Chapter Text
The inside of the wooden horse is hot and stuffy. Shadow’s stuck in it with forty-nine other soldiers, and keeps getting jostled into them as the horse rolls along. Regardless, his ploy seems to be working. The Trojans haven’t realized that this peace offering is actually a trap. Soon the war Shadow had spent a decade fighting would be over, and he would finally be able to return home. Finally return to Espio, who’s handling things on Ithaca. Finally return to Eclipse, who was only a baby when Shadow left. He would be ten now, taller and stronger and able to talk, but still a child. What was he like now?
Shadow occupies himself with thoughts like those for hours, until he no longer hears the Trojans in the streets. Cautiously, he raps on the rough wood of the horse. He hears no shouts, no reactions of any sort. It’s time to put the rest of his plan into motion.
“Alright, all of you listen closely,” Shadow begins, his voice low. “We’ve been fighting for ten long years, and tonight is the final battle. The Trojans will get what they deserve. We will get to return to our homes, and our families. But for that to happen, you’ll need to do what I say.”
“Yes, sir!” The soldiers call.
Shadow begins naming soldiers, looking at each one. “Mighty, you’re leading the charge. Storm will flank the guards. Bark, open the gates and left everyone else in. Fang, shoot anyone who attempts to ambush us. Gadget, secure Sally and protect her. Bean, avenge your father and kill Ivo’s brothers.”
“Yes, sir!” In the eyes of his men, Shadow sees little fear and much determination (except for Bean. His eyes glint with pure excitement).
I’m on my way, Espio, Shadow thinks. Just one more battle, and I’ll see you again.
He opens the trapdoor at the bottom of the horse and drops to the ground, making a soft thud as his sandals hit the ground. The other soldiers follow, and Shadow waits until every last man is out, all forty-nine attentive, waiting. Then he raises his sword and yells, “ATTACK!”
They charge through sleeping city, giving its citizens a very rude awakening. It’s not a normal battle, with both armies organized and prepared to fight, but chaos, with the Greeks sowing destruction wherever they went, and most of the Trojans half asleep at best. Shadow finds himself not thinking much about what he’s doing, only going through the process of entering a house, fighting anyone inside that tries to attack him, and exiting with a little more blood on his sword than before. He doesn’t dwell on the children who scream as their parents are slain, nor the houses that someone else got to first. In the moment, all he does is strike and injure and kill.
As Shadow runs to the next house, a soldier comes out of nowhere and stabs him. He can’t make out any distinguishing features, only swirling mist. He tries to defend himself, but the sword goes right through him, yet not hurting him in the slightest.
“What… was that?” He asked, to nobody in particular.
Thunder rumbles overhead, and an eagle lands on the ground in front of him, electricity crackling around its black and gray feathers. “A vision of a threat that will end you, if you don’t eliminate it now.”
“Mephiles?”
Shadow swears the bird smiles at that. “The one and only.”
If the king of the gods is talking to Shadow, this has to be important. “Show me the threat.”
“I don’t think you’re ready, it’s not something you’ve faced before.”
“Well, I know I’m ready,” Shadow counters.
“Then follow me.” Mephiles unfurls his wings and glides into a house, Shadow following.
“You need to kill someone’s daughter. She’s through there.” Mephiles flicks a wing towards an unremarkable wooden door.
“Say no more.” Shadow grips his sword and throws the door open.
He braces for an ambush, but none comes. Rather than a fierce warrior, he sees a cradle. His blood runs cold as he walks towards it, hoping against hope that it’s empty. Unfortunately, it isn’t. There a sleeping baby lays, her tiny body wrapped in a blanket.
Shadow turns to Mephiles. “She’s only an infant. How is she a threat?”
He never knew that birds can look as sadistic as Mephiles does. “You see, she is the daughter of Ivo. When she’s older, she will seek revenge for her father’s death. If you don’t end her now, you’ll have no one left to save.”
On the last statement, other, disembodied voices join. Other gods, perhaps? Wind spirits?
Whoever they are, they continue, “You can say goodbye to…”
Shadow doesn’t need to hear the voices finish. It’s this newborn’s life or Espio’s. Eclipse’s. Everyone else on Ithaca’s. At least, that’s what Mephiles is telling him, but who’s to say if he’s right? He may be the king of the gods, but surely there’s some way to avoid that future, besides killing an innocent child.
“What if I take her back to Ithaca,” Shadow suggests. “And raise her myself?”
“Then she will burn your house and throne.” Mephiles’s voice is almost gleeful, as if he’s only doing this for shits and giggles.
“Or I could send her far away.”
“Oh, she’ll find you.” Was Mephiles just trying to fuck with Shadow?
“But if I make sure no one knows her past…”
“The gods will make sure that doesn’t happen.” Shadow must have done something to piss Mephiles off, because there is no other explanation for the god’s investment. He really wants Shadow to kill this child.
Well, now he’s pissed as well. “Why do you care if she dies or not?”
Something sparks in Mephiles’ beady bird eyes. “It’s the will of the gods.”
With a crack of lightning, he’s gone, and Shadow is very tempted to curse him out. Sadly, he’s already dangerously close to being vaporized, and doing that might push Mephiles over the edge. So, Shadow only sighs and looks down at the baby, whom he doesn’t even know the name of. She’s awake, her blue eyes blinking at him.
He isn’t sure why, but she reminds Shadow of Eclipse, despite looking very different. Perhaps it’s her age, around the same as his son’s when Shadow left. Perhaps it’s the innocence in her eyes, the ignorance that all children have, before they learn what the world is really like. She doesn’t know that her father is dead, doesn’t know that she’ll soon follow him.
Shadow places his hand over her eyes, because the innocence seems accusatory, as if the infant does know what he’s going to do, and is asking, “Why, Shadow?” Why, indeed. He needs to kill her, but why? Why does Mephiles want him to? Why can’t Shadow do it?
Is he going to regret this, years from now? Is everyone he’d ever killed going to haunt his dreams, in a never-ending loop of pain and suffering? Shadow walks to the balcony at the edge of the room, and stares at the burning city below him. How, he wonders, does the flicker of a candle flame become an all-consuming blaze like that? He shifts his gaze to the ships he’d arrived on, and the waves crashing to the shore. At what point, he inquires, did those waves stop being a ripple?
Shadow knows how he can kill the baby. It wouldn’t even be difficult, as if he were breathing, rather than snuffing out a life. He turns toward her, and for a moment, he sees her, but grown, with a face filled with rage. She’s standing over a familiar purple chameleon, whose body is bloodied and broken, with his horn reduced to a mere stub, his limbs twisted in the entirely wrong positions, many of his scales scrapped off and lying around him, and many deep stab wounds riddling his body.
Shadows looks away, breaking the painful image. That is what will happen if he doesn’t kill the newborn. He’ll have a little less blood on his hands now, and a lot more later. Why it happens, whether it be natural or due to Mephiles’s intervention, it will happen. Unless, of course, Shadow does what has to be done.
It feels as if someone else picks her up, and holds her by the blankets while carrying her to the balcony.
Someone else holds her over the edge, and looks out at the destruction below.
Someone else registers Maria turning towards him, the tassels of her headband whipping in the wind. Her eyes silently ask, What are you doing?
As if in answer, this “someone else” whispers, “Forgive me,” and opens his hand.
Gravity pulls the child to the unforgiving ground, because she’s only a human baby, not a god or a bird. Mostly, though, it’s because Shadow is only a man.