Chapter Text
Cover Art by Electrikitty
Shadow stood in the lobby of the Transbay Tower. Sirens blared, and panicked screams filled the air as the building’s employees raced down the stairs and out the doors, fleeing for their lives.
Explosive charges were piled high in the centre of the lobby. A timer beeped steadily, counting down the seconds until the tallest building in Central City collapsed.
Sweat dripped down Shadow’s neck, and he stepped backwards. The heel of his shoe hit a block of C4. He took a shallow breath. ‘Rouge?’
The only indication she’d heard him was a twitch of her ears. She was elbow-deep in coloured wires, and the curve of her back was rigid. She pulled out another wire, severing it with a pair of wire-cutters.
He could hear helicopters circling overhead, and he pressed a hand to his earpiece, locking eyes with some of the GUN soldiers stationed outside the building’s doors. ‘Evacuation status. Now.’
‘There are still people on the upper floors of the tower –’
Shadow swore, and he could feel the plastic of his earpiece giving way beneath his fingers. ‘Don’t stop. Get as many people out as you can.’
Rouge severed another wire. Her laptop was connected to the delay detonator, and it was overheating. The screen’s contents were a technicolour nightmare. If she couldn’t defuse the bomb in time, then he would have to use Chaos Control to drop the collapsing tower in the middle of Golden Gate Park. Sweat trickled down Shadow’s back, and he could feel his hands beginning to shake. If the tower fell on the surrounding buildings, it would be a mass casualty event. If it fell in the park, then it would result in the deaths of everyone still inside the tower.
‘Hey, do you want to go for drinks after this?’ Rouge smiled at him over her shoulder, and her wings were trembling with nerves.
‘You need to focus,’ Shadow growled. But he rested a hand on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. Her muscles were so tense that it felt like there was metal beneath her skin.
‘I’d be able to concentrate better if you weren’t standing so close to me, handsome.’
Shadow didn’t answer. There was less than a minute left on the clock now. Every fibre of his being was screaming at him to take her in his arms and get her out of the blast zone before it was too late. It would be so easy. It would only take two words to protect her from harm … but he had promised Maria that he would protect the world, hadn’t he?
He steeled his resolve, tightening his grip on her shoulder. It was too late for second thoughts, and he had to have faith that she would pull it off. She would sever the final wire, and the numbers would vanish. The two of them would stumble out of the foyer and return to GUN’s headquarters. She would make it out alive. She had to.
A glimmer stung his eyes, and he turned sharply. He stared through the foyer’s windows. In the far distance, a pinprick of reflected light glittered atop a nearby skyscraper. It was a rifle sight.
Shadow froze. Rouge pulled out one last wire, sliding it between her wirecutters. If he abandoned her to attack the shooter and something went wrong, he might not be able to return in time to save her … let alone save everyone else.
Shadow stepped in front of Rouge, and the window shattered. A bullet pierced him in the chest. He nearly fell, slamming one foot against the ground to keep his balance. Rouge’s head whipped around, and her eyes widened in horror. ‘Shadow –’
‘Focus!’ Shadow snapped. ‘Finish it!’
As though she had been shaken awake, Rouge wrapped her hands around the wirecutter handles and slammed them together, severing the last wire. The clock froze, and there was only one second remaining.
Shadow gasped for breath. Blood gushed from his wound and splattered on the ground. Rouge dropped the wirecutters with a clatter and got to her feet, nearly falling over herself in her haste. ‘What happened –’
Shadow grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her in close, forcing her to stand in front of him. ‘Don’t move. There’s a sniper with a direct line of sight to us. Stay in front of me.’
With a sharp flash of light, he and Rouge reappeared on the other side of the foyer and took cover behind a column. With each beat of his heart, fresh blood spurted from his wound. It dripped down his chest and hips. Rouge folded her wings in, making herself as small as possible, and pressed her hands against his chest in an attempt to stop the bleeding. ‘Y-You need to heal yourself –’
Shadow gritted his teeth and held out a hand. ‘Give me your pocket mirror. Now.’
Rouge slapped the mirror into his palm, and he snapped it open, angling it towards the direction that the bullet had come from. He could already hear shouts and gunfire outside as GUN’s soldiers mobilised to deal with the threat. The rooftop where the sniper had been was now empty. His earpiece crackled with static as one of the comms officers demanded a status report. He cursed and pressed the mirror back into Rouge’s hand. Her gloves were already stained with blood.
‘Why didn’t you go after him?’ Rouge demanded. ‘Hell, why didn’t you stop him?!’
‘You had a job to finish.’ Shadow could feel his ribs creaking beneath the pressure of her hands. His heart was pounding. ‘And I wasn’t going to risk leaving you in the line of f-fire –‘
Rouge turned white. Her gloves had been dyed crimson, and blood was starting to drip from her arms. ‘I know you can’t die, but you’re going to bleed out at this rate.’
Shadow narrowed his eyes at her and held a hand to his earpiece, looking away. ‘What happened to the shooter?’
‘Our field agents are in pursuit, but we’ve already lost visual contact –’
Rouge turned and narrowed her eyes, scanning the city skyline through the windows. ‘I’ll go, then.’
‘You will not,’ Shadow snarled. ‘They’ve already targeted you once.’
‘I can’t let them get away with this!’
‘And I can’t let you die!’
Shadow’s vision blackened, and he slumped against the pillar. He pried her hands from his chest and pressed his own hand against the bullet wound. He could feel more blood welling up with every frantic spasm of his heart.
He would have preferred to reverse his body’s internal clock and undo the damage, but doing so would take a tremendous amount of energy. He didn’t know what would happen or if they would be attacked again. If he wanted to conserve his strength, then he would have to accelerate time instead.
Shadow reached behind him, running his fingers up and down his back with his free hand. He stiffened.
‘… What?’ Rouge asked.
‘I can’t find an exit wound.’ Shadow could feel his heart beginning to jackhammer, and blood seeped into his glove. Not only had he gotten shot, but the projectile must have been a hollow-point round, specifically designed to expand and fragment instead of passing through a target. ‘… The bullet’s still in there.’
‘We can dig it out later. But for the love of Chaos, do something before you go into hypovolemic shock.’
Shadow braced one hand against the pillar and took a deep breath. He felt dizzy, and he could barely concentrate. His body’s internal clock began to accelerate, and an ominous ticking filled his ears. He’d done this many times before. His wounds would begin to close, and his body would begin to burn. He would ‘heal’ from his injuries, defying death itself.
But not this time. An electrical charge surged through his bones, and his head felt like it was going to split open. He froze, and the ticking sound abruptly ceased.
‘Shadow?’ Rouge’s eyes widened with alarm. ‘Sweetheart?’
He tried again, but the same thing happened. It felt like he was being shocked, and his head began to ache. His grip on his chest loosened, revealing an ugly gunshot wound and white fur matted with blood. ‘S-Something’s not right. I c-can’t …’
He tried for a third time, attempting to push through the pain, but his knees buckled. He slid down the pillar and hit the floor, staring at the blood-stained marble beneath his legs. His ears were ringing. Rouge’s panicked eyes filled his vision, and he weakly grabbed hold of her arm. He tried to warn her to be careful, but he couldn’t even hear the sound of his own voice.
He saw glimmers of red lenses as GUN’s soldiers rushed into the foyer. They scattered in his field of view like bloody confetti. He could feel the fragments of the hollow-point bullet shifting between his lungs with every breath.
‘Don’t … break cover,’ Shadow said as his hand slipped from Rouge’s arm and fell to the floor. ‘It’s not … safe …’
His vision went black, and he slumped forward, collapsing onto the bloodied tiles.