Chapter 23

A wicked smile crossed Theo's face and he had a dark look on his face. Shadow pulled his hands next to his head as if in submission.

"You can't kill me." Shadow stated confidently. He didn't lose his knowing smile. He and Theo locked eyes.

"You're about to die! Why aren't you scared?" Theo shouted, furious.

"I told you. You. Can't. Kill me." Theo gritted his teeth together before smiling. He Suddenly started chuckling and placed a hand on his face. Shadow frowned. Theo then wiped his hand down his face and smiled down at Shadow.

"You're right. I can't kill you yet." Theo slowly raised the gun and pointed it at Jay. Jay gave a little squeak and clung on tighter to Shiro's sleeve. Theo's finger tightened on the trigger and his grin widened.

"Wait!" Shadow yelled. "Don't hurt them."

"But if I kill him he can go meet your parents." Theo stated. Silence followed. Slowly, a kind of pressure befell the room, holding everything in place. The gun rattled as Theo's hand shook.

"Theo..." He looked down to see Shadow staring daggers deep into his soul. Time seemed to lock in place. It was just him and Shadow.

"... kill even one person..." Shadow's lips didn't move, but his words still reached Theo's ears.

"... and your next!" Time began again and the pressure that had them frozen in place vanished. Shadow sat up and turned to face Theo, who wore an expression of fear and disgust. He quickly hid his emotions behind a smile.

"Stand up." He ordered. Shadow obediently stood up. With a silent signal behind his back, Emperion suddenly threw himself at Theo, catching him off guard. He forced Theo to the ground and they grappled for control of the gun. Shadow quickly started removing the clamps on his wings. He only managed to take off two clamps when Theo pointed the gun at his head and fired. At the same time, Shadow cast a smoke screen and gray smoke burst from the palm of his right hand. Theo was having a hard time breathing with the smoke and Emperion on him when Emperion's weight was suddenly taken off his chest. Having only had one bullet, Theo threw the gun aside and pulled a knife from his belt as he stood up.

"Stay close!" He heard Shadow's voice just a few feet in front of him and he threw his hand forward. He felt the knife cut through flesh before breaking free. He hopped backwards in case someone counter attacked, but nothing came. The smoke was stinging his eyes and throat so he stumbled forwards and felt around for a window. He found the window in Shiro's room and forced it open, coughing as the smoke floated out of the room. Theo rubbed his eyes and looked back behind him. The room was empty. He looked down at his knife and saw the right side of its blade lined with blood. The bullet he fired was stuck in the wall. He walked around the bed and saw small spots of blood on the floor. There were no bodies. Even Shiro was gone.

"Damn it!" he shouted, banging his hand against the wall. 

"Looks like you failed." a deep voice whispered next to him. Theo spun around in surprise. It was Robin.

"Robin! You just missed him." Theo growled.

"I told you to wait."

"I-I wasn't sure if he was going to stay or not. I had to make a move otherwise he would've gotten away." Theo insisted.

"And?"

"'And' what?"

"What happened?" Theo averted his gaze.

"He still got away." he mumbled. Robin sighed and facepalmed. "He didn't get away unscathed, though! I managed to cut him somewhere!"

"Somewhere?"

"He put up a smoke screen so I couldn't tell."

"Let me take a look." Robin pushed past him and walked into the room where the fight took place. The air was clearer but everything else was still as it was left.

"That's the gun I used," Theo pointed to the gun, "the bullet I shot," he pointed to the hole in the wall, "and the knife I used." he lifted up the knife he was still holding. Robin took the knife and inspected it. He wiped a bit of the blood off the knife and tasted it, making Theo stare at him with disgust. Robin put the knife down and turned to the hole in the wall. He plucked the bullet out of the wall and took a good look at it. The tip had a red tint to it and the hole was colored red.

"Looks like the bullet grazed him. And the knife cut him." Robin turned towards Theo. "Was there anyone else here besides you and Korrozak?"

"Shiro was here, along with a little kid and a teenager looking kid."

"I know the little boy but I don't know the teenager."

"How'd you know he was a boy?"

"I tried to kill him a few months back." Robin shrugged it off as if it was nothing.

"That's cold. I know I pointed my gun at him but I wasn't actually going to hurt him. He's just a kid."

"It's just how you get past Korrozak's emotions and reach his heart. Besides, they're both demons." Robin smiled a wicked smile. "I've seen all I need to know. Clean up this mess and continue to report back to me if you find anything new."

~ * ~

Shadow dropped everyone into the living room of his house and collapsed onto his knees. He clutched his right eye with his right hand and his neck with his left hand.

"Geez, you couldn't have been more gentle whe-." Emperion started before he saw Shadow on the ground. The annoyance in his voice turned to concern. "Hey hey hey, are you alright?" Emperion knelt down and grabbed onto his shoulder, keeping him steady.

"Korro!" Shiro sat down in front of him. Jay held his breath, scared.

"I'm not dying you guys." he assured, his voice sounding tired.

"Woah. What happened here?" Silver was sitting at the island in the kitchen, a cup in his hand. He set down the cup and hurried over. He shifted Shiro aside a bit and leaned down in front of Shadow.

"Let me take a look. Can you lift your head up?" Shadow looked up at Silver. Silver's image was slightly blurry. Shadow was unable to focus his eye through all the pain and exhaustion. Silver inspected Shadow's injuries. Blood was trickling through the gaps in his fingers and he could see more in a line across his nose and at the top of his ear. 

"Wow, you look terrible. Can you stand up? It would be easier for me to treat you if we could sit at the counter. Don't push yourself, of course!" Shadow shifted his foot forward and tried to stand up. He succeeded, with Emperion's help.

"Jay, do you know where a first-aid kit is?" Jay nodded vigorously and rushed down stairs to grab it from the bathroom. Once he came back, he handed it to Silver, who set it on the counter. He then opened it up and pulled out a roll of bandages.

"Can you move your left hand for me?" Silver asked gently. Shadow slowly moved his hand and let it hang at his side. A long cut stretched across his neck. Emperion flinched and Shiro gasped at the sight of it. Jay wasn't at an angle where he could see the full of it, but it made him shiver all the same.

"Now this is going to hurt a bit, but you gotta bear with me. You're a strong person." Silver encouraged as he reached out to wrap the bandages over the cut. Shadow flinched as they touched but didn't make a sound. After the first bandage was applied, Silver had Shadow turn to the left. Jay walked over to stand next to Emperion. Shadow suddenly smiled at them, as if to cheer them up.

"I'm glad... no one... was hurt." he huffed.

"You shouldn't talk, Shadow. You need to save your energy to heal yourself." Shadow didn't reply. His vision was hazy and he could hardly hear Silver's voice.

"Hang in there, buddy." Silver encouraged, tapping Shadow's other hand, the one still covering his eye. He slowly lowered his hand and let it fall beside him. A long gash was etched across Shadow's face, reaching all the way from the bridge of his nose, past his eye, and ending at the tip of his ear. Shadow's eye was closed, but blood was still streaming down from it and dripping onto the floor.

"That sure is nasty." Silver noted, grimacing as he began to wrap the bandages around Shadow's head. He was too tired to react to the pain. After the bandages were wrapped around his head, Silver placed a bandaid on his ear and nose to cover the rest of the gash. Just as the last bandaid was placed, Shadow began to fall off the stool. Silver quickly grabbed him to prevent him from hitting the floor. He had Jay come over and wipe the blood off Shadow's face and hands with a paper towel before he picked up Shadow and seated him on the couch.

"Is he ok?" Shiro asked, hesitantly.

"His life's in no danger. The worst injury he had seemed to be to his right eye. In the worst case, he may lose sight in his right eye forever and his hearing may be impaired for a while. Other than that, he's just tired. I can tell he's used up a lot of magic, which is probably the main reason for his exhaustion. It's also why he couldn't heal himself once he got here." Silver assured. He let Shadow lean on him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. He gently combed through Shadow's hair before he looked up with confused and caring eyes. "Can someone tell me how Shadow got into such bad condition?" he asked slowly.

"Shadow? Do you mean Ko-" Jay slapped his hand over her mouth, cutting her off.

"He's codenamed Shadow now." he explained.

"Codenamed?"

"When on-the-run demons are saved from captivity and brought back to Demon City, we allow them to keep their identities secret and let them pick a code name for themselves. Please respect his decision and refrain from revealing his real name." Shiro nodded.

"An old friend of ours, Theo, hates demons." she started. "When he found out Ko-... Shadow was a demon, he called the DMA on him and chased him out of our hometown. Shadow came to visit me about a month ago and Theo found out, but Shadow left before he could get any solid evidence. Today, when Shadow was visiting me again, Theo showed up again and pointed a gun at..." she looked down at Jay.

"Jay."

"... at Jay and threatened to kill him if Shadow didn't follow him and turn himself in to the DMA. That's when we felt this weird kind of pressure on the room, but it only lasted for a second. That's when something about Theo changed. He seemed scared of something or someone."

"That's when Shadow signaled to me to tackle him, so I did. We wrestled for a bit, trying to get control of the gun when he shot at Shadow and the smoke screen showed up. I heard the bullet hit the wall so I assumed it missed him and continued to wrestle this 'Theo' guy until someone grabbed me from behind and pulled me off him. I assumed it was Shadow who did it, so he could teleport us out but he hung on to me for an unusually long amount of time. When he teleported the first time, it only took a second, so I got suspicious and tried to break away. That's when I heard him say to stay together and he suddenly leaned towards me, pushing me into the wall. That's when we got teleported in here and I saw him collapsed on the floor, bleeding. I don't even know when he got hurt." Emperion finished.

"I saw the bullet fly past his neck right before he cast the smoke screen spell. After that I couldn't see anything so I continued to grab onto Shiro. After a while, someone grabbed my arm. That's when I heard Shadow's voice and he tugged me again. Then he teleported us here." Jay explained.

"I closed my eyes and covered my ears the moment I heard the gun go off. Sorry." Shiro appologized.

"It sounds like when Theo fired the gun, it grazed Shadow's neck. Afterward, he cast a smoke screen to cover him up and safely gather you guys together. Once he had everyone, he tried to teleport away but then Theo attacked again, causing the injury on his face." Silver explained. "The jerking motion you felt earlier and him pushing you against the wall was probably him trying to dodge Theo's attack."

"That makes sense." Emperion agreed.

"I just don't understand the delay in his teleport spell. I know casting a smoke screen spell takes a lot of magic but it shouldn't be enough to cause a delay in his teleport spell." Silver put on a thinking face. Jay ran around the back of the couch and walked up to Shadow. He looked down at him and pulled up one of his wings.

"Look!" he called, pointing to the clamp around his wing. Silver looked over and touched them.

"Magic-sealing clamps?"

"Shiro and Emperion forgot to mention that Theo forced Shadow to put on these clamps before pointing the gun at me. I saw Shadow trying to take them off before the gun went off and the smoke screen was cast." Jay explained. "He must've panicked and tried to teleport us when half of his magic was being blocked!"

"If he had magic-sealing clamps on, that does explain the delay in his teleport spell and why he was so tired. It's amazing that he was able to continuously cast high level spells with half his magic blocked." Silver exclaimed.

"He teleported us into the apartment, cast a smoke screen, and teleported us back out of the apartment, all in the span of an hour." Emperion whispered to himself. He straightened himself up from leaning on the back of the couch and started towards the stairs on the right.

"Where are you going, Emperion?" Silver called.

"To train." With that, he disappeared up the stairs. A moment of silence followed.

"Now I have a question for you, Silver. How did you get in the house without a key?" Jay asked, pointing a suspicious finger at him. 

"And who are you? Sorry, I forgot to ask earlier." Silver asked Shiro, dodging the other question. 

"My name's Shiro. I'm a friend of Shadow's. You are?" she asked.

"Codenamed Silver Phoenix. You can call me Silver. I'm like an instructor to Shadow and Emperion." Silver introduced. He pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I need to text my wife real quick and tell her I'm going to end up staying overnight." Shiro fidgeted where she stood, uneasy.

"I can bring some spare blankets up here if you want to sleep with him." Jay offered. "That's what I'm gonna do, anyway." Shiro nodded as Jay ran down stairs to fetch some blankets. He waddled back upstairs after grabbing lots of blankets. He dropped them onto the couch before sitting down next to Shadow. He silently began to unclamp his wings and toss the clamps aside. After he finished, he draped a small blanket across Shadow's chest. He then took a blanket for himself and rested his head against Shadow's leg. It wasn't long before he fell asleep.