Blood to Blood (Sonic Fanfic)

Chapter 26

Maria...Shadow, remember Maria. Would she want this?

Those words pierced through the Black Arms-induced fog, waking him to where he had free thought.

"Shadow..."

No, I don't want to relive this.

"You should not be here."

Shadow remembered that the Maria in his subconscious said those exact words when he went under the hypnosis at Eggman's base. He wanted to do anything but relive those moments and how that situation ended up with Black Doom controlling him.

But he realized that this might be the only way he could fully wake up from him. Shadow knew he had a break because of his connection to Maria, but it wouldn't last too long before Black Doom regained power.

Shadow knelt down, everything happening all too familiar from the last time he was here. "I need your help, Maria. I need you to help me wake from Black Doom's control."

She looked up to him with her crystal blue eyes. He repressed to glance at the spot of blood in the back of her dress.

"I can't do that. You have to be the one to do that and make the choice." She said, her eyes twinkling.

Shadow felt confused at that. She was one of the most helpful souls he had come across, and for her not to offer it when he needed it most surprised him. "What do you mean by that? I know that I want to wake up."

After he said that, he felt a dark and looming presence arrive. He rested his forehead against the glass, closing his eyes from annoyance. His father's deep voice said, "You have the illusion you have a choice in the matter."

"Why can't you just get out of my head, Black Doom?" He muttered, curling his fist into a ball.

"I won't ever leave you, because I am you, Shadow. We are forever connected, blood to blood. We have far more of a connection than you and that human could ever have." Black Doom argued.

A part of Shadow, the part of him that was Black Doom, was commanding him to follow his instincts, the instinct to do what he was made to do.

"Shadow," Maria's voice once again broke through that darkness. "Just because you have his blood in you doesn't mean you have to be like him. I know that, despite what you might think or what you might have done, you are a good person at heart."

"Ignore the human, it is your duty-"

"No, father." Shadow spat out, standing up and turning to face Black Doom's figure. "Just because you are my father, by blood, doesn't mean I am like you. I may have made mistakes in the past, but at least I'm not chasing a dream that will never happen." He took one step forward in the capsule, staring his father down. "I won't let this future be destroyed by the likes of you."

Black Doom returned his son's look. "Well, it seems that even you have reached a level that makes you as pathetic as the humans."

"And if making me break free from you makes me pathetic, then I guess that's what I'll be."

A moment of silence passed before Black Doom spoke again. "I was about to say I'm disappointed in you because of the potential you had, but I think I know the one thing that will make you regret saying that."

"And what would that be?" Shadow crossed his arms, ready to tackle whatever he was about to throw at him.

"To make you relive her death!"

"What?!" Shadow uncrossed his arms and pressed his palms against the glass, even though he knew there was no point.

Black Doom snapped his fingers in the air, and even though the glass separated them, Shadow still felt the impact. He fell back into the capsule, falling into the last memory he wanted to remember.