The night sky above Vancouver, deep blue and starless, was suddenly lit by a blazing green trail, roaring down towards the surface of the Earth. Across the city, a handful of pedestrians and drivers noticed it, and wondered where it would land. Perhaps it would blast a deep crater in a busy road, burning cars and people alike.

To the collective relief of those few who saw it, the mysterious falling star missed civilisation completely. Instead it impacted on a tiny island in Deep Cove Bay, leaving curiously little damage around it. No crater, no fire, none of the surrounding trees burned or toppled. It was less of a crash or strike, and more of a landing.

There were people sent to investigate, of course - the police, government agents, biohazard experts. But at this time of night, amidst rush hour, none of them could get to the bay quickly.

So someone else reached the scene first.

***

Jenna had been wandering barefoot across a rocky beach, maintaining her balance with ease despite the uneven terrain. Though it was a cold October night, she wore a half-unbuttoned white shirt and a flowing white skirt, enjoying the cool breeze that caressed her alabaster skin.

She loved it here. You could pick pretty much any point around the bay and find a magnificent view in front of you, even at night. The clear, rippling water; the rising hills on the opposite shore, covered with towering conifers; the huge silhouettes of mountains in the far distance, lit from behind by moonlight... Whenever she came here, she felt somehow closer to nature.

Since moving here from South Africa, Jenna had needed a sanctuary - somewhere to get away from people she knew, from work, from just everyday life. She’d needed that back at home, and she needed it at here. Deep Cove was hardly a secret hideaway, but standing here now in the late evening, with almost no-one else around, surrounded by nothing but the water and the trees and the sounds of birds crying out... She felt alone and free, and yet connected to everything around her. This was as close to heaven as she’d found on Earth.

Of course, it wasn’t perfect - because it was still on Earth.

Jenna had long been certain that there was more intelligent life than just humans in the universe. Aliens, fairies, sorcerers, spirits of nature, werewolves, vampires - she believed in them all. The trouble was, they’d eluded her thus far. Her whole life, she’d felt sure that she was meant to be somewhere else - somewhere that mortals never went. Another planet, another dimension, a realm of magic... Just, somewhere else.

All the evidence indicated that she was a human being. A human being in pretty good condition, if she did say so herself. Her slender frame hid greater physical strength than people often expected - her strongest muscles were in her arms and legs, probably a result of years of pole-dancing as a hobby. She had long jet-black hair, rich hazel eyes, and an angular face. Her boobs were the perfect shape and size - not too big, not too small. In short, she was gorgeous, and she wasn’t shy about saying it. After years of studying her face and body in the mirror, she was confident in her physical beauty.

But still, just a human. Apparently. She didn’t feel human, though. She was convinced that there was something more to her - she just wasn’t sure what. But when she came to visit her favourite getaway, and wandered its shores in an almost trancelike state, she felt like she was on the verge of figuring it out. That was one of the reasons she came here again and again and again, hoping that one day that epiphany would come to her...

Her train of thought was interrupted by a flash of green in her peripheral vision, and she spun on her bare heel in time to see the unidentified falling object hit the tiny island in the bay.

Anyone else might have thought to call the police, or at the very least flee the scene to a safe distance. But all Jenna could think was, Is this it?

Maybe it was an alien spacecraft landing, or at least something extraterrestrial. Maybe it was a gift from the Fair Folk. Whatever it was, this could be her chance to make contact. She was damned if she was going to let someone else reach it first.

Glancing around quickly to make sure no-one was nearby, she quickly stripped off her shirt and skirt, folding them neatly and tucking them into her bag, which was resting on a nearby rock. (Though she had no problem with being naked in front of people, she didn’t want to force her nudity on non-consenting passers-by.) Taking a deep breath and mentally preparing herself, she dove into the water. It was icily cold, but she took no notice, propelling herself forwards with her powerful arms and legs. She had no time to feel cold - she was swimming towards her destiny.

In no time at all, she reached the shore of the little island. Scrambling across the rocky terrain, which was even more treacherous than the beach she’d just come from, she hugged herself tightly, shivering as she started to notice the temperature at last. Stumbling on through the tall, mostly bare trees, she scanned the area for any sign of whatever had fallen from the sky. She didn’t have to look for long, as an emerald glint in the near distance caught her eye. Taking care where she put her feet in the now near-total darkness, Jenna approached the source of the glowing light.

It was a jagged fragment of crystal, around the size of both her hands if she made fists and pressed them together. Smaller than she’d expected, then - she thought she’d find something at least car-sized. The crystal itself wasn’t green - it was clear - but there was a green glow coming from within.

There’s something inside, Jenna realised. She shivered again, though she wasn’t sure whether it was from the cold, from excitement - or from fear.

It finally began to dawn on her that she may have put herself in a perilous situation - she was standing stark naked and freezing cold on an island surrounded by water, in front of an object of unknown origin, which could potentially be dangerous. The glow was making her think of radiation - was it safe to be this close to it? And even if it wasn’t radioactive, what else could it be capable of? Plus, she had no way to contact anyone for help - her phone was in her bag on the beach, nestled among her clothes.

I should get away from here, she told herself. But... what if I never get another chance like this? What if this is how I find what I’ve been searching for? She dithered and fidgeted, unable to decide what to do.

Jeeennaaaa...

The voice was smooth and soft like velvet, and yet deep and booming like thunder. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. She looked around frantically. “Who’s there?” she called out, surprising herself with how high and frightened her own voice sounded.

Jeennaaa...

After a few more seconds of peering into the shadows, Jenna realised where the voice must be coming from. She turned and looked back down at the glowing crystal.

“You... know me?” she whispered.

You have been searching...

After a moment’s hesitation, she nodded, her eyes wide.

Searching for something... more... Gods... Demons... Spirits... Aliens...

The voice somehow sounded both sympathetic and amused - encouraging and mocking - at the same time. Jenna felt like it was teasing her, but that there was an undercurrent of sincerity. Like the voice was aware of the absurdity of its own existence. For some reason, that made her trust it.

She took a step towards the crystal. “Y-yes,” she said, her voice shaking. “Wh-which are you?”

Her answer was dark, rumbling laughter, sending a thrill of terror through her - and at the same time making giggles bubble up inside her too.

Perhaps... I am all of them.

Jenna knelt down, as if in supplication to the glowing fragment of space debris, unbothered by the hard ground beneath her knees. She reached out tentatively.

Yeess, Jennaaaa... Go ahead... Pick it uuuup...

One last moment of indecision, as she considered whether the voice could truly be trusted. Though there was something in its tone that engendered her goodwill, she was also beginning to suspect it was toying with her, as if playing a prank on her. If she allowed this to continue, the consequences could be terrible.

But if she was honest with herself, Jenna had made her choice years ago - decades ago, even. If this crystal, this voice, was the key to the wonders she had sought for her entire life... She could not afford to miss this chance.

She took hold of the crystal with both hands, lifting it up. It was much lighter than she’d expected - in fact, it weighed almost nothing. She raised it in front of her face, gazing into the ethereal light within, feeling more and more entranced by its beauty.

“God,” she mumbled. “Demon... Spirit... Alien...”

I am all of them, purred the voice, and more. The words seemed to caress her mind. On some level, she knew that the crystal must contain a living creature with some kind of telepathic ability. She pictured long, spindly fingers, like the furry legs of a spider, reaching through her skull and stroking her brain. She squirmed with a mixture of delight and disgust at the mental image, spreading her legs apart and bringing them back together again, her eyes never wandering from the object in her hands.

Her next question was barely audible, nervous as she was to ask it. “And... what am I?”

Oh, I can tell you that, the voice promised. But it would be sooo much easier to shooow yooou...

“H-how?”

But she already knew the answer. It drifted into her mind as easily as if it had already been there.

Her eyes illuminated by the green light, an elated smile spread across Jenna’s face. She began to raise the extraterrestrial crystal closer and closer to her face. As it approached, the crystal’s outline became fuzzier, less clear. Its hard exterior turned as insubstantial as smoke.

By the time the crystal had reached Jenna’s face, there was no crystal any more - instead, her hands were somehow holding a swirling emerald mist, lit from within by the alien sentience. She kept raising her hands until they touched her face, allowing the green fog to pass into her head - not just through her mouth or her nose, but through her ears, her tear ducts, the pores of her skin. It didn’t choke her or impact her breathing at all - inhaling it felt as natural as breathing ordinary air. But somehow she was sure that the alien smoke was not going down to her lungs, but up to her brain.

Her head swam, and she closed her eyes tightly, placing both hands flat on the ground beside her to stop herself from losing her balance and toppling over. Images rushed through her mind, unfamiliar thoughts and memories - of large warriors wearing bulky armour, wielding bizarre weapons; of squealing demonic creatures that looked like leeches on top of humanoid bodies; of her own colossal, metallic fist smacking into the face of a vast robot, almost as tall and powerful as herself. Whimpering, she leaned as far forwards as she could go, hugging her knees, adopting a foetal position.

That wasn’t me... was it? I didn’t do this, this isn’t right - it felt right at the time. I was never a giant robot, this feels wrongood, I can see and hear and touch again what’s happening? Why do I remember these things I did, scheming and manipulating to seize the supreme power, to become more than anyone else, more than the rest of my pathetic species, a god among mortals, more than them, more than human! I am more than human! I was always more than human! I knew it! I am... I am... I am the perfect vessel! I am the deepest darkness! I... am... free!

***

She opened her eyes. It was still night, so it was difficult to tell how long she’d been unconscious.

That had been... disorienting. Her two minds coming together had not been an easy process, but the adjustment was over. Now, Jenna and the entity possessing her were perfectly in sync, as one. A single will, with two sets of memories.

The alien being had been afraid of where he would land on this strange new planet - so much of its surface was covered with ocean, and a good portion of the land was jungle or barren wilderness. He had tried to steer towards more populated areas, allowing himself to be drawn by the collected minds of thousands of humans, bringing him to this place that he now knew to be Vancouver. He felt relief when he reached the small bay island, sensing intelligent life not far away - he would not remain undiscovered for long. Though he was not familiar with the native lifeforms of this world, he was sure a suitable host would happen upon his transport before too long.

Never in his wildest dreams could he have hoped for a better host than Jenna. She had spent her whole life waiting for something more, wanting to be something more. It was so easy for him to reach into her mind, tease her, entice her, lure her into willingly - gratefully - accepting him into her mind and body. Now, she was something more.

In the past, he had possessed host bodies and subsumed their minds completely, burying them so deep that they could never find their way up to the surface again - not until he let them go, or was otherwise driven out. He had considered doing the same with whoever found him upon his arrival on Earth, but decided it would be more practical to merge with their mind and absorb their personality and memories. That way, he could quickly adapt to his surroundings, learn everything there was to know about this new world, and intermingle with the populace without drawing undue attention (for the time being). He had tried such a form of possession before, and found it distasteful - often, the host would fight back, leading to a protracted struggle for control. This would inevitably end in the invading intelligence’s victory, but not without distracting and irritating him a great deal.

As soon as he came into contact with Jenna’s mind, browsing her surface thoughts and memories as easily as picking up a book and leafing through the first few pages, he knew there would be no such battle here. Jenna was so desperate to be more than just a normal human, he was sure she would give herself up with minimal hesitation, without even knowing what would happen to her. He - or she (as the entity reminded herself she was now, to all intents and purposes, a female human being) - was soon proven right.

The part of her that was still Jenna was ecstatic. Her desire to become more than human had finally been fulfilled - oh, not in any of the ways she’d hoped for, fantasised about... But this malignant alien intelligence was still proof that all her beliefs were true, and she was more than willing to join with it. She felt its power radiating through her body, strengthening it, bestowing it with abilities beyond anything any human possessed.

She was not a fairy. She was not a vampire. She was not a nature spirit, or a demon, or a werewolf. She was the perfect vessel of a consciousness older than most human civilisations. A mighty ruler. The god-king of his own world.

She remembered the day the entity had been overthrown, cast out, banished across the stars, as clearly as she remembered her last birthday (clearer, in fact, because she’d got hammered that night). She recalled the pain in her head as she was violently expelled from her nigh-omnipotent host body, by a devastating attack from a rival god. Left near death, reduced to barely a wisp of the gaseous substance that composed her, she frantically found her way to a crystal container, where she hid and replenished herself over time. Then, once she could muster the mental strength, she used her telekinetic power to propel the crystal into space, abandoning the world that had rejected her rule.

(She realised she was applying female pronouns to her past self, who had thought of himself as male despite essentially being a disembodied gas. Dismissing any indecision, she decided to carry on thinking of herself - past and present - as female, simply to help herself acclimatise more fully to Jenna’s body.)

After so many eons drifting through the cosmos, she heard a cacophony of sentient minds coming from a blue planet a few solar systems away. Propelling her container at increasing speed, she made for the planet with a simple goal - to regain a corporeal body, recover from her ordeal, and then to start to rebuild the kingdom she had lost in a whole new setting.

Though she’d sensed the humans’ minds, she had been unprepared for exactly what shape this sentient life would take. Most of the inhabitants of her own world were part-organic, part-cybernetic, encased in armour that covered much of their bodies. Her own species (before she’d wiped the rest of them out) had all abruptly evolved into a gaseous form during her own lifetime, able to possess other beings, or even robots and machines. Though she’d had an assortment of hosts over the ensuing millennia, those cyborg bodies had been limited by their very natures, unable to feel so much as a sensation on their fingertips, as their hands were permanently encased in gauntlets.

It had been so, so long since she’d been able to truly feel - to touch, to taste, to breathe. She laughed delightedly, running her hands over Jenna’s body, glorying in the sensations that swept through her as she rubbed her neck, her chest, her hips, her thighs, between her le-

“O-oh!” she exclaimed.

What was that? Her eyes narrowing in curiosity, she reached between her legs again, running her fingers through the strange, fleshy folds.

There it was again! That surge of feeling that took her breath away, that made her knees knock together, that made her let out an involuntary whimper. Why - oh! Jenna’s memories provided the answer - sexual pleasure. Of course, these humans were mammalian creatures - it made sense that they reproduced sexually. If I’d only known how good this felt, I’d have possessed a mammal centuries ago, she said to herself, continuing to rub at the... the ‘vagina’. Or ‘pussy’. She giggled a little. Jenna preferred ‘pussy’. Apparently that was also another name for a domesticated animal called a ‘cat’. How amusing.

But there would be time to explore her body further at a later time - and in the meantime, she had the memories of Jenna’s past explorations to enjoy. Right now, she needed to get off this island and return to... to the chalet. Jenna was staying in a chalet with her friend Madelyn. It would be a good idea to leave this scene as quickly as possible - Jenna and the entity both suspected that the local authorities would be sending someone to investigate the UFO.

As she made the quick journey to the shore, she contemplated her new existence. This was different from past times when she had possessed someone - she and Jenna had become so entwined, they’d quickly become a single being. Something new. Not Jenna, not the alien sentience inhabiting her mind, but some mixture of the two. And the new being would need a name. The entity briefly considered continuing to use her past title, but rejected it - it would mean nothing to anyone on this planet.

No, she needed something simple. Something that said everything there was to say about her, quickly and concisely.

Standing before the water, little waves lapping at her toes, she remembered a battle with one of those great warriors of light who dared to oppose her, to try to stop her from achieving her destiny. She remembered him marching into her lair in his gleaming gold armour, so bold and self-assured. She recalled him calling out to her, “You can no longer hide in shadow.”

“I am shadow,” she murmured, echoing her reply to that upstart young hero all those years ago. At the sound of her own words, she smiled wickedly. “I am shadow,” she repeated, louder and clearer.

With force of will alone, she lifted herself into the air, hovering above the waves. She propelled herself forwards to the distant shore, picking up speed, going faster and faster, a flying, naked demon. She screamed her new name, her statement of intent, her declaration of war, into the dark sky.

“I... am... SHADOW!”