow shifted on his feet, trying to get his tongue to work. Maria gave him a gentle smile, and gestured to the newcomers. “Shadow, this is my daughter, her husband, and my granddaughter. Why don’t you say hello?”

His ears flicked in annoyance before they bent backwards submissively. Did she have to talk to him like he was a child? He knew how to meet people . . . Rosie bounced on her heels, waiting expectantly. Shadow dipped his head shyly and finally mumbled, “Hello.”

A shrieking giggle made him even more flustered as the situation seemed to spiral beyond what he was capable of handling. Rosie flung herself forward and face-planted into his chest, and he panicked for one moment before realizing she hadn’t cut herself on his spines. Just as fast as she hugged him she let go, turning and patting Clara’s stomach. “This is George,” she said. “He’s gonna be my little brother, but Mama says he needs more time to cook.” She pulled on her mother’s floral dress. “How many more weeks?”

“Three more,” Clara said with a smile. She walked past them to carefully ease herself down onto one of the couches, heaving out a tired and relieved groan. She kicked off her flats. Helplessly, Shadow looked around, wondering what he was supposed to do now that they had exchanged names. He belatedly had the idea to help Walter pick up all the groceries, but the man did so before Shadow could, all the while wrinkling his nose so his black glasses would stay on his face. Shadow stepped aside so he could make it to the kitchen.

“Hey, Shadow!” Walter called as he disappeared into the other room. “You should stay for dinner! Spaghetti and meatballs! Well, frozen meatballs, but it’s going to be good! I make a mean spaghetti!”

A hand fell on his shoulder, and Shadow jumped again, looking up to see Maria hovering. She lifted her brows in concern at him, asking, “Are you all right?”

He dropped his gaze. “Yes,” he replied reflexively, “I’m fine.” Oh, he was far beyond what the definition of fine was. He was a complete mess. Maria had survived somehow—no less, he had supposedly been able to heal her the way he had been created to. Maria had survived, she had lived her life, had kids, was a grandmother. Had kids—where was her . . . husband?

Shadow’s heart withered. He had almost destroyed this planet when she had been living on it, and she hadn’t even made one reference to that catastrophe.

“Shadow?”

He blinked, coming out of his reverie, and automatically repeated, “I’m fine.” He was confused as hell, but he thought he was okay. He looked up at Maria—and Chaos, those really were her eyes, weren’t they?—but before he could say anything, a pair of small hands tugged on his. He looked down.

Rosie grinned at him, tugging on his hand. “We’re gonna be good friends, right?”

Shadow bit his lip and his spines flexed defensively. He knew the proper answer to that, but he wasn’t sure if he had it in his heart to let go. Instead, he managed another awkward word, managing to get out, “Right.”

She giggled, and she pulled his hand, dragging him towards the door. “Come on! Let’s go catch some grasshoppers! Oh—” and she turned around suddenly, facing Maria. “He’s your friend too,” she said, biting her lip nervously. “Can we go out and play?”

Maria’s eyes softened at them, and Shadow’s heart finally began to melt. “Of course you can,” she said with a smile.

Her answer caused Rosie to shriek excitedly and Shadow’s ears to plaster back on his head at the pitch. “Yay! Come on, Shadow! Let’s go!”

Following the girl that was only a couple inches shorter than himself, Shadow found himself back in the front yard with a diminutive-looking Maria. Rosie gestured for him, coaching him in the fine art of critter catching.

“See there? That’s a grasshopper. We’re gonna catch them all, but you have to sneak up on them or they’ll hop away . . .”

Half-listening to her explanation, Shadow looked up when the door opened again and this time it was Maria, coming out barefoot onto the grass. Rosie’s eyes widened, and she asked, “Gramma?”

“Can I join you two?” she asked, eyes lingering more over Shadow than they did Rosie.

Still, she just caused Rosie to giggle, “But Gramma, you don’t like bugs!” She turned her all-knowing eyes on Shadow, saying solemnly, “Gramma doesn’t like bugs at all. She really hates spiders.”

Maria’s lips twitched at Rosie’s conniving tone, and she knelt down into the grass with them, saying, “Well, grasshoppers aren’t so bad. At least, not like spiders.” She shuddered, the shake traveling visibly through her shoulders. “I can handle most bugs, but I don’t care what kind of arachnid it is, they’re creepy and they’re always in the house!”

Amusement stabbed Shadow briefly before Rosie grinned, her pert little nose wrinkling. “I know! Lemme see if I can find a spider!”

The little girl raced towards the side of the house, peeking in the bushes as Maria shouted out, “Oh don’t you dare little girl! You know Gramma doesn’t like spiders!”

All she received in response to that was, “I’ll protect you!” and another scheming giggle.

Maria huffed a little, and Shadow waited hesitantly. He cleared his throat to get her attention, and asked, “Um . . . Should I stop her?”

Shaking her head, Maria looked into the grass where they crouched. “No,” she finally replied. “She might torment me a little with it if she finds one, but I’ll be fine.”

She crept forward a little, reaching out towards something. It jumped away at the last second causing Maria to jerk backwards and nearly hit her butt trying to avoid it. Shadow arched a brow at her.

“So . . . you don’t like bugs?”

Maria pursed her lips and sent him a look. “Not particularly,” she told him. However, she crouched again on the hunt for a grasshopper, so Shadow took his cue from her and began looking as well. “They really aren’t so bad, but when they start invading MY living space, that’s a completely different story. If they would just keep out of the house, I’d be more than fine with bugs living in the world!” She gave him a wry glance. “Makes one even miss the ARK a little bit.”

His ears swiveled. His red eyes found his prey, a large and squat grasshopper. “We had mice and lizards,” he commented. Were rodents and reptiles different?

“But they were quarantined and were carefully monitored,” she said in regards to the minor experiments. “Bugs are just . . . kinda creepy, honestly. Spiders are the worst though. Ugh! Just—too many eyes and legs on one creature! And pincers? Were those really necessary?”

Snatching up the insect, Shadow held it up for Maria’s view. “How’s this one?” he asked. “It’s pretty fat.”

She recoiled minutely, leaning away with a small grimace. “Yes—very fat. And it’s not a grasshopper, it’s a cricket.”

“A cricket?” Was there a difference?

Maria nodded, face twisting more, and Shadow’s heart panged at the familiar sight of the little wrinkle over her nose. “Yes. A katydid, and it’s actually a rather large one, so can you let it go now?”

Shadow gazed at it, and before he decided to release it—after all, Rosie would probably want to see it, right?—the girl in question came running back. She held up a spider by its long, spindly leg. “Look, Gramma!”

Maria squealed promptly, scrambling back as she held up a hand defensively. “Oh, Rosie! Oh, keep that thing away from me!”

She was momentarily saved by Rosie catching sight of the cricket. “Ooh! He’s so big!”

Shadow held it up for her as she ogled over it. She held up her own catch for him. “This is a granddaddy long leg,” she told him. “Mama doesn’t like them, but I do!” She held up the tiny spider that was frantically flailing its long legs.

Maria pressed a hand down on her heart. “Right,” she said a little stiffly. “Why don’t you show it to your father? He always seems to enjoy such things with you.”

Rosie’s cheeks puffed up. “Okay!” She raced into the house with her catch.

Sensing Maria’s discomfort, Shadow released the cricket too. They knelt together for a quiet moment on the lawn, and Shadow found himself nervously pulling up the grass. As the sun began to dip towards setting, his hands stilled as he realized where they were.

Earth. He and Maria were . . . on Earth. That was the dream. For them both to make it to Earth and his throat tightened. Somehow, someway, they had made it, hadn’t they?

“Shadow?” He seized a breath and looked up at her. She gnawed on her lip before asking softly, “Shadow, are you really all right? You’ve . . . barely said anything.”

That lump in his throat was growing. Shadow wet his lips, and he looked her in her blue eyes, searching for the truth. He rasped, “Maria . . . It—It’s really you, isn’t it?”

She blinked around suddenly moist eyes. She smiled at him though, nodding her head and taking his hand. “Yes. Yes, it’s me, Shadow.”

His hand clenched into a fist under her touch. Looking away, he avoided her gaze and swallowed thickly, feeling the walls he had erected beginning to fall. “I thought . . .” His muzzle twitched irritably as he sought to find his words that had evaded him ever since he’d step foot in her yard. His shoulders hunched. “I thought . . . I lived thinking that you—you’d died,” he managed gruffly, trying to hide the quiver in his voice. “I almost . . . almost . . .”

Her hand squeezed his affectionately. “I know,” she assured him.

Shadow shook his head sharply, his spines swinging with the force of the motion. He stared nearly unseeing at the grass, saying shakily, “No, I—Maria, I almost . . . The world, I almost destroyed it. I wasn’t—I didn’t mean—” but an evil little voice in him whispered, But you did. You were gladly going to destroy the world and every living creature on this planet.

And his plans had unknowingly included Maria.

A tremble shook his body at the thought. The guilt tangled his words up. “Maria, I—I didn’t mean . . . I’m sorry, I—” His hands clenched tighter, and he squeezed his eyes shut against a suspicious prick of wetness. “I . . . You were dead—I thought I—I didn’t mean . . .”

“I know, I know,” she reassured him softly. “Shh, come here.”

His muscles twitched when she pulled him to her, but he willingly collapsed into her arms that threaded around his spines. Voice catching, Shadow bit his lip hard to control the tears welling up, but he didn’t think it was helping. Wrapping his arms around her and clutching her close, Shadow’s chest heaved as he buried his face into her chest.

He shuddered. “I missed you so much,” he admitted in a muffled undertone. Fingers digging into her, Shadow’s ears dipped backwards.

“I missed you too,” she murmured softly. He flinched as if his heart had been shot when she kissed the top of his forehead. He gritted his teeth and forcibly choked down the sob that wanted out.

Instead, Maria held him tenderly as he fought his tears as if his life depended on it. Her hands petted him soothingly in the quiet yard, and Shadow was thankful she never let go.

For the first time in a long time, Shadow felt at home.