Supposed To Be Me (Shadow x Reader)

Chapter 1 An Alien World

You awoke to someone desperately shaking you awake from within the pod. A strange light flooded in from the gaping hole in the craft which you had been taken there in. Apparently, your pod crashed onto the fascinating planet. The one shaking you was very familiar to you. It had been many years, but you still knew exactly who he was.

"Shadow...?" you asked sitting up from within the pod with a massive headache. None of the earlier events came back to you. It was annoying, and you struggled to figure out how you got there. Somehow, you remembered Shadow and Maria. That was about it. "What happened...?"

The stern gaze in his eyes was clouded as if he didn't really know himself. Just his urgency made you remember that it was something important. It was startling to realize that you were now on a completely different planet. Looking out beyond Shadow, you saw the color blue. Wide and vast was this color just like black in space. Space? Was that where you came from?

Shadow, who had yet to say anything, pulled you to your feet. He was short. Something seemed to stir in your mind about once being the same height as him with your sister Maria. Maria? Where was she? Why couldn't you seem to remember?

"Please Shadow, tell me, what happened...? Why do I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and why do you act so urgent?" you asked him. When he didn't respond, you couldn't help but get mad at him. "Speak for once, Shadow! I know I'm not Maria or Gerald, but the least you could do is explain! TELL ME!" you shouted at him. Salty tears emerged from your eyes and you still didn't understand why.

"They are... gone," he finally replied. Gnashing his teeth together, he added, "And they won't be coming back..."

Suddenly, images of the men in black uniforms and Maria pulling the lever came to mind. The missing pieces fell into place and you remembered why you felt the way you did. Maria was gone. She was shot on the Ark in an effort to save you and Shadow. The instant you realized the truth, your tears and sobs couldn't be contained anymore. It took about ten minutes before you could even think of looking back up at Shadow.

When you did glance back to Shadow, his gaze was fixed outside the pod. He was looking up at the sky. "I had promised... we'd see the planet together... We both wondered what it was like to see the sky above our heads... What other humans and other forms of life were like...," he said in remembrance of their constant conversations about the planet. His red, distant eyes flashed angrily back to you. "And she didn't deserve to die! After everything I promised I would do, she threw it all away just to save her sister who she barely knew at all! You shouldn't take this personally, but it should have been you who saved her! Why did fate think that it was better this way? Is this a cruel joke?!" he snapped almost completely losing it in an instant.

You were taken aback by his sharp tone and stinging words. The sadness from before melted into anger. "Do you think I wanted this to happen?! I know I haven't seen you or Maria in years, but I still love Maria and I would have died for her! But that's just not the way things worked out. This probably couldn't have been changed even if we wanted it to be changed. Besides, you can't change the past. We're here now and that's what matters now!" you told him forcefully.

His ears flattened aggressively and then he relented. What you said was true. "I suppose so. Matters will only get worse if we continue to fight with each other.... We'll have to work together on this planet whether if we like it or not."

"And first we have to get out of this space pod," you said.

Taking your first steps out of the space pod to the bright, shining light of day on an actual planet, you felt a sudden shiver of excitement run through you. It was Earth! Planet Earth! You only heard about it from the scientists. They saved all the pictures to show Maria of the surface. You walked out completely blind to what lay ahead. When you saw the sunshine, the sky, the water, the plants, and life in general, it was as if you stepped into an alien dimension. Everything was so much more colorful than it was on the Ark. It all seemed more natural than what you grew up knowing. The air was fresher, the sky was bluer, and somehow you felt less lonely. Even Shadow seemed amazed.