DarkWing (Final Editing in Progress)

Chapter 23

"Shadow..." I whispered. She was in the fetal position, her face buried in her legs. Her back was to me. Her head perked up when she heard my faint voice and she turned, her eyes closed.

"N... No... It can't be..." she studdered in disbelief. I smiled. There she was. Right in front of me. It's been weeks, it's felt like years, but finally, I found her. My smile faded, and I refocused on Vaine. I could see his long, gothic silver hair gently brushing the top of the back of his chair.

"Looks like someone needs a haircut, Vaine," I teasingly. Although he wasn't facing me, I could tell he smirked.

"Someone needs to learn a little respect," he responded strongly.

On cue, the elevator doors behind me slid open, and I turned to find 3 black suits. They were grinning gruesomely. The one on the right had razor sharp, knife-like teeth, the left had fang-like teeth with incredibly long canines, and the last had thick strong teeth, but also had bull horns stemming from his head. The right one had a hugner in his eyes. His ears were pointed, and hair was chaotic. I could recognize that he was half wolf. The one on the left had thin, vertically slitted pupils. His hands hanging from his trenchcoat looked scaly, but he was wearing a longer trenchcoat than the rest, and it was closed. I felt as though he was hiding his lower body, and I think I knew why. He was half snake. The last, on top of his teeth and horns, had a sort of jutting out snout for his nose, he looked incredibly strong, and his skin had the color of iron. He was half bull.

I took in a deep breath, and changed my stance. I put my right foot back, bent my knees, lowered my head slightly, and brought up my fists. I watched them out of the corner of my left eye. I heard Vaine snap his fingers behind me, and they rushed towards me.

The wolf leaped at me. I dropped to one knee and ducked. I felt a rush of wind as he flew over me. I looked up to find the bull charging at me. I quickly jumped to my feet, then sprung into the air. The bull ran under me, his horns gently brushing my right pant leg. I landed on the ground and the serpent shot towards me. He grabbed my neck with his cold, scaly claws, and then wrapped his snake-like body around me. He slowly constricted, squeezing the life out of me. I heard the hum gradually grow louder. The louder it was, the more pissed I got. Soon, it screamed in my ear, and I felt a bloody river explode in my nose. It ran down and dripped onto the snakes tail. I blinked, and my eyes turned pure black. I looked straight up, and crowed fearsomely. The snake, nervous, tried to tighten around me even more, but I was too strong. I began to spread my arms and wings, slowly pushing away his wrapping body. Once large enough for me to slip out, I brought my wings back in to my body and held his tail away from me with my arms. I beat my wings once, and flew upwards. His tail quickly snapped together, grabbing nothing but the air left behind me. I planted my feet and hands on the ceiling, crouching against it, then pushed off and tackled the snake. I slammed him into the ground, then lifted my arm to make a slash at his throat.

Before I could, the bull grabbed my arm and threw me across the room. I tumbled and slid on the obsidian tile floor and stopped next to the window wall on the right side. I hopped to my feet, but when I looked up, the bull was in the air flying towards me. He landed on top of me before I could react, and I crashed into the floor. He lifted his fist when I put all of my strength into my legs, and flipped him off of me. He crashed through the glass wall behind my head and I could hear his monstrous scream slowly fade away until he was suddenly cut off.

I staggered to my feet to find the wolf growling at me and the snake slithering back and forth, watching me intently. They were both in the center of the room, well away from the glass edges. I smirked. They were afraid. I shot forward. They jumped apart as I landed in between them. The snake lashed out at me, swinging his black scaly tail. I caught his tail just before it connected with my face. With the snake's tail in my right hand, I turned to the wolf who was mid-punch. I caught his fist with my left hand. He stepped forward with his left leg and spun around, aiming for my face with the back of the same fist. This I blocked with my left forearm, then kicked his stomach with my back leg. He stumbled backwards as I flung the snake around me. The snake swung helplessly and collided with the wolf, both of them as a single body tumbling on the obsidian floor. They slowly slid apart. The wolf picked himself up, but just as he got his footing, I flew forward and kicked his face. He flew backwards again and rolled violently on the floor. His body stopped, limp and face down just before the broken glass window.

I glanced at the snake. He slowly rose up off the floor. When his eyes met mine, they were faded and dim as if a veil had been pulled over his eyes. He gradually stumbled towards me. His eyes weren't even focused on me. It took every ounce of his focus to keep himself going. He was about 5 feet away from me when a crimson stream erupted out of his nose. The blood dripped off his limp face and onto the floor, and soon he followed. He simply collapsed and fell face down onto the ground. I just stood and watched. He lied motionless, his cold, unresponsive body. He was dead.

I turned to Vaine. He still sat in his leather chair facing away. He hadn't moved an inch. He didn't say a word. I walked over to Shadow's cage, cautiously. She sat completely still and silent, trying to listen, trying to figure out everything going on. I touched the edge of her cage and it rattled quietly, startling her.

"Shhh... Shh... It's okay... I'm going to get you out..." I whispered. She put her head down, and I heard an almost silent cry. I felt so sad, so guilty. I should have been there to protect her, I shouldn't have let them take her away, shouldn't have let them hurt her the way they did. I scanned her cage and found the door. I kept my eyes on Shadow, but ran my hands to the lock. "Wait..." There was no lock.

Run. I quickly turned my head around and glanced all over the room.

"Death...?" I whispered. "Death, is that you?" I looked down and then shook my head. "Get a hold of yourself, it couldn't have been..." I then heard Shadow's quiet sob get a little louder, but realized that I had been wrong. She wasn't crying. She was laughing.

"Did you really think," she said as she gradually lifted her head. "That I needed you to save me?" I could see her face clearly. She was grinning. "Did you really think that I was being held here against my will? Did you really think that I was your friend?"

"Shadow... Wh... What is going on? What are you saying?" She slowly opened her eyes. I froze. They were different. They were normal. They could see. She burst through the cage door and threw a full force punch into the center of my chest. I soared backwards and crashed into the elevator doors. I fell forwards and lied face down on the cold floor, gasping for air. I flipped over onto my back, unable to do any more due to the lack of oxygen. I clenched my chest, tugged at the invisible barrier preventing my breathing. I knew that at least 3 ribs had been broken, probably more. I opened my eyes, and found Shadow silently standing over me, smiling venomously. The hum that had faded away after the combat was now back, and screaming against my skull, but through it, I could hear Shadow's cold, solid words.

"This is the end, brother."