Aurora shielded Orian as pieces of the egg flew in every direction.
Once Storm released his frustration, Orian called out to his father and wanted to rush to him immediately, but his mother held him back.
"No Orian!! There's no telling how much he's been altered. " Exclaimed Aurora.
Storm still closely resembled his old self, although his size had increased again and additional spikes had grown across his body.
The biggest change was the fact that he had two heads now.
While one was still like Storm's old one with a white mane and bright blue eyes. Several magical blue runes had appeared across his horns.
The other head resembled his shadow however with darker blue scales, red eyes and runes, and a mane of black hair.
Both heads locked eyes with her as she spoke.
Currently Aurora was cautious as she wasn't sure which personality was currently in control of the body. Although the shadow had never been hostile to her or Orian, she was still wary of it.
It seemed hurt when it noticed how wary she was of it.
"Aurora.... it's still me..." stated Storm.
"Prove it!!"" Exclaimed Aurora as she raised her wings defensively.
"Remember our first night together when..." started Storm.
Aurora hastily covered Orian's ears!
"Do I need to remind you that your son is present?! Memories won't be enough!!
If you're the doppelganger, then you would have acess to Storm's memories !!" Aurora wanted so desperately for this to be her real mate.
But she just couldn't drop her suspicions yet.
Storm thought on how he could convince her, after a moment he slowly extended his consciousness towards her.
He didn't try to contact her directly because in her current state she might have thought it was planning to attack or attempt to influence her thoughts. Instead he lightly brushed his thoughts against her.
Each mind felt different and Aurora knew this.
No one, not even his shadow would have been able to fake it.
As he brushed against her, she immediately dropped her guard and Orian rushed off to embrace his father.
After her mind caught up, she cried from happiness and ran to embrace him.
As Storm returned her embrace and suddenly smacked him at the back of one of his heads.
"Ow!! What was that for!!?" Asked Storm
"What the hell were you thinking when you scared me like this!! I thought I'd never see you again!!" Exclaimed Aurora.
"I'm sorry, Aurora. You two Orian. It wasn't my intention to make you two worried about me. " stated Storm.
"So which one is the real you?" Asked Orian.
He was back and forth between the two heads, not sure which one to address.
Storm chuckled in response.
"It doesn't work like that, Orian. Both heads are still me." Explained Storm.
"What about your Shadow?" Asked Aurora.
Storm's face grew sad as he remembered their last talk.
"... he's... gone, Aurora... In a way, so is the old me. Instead I'm a combination of us both.
If I'm honest, I'm still trying to make sense of it."
Storm still had all his memories intact, but apart from that, he also experienced everything from his Shadow's side.
He remembered how alone it felt, how the shadow watched late at night as Storm, Aurora and Orian slept.
How much it hurt him to see the disdain in their eyes whenever her manifested himself.
He didn't know if the shadow was still inside his mind somewhere , or whether he was truly gone but he felt great shame at how he had treated his doppelganger.
He wished he could talk with it, one last time, to apologize.
"If you're still in there somewhere, know that I will never forget your sacrifice 'brother'.
And I am sorry for misjudging you!!" Thought Storm.
He felt a pleasant warmth in his chest, almost like his shadow was acknowledging him.
"How do you feel, Storm?" Asked Aurora.
"I feel at peace! Whole again!" Stated Storm
Whatever else he was going to say was lost as the front door was blasted open by 3 very angry looking Hags.
They had even shifted into their true form and was clearly ready to do battle with a formidable foe.
As this was the first he had seen them in their true forms, Storm was every bit as curious as everyone else.
They had leathery green skin and hooked sharp noses, along with pointed ears like those of an elf.
Their lower teeth had grown and was extending past their lips, giving them an orcish appearance.
Their fingers ended with sharp claws, and their hair resembled moss in texture.
Without warning, one of the hags threw an unknown spell at him.
Storm tapped into his Shadow's abilities to make himself incorporeal and the spell simply passed through his body and struck the wall behind him.
"Would you three stop that!!? It's me!!" Exclaimed Storm.
"Storm!? What the hell!?"
"We sensed something with so much shadow magic that we thought the infirmary was under attack from some kind of Shadow Demon!!" Stated the Grans.
"It's a long story, but it's still me!" Added Storm.
"Then why did you blow a hole through our roof!!?" Accused the Grans.
"... I was... 'frustrated' ... Sorry about that..." said Storm sheepishly.
If looks could kill, then Storm would no doubt have died from the venomous gaze the Grans gave him.
With the danger passed, the grans changed back to their human forms.
Aurora eyed Storm curiously.
"That trick you did? You couldn't do that before could you?" Asked Aurora.
"Just one more thing I learned when me and my Shadow merged.
I think you will find there's a lot of things I can do now that I couldn't do before." Stated Storm confidently.
A naughty grin crossed her face.
"Is that so!? Well, I intend to test your 'capabilities' in a wide range of topics tonight!?" Said Aurora seductively.
Storm wasn't sure if it was his Shadow's loneliness or the long time that he had been seperated from Aurora.
But it took every ounce of self control Storm had not to grab her by the tail and drag her back to their nest to 'catch up'.
"Orian! I need you and Chrome to sleep over at a friend's house tonight!!" Stated Storm.
Orian received a sad look when his friends was mentioned.