-Blaze and Silver are copyright to Sega/Sonic Team. I do not own them or any related characters, but I do own this story.

Together, We Fight

by Furrtwo

Part I

"Ha! Gotcha now!"

The lilac cat pounced on the argent hedgehog with the expertise of an experienced hunter, yet the playfulness of a kitten.

"Ah! Okay, okay! You got me!" The hedgehog gently tried to push away the kitten, but she cuddled closer to him, purring happily. The two youngsters, with all the innocence of childhood, were unaware of the battles being fought at the moment, and even for years, stretching back to before the two were brought into being. All their relatives and neighbors were fighting against the evil flames of disaster ravaging their land... and losing.

However, because the pair were too young to fight or even fully understand the plight of their world, their elders had thought it best to shield them from the knowledge of this fighting, and so the cat and hedgehog knew only of the days they spent exclusively with each other. Romping and playing together, Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat could think of no better feeling of bliss and peacefulness, in a world so tumultuous.

Silver struggled against the snuggling clutches of the young cat to no avail. Their games of Hide n' Seek frequently ended this way, Blaze concealed in a patch of tall, withered grass, or possibly some other hiding place, until she could contain the excitement of staying still no longer and all predatory instincts kicked in as she pounced upon the hedgehog. He thought quickly, thinking of something to say in order to get her to release him from their perpetual game of cat and mouse... er, hedgehog. "Hey, Blaze!" he said, hoping to divert her always active attention. "Why don't we go exploring?"

Blaze hesitated contemplatively. On one hand, it was ever so much fun to tease Silver, because he was so much fun to tease. On the other, her innate feline curiosity had always led her to explore every inch she could, and it had been a while since their last expedition...

Her inquisitiveness got the better of her, and she reluctantly liberated the hedgehog. "Alright, we can go explore. But I get to lead."

Silver had no qualms over this; it was she who went first most of the time, and he preferred to let her travel ahead while he scoped out behind. Their expeditions had led them all throughout the scorched barren of nothing that provided their more-or-less home. In this way, they learned as much as they could about their surroundings, by observing how all vegetation was burned away, how the scorched ground yielded no water except in small, muddy springs coming directly from the earth. Through this, they understood what their protective elders had not told them, that their land was threatened of being entirely burned away. How and why, they didn't know, nor did they completely grasp the severity of their predicament – yet they knew enough, enough to keep them alive.

"Beyond the woods," Blaze decided. "We've gone through the meadow, and the valley, and explored every inch of the woods, so we'll see what's beyond it."

Silver shifted on his feet, looking slightly nervous. "Are you sure? Our families told us never to go past there."

"Yeah, and they haven't told us where they go every day. Don't you ever wonder where they have to go? And they always head off in that direction. There has to be something over there, and we have to see what it is!"

The hedgehog was silent, mulling it over. It was true; the adults and teenagers in their small village left mysteriously every morning, pausing long enough to order the two children to stay within the woods border, then came back late in the evening, often sustaining severe burns and cuts. He had tentatively asked one day, long ago, what had happened, and as an answer received that look he knew only too well – the look saying he was to state no more regarding the subject, as he would get no answers whatsoever.

He sighed. "I am curious. I wonder why they've never told us where they're going. I suppose... it couldn't hurt to go see."

Of course it could hurt. A secret is kept secret for good reason – and the result of knowing it could be disastrous. Silver and Blaze, who were reasonably more intelligent than other children of their age, knew this quite well, and yet they still went ahead with it, because of the simple reason of curiosity, the same drive that keeps humans to progress and move forward. They lived a very secluded life, hidden away in the small village they called their home, and they wanted to know why. They wanted to know why they were the youngest of all the individuals in their colony, why there were no other children, only adults and older teenagers. They wanted to know why the whole world seemed to be burning away, and why they could do nothing to help it. They wanted to know what was hurting their family and leaving them with such severe burns and cuts. Most of all, they wanted to know where everyone in their lives left to every day, and with Blaze's small suggestion of how they could figure out this mystery, their omnipresent curiosity was ignited.

The duo of cat and hedgehog took one last look at the small meadow that had been their home for so long. They gazed at the makeshift tents fashioned of dead tree bark and shrunken grasses that did little more than offer something to sleep under and shelter from the acidic rain that fell. The emaciated plants that offered little nourishment, enough food to keep them alive and nothing more. The pit of ashes and dried-out branches that the elders burned every night in an ancient Mobian ritual of giving thanks for the small blessings. All this they saw and took in, and there was an unspoken agreement between them, that this would be their last look at their only home.

Without another word, the lavender cat turned and raced into the forest; Silver hesitated for the shortest of moments before darting after her.

The trees of the forest bore no leaves, no flowers, no fruits; they seemed to exist simply to be the flesh of the forest and to provide the border of their community. Their stunted, scorched look gave the appearance of trees trying to grow as much as possible in a small period of time under wretched conditions. Silver and Blaze wove in and out of the trees. Their pace quickened into a friendly competition, Blaze allowing Silver to catch up to her, one foot, two feet away before flitting off in a new burst of speed.

They soon tired of their game, and fell into step with each other, the scattered tufts of dry grass crunching under their footsteps. A thick silence seemed to settle over the entire world, and it seemed that the peace was another small blessing at the moment – a short, fleeting peace before their entire world was about to become torn to pieces.

A monstrous, booming roar echoed throughout the forest, breaking the silence and seeming to resound incessantly through their delicate ears. Both youngsters were startled into bolting, running as fast and hard as they could, astonished perplexity driving them into trying to get as far as possible from their present location.

They burst from the opposite border of the forest, and Blaze had a fraction of a second to take in the steep drop that began at the very edge of the forest. Her catlike reflexes responded, and she had just enough to time to freeze and throw out her arm to catch Silver before he could tumble off the edge of the cliff and into certain death.

Before he could thank her for saving his life, he felt her grip on his arm tighten and saw her eyes widen as she stared with horror into the chasm below them.

His heart pounding in his chest, he gazed over the edge of the fifty-foot drop into a scene of bloody angst and terror.

Their shocked minds could barely register the sight of the rest of the villagers from their colony, fighting frantically yet valiantly against... against...

"Look, Silver!" Blaze whispered, moving closer to him in fear.

Gargantuan... creatures hissed and bellowed, thrashing ten-foot long tails and baring teeth as long as the hedgehog's arm. The most frightening aspect of them, however, was not their enormity nor their ferocity, but the fact that their skeletons seemed to be hewn from solid rock, covered with muscles of thick magma, bursts of flame erupting in thick manes.

"Heliopaths," Blaze muttered in horror. Silver knew at once she was correct in mentioning the devil-beings often called the bane of Mobian mythology. Her golden eyes were wider and more fearful than Silver had ever seen them, and yet she was transfixed, watching the gory turmoil with a morbid awe.

Fear wracked Silver's mind; he wanted to run, to escape this horrible agony, but he was rooted to the spot, unable to move, too scared to do anything but watch the people he had grown up with slaughtered by these flaming monsters.

Faint traces of yelling drifted up from the fiery chasm - yells of fear and pain. Silver strained to catch the words being said.

"...too many of them..."

"More than there's ever been-"

"-no chance-"

Silver wondered how many of the people had already been killed, and with a terrifying, wracking jolt he remembered his own family, and Blaze's too. Trepidation growing, he scanned the bloodshed below, the dread that they might already be killed growing inside him-

"There!" he shouted, so relieved to have spotted them alive and breathing he couldn't retain it inside. Then, a second dose of unease growing, he took a closer look, and almost choked on the thick, smoky air.

His mother was fruitlessly trying to carry his injured father away from the battle, both of them bleeding heavily, though it appeared that his father's legs were broken and unable to support any weight. Silver's heart seemed to freeze in his chest as an immense, burning Chimera halted and turned to rest its glowing yellow eyes on his parents. Its thick, molten legs moved with an easy determination towards his poor mother and father. As their only son watched on, they were devoured alive in a burning carnage, the lion head's fangs killing them instantly.

"No! NO!" Silver screamed, pulling away from Blaze. "NO! Mother! Father!"

He struggled toward the edge of the cliff, and Blaze had to use all her strength in order to restrain him from jumping off of it in a futile attempt to save his parents.

"It's too late!" she yelled. "You can't save them! It's too late!"

The hedgehog collapsed to the ground and broke into lachrymose sobs, his entire body shaking with sorrow. Blaze knelt beside him and wrapped her arms around him, offering the small joy of knowing that even when all seemed hopeless, she was still there for him.

Blaze looked off into the massacre taking place in the ravine, and saw everyone, everyone who had lived with her in one way or another, slaughtered by these horrible flaming creatures.

She felt tears rise in her eyes at the sight of the burned carcasses of her family – her parents and older brother, slain ruthlessly and carelessly.

Turing away from the horrible scene, she closed her eyes, trying to get the vision of bloodshed out of her mind but only succeeding in making it more graphic. Tears burned against her closed eyelids, a stinging that reminded her, over and over, that all was over for them, everyone was destroyed, and they had no chance whatsoever.

The cat and hedgehog clung to each other, crying not only for their lost family members, but for everything that was now lost - the colony that had cared for them, the battles fought for them, the hope that they might someday win.

Everything was clear now - these creatures, these heliopaths, were killing their world, they were the cause for all the burned and desolate land. Somehow they had emerged, and the villagers had fought them, but their fights were in vain, as now they had been overpowered and the fight was lost. Even if by a slim chance someone survived, there was no possible way he'd be able to continue fighting by himself.

Silver squeezed Blaze tighter, as if frightened that she might leave him as well, and she held him back, the simple reassurance of being in each other's company mottling the shock somewhat. The roar of flames echoed in their ears from the still-burning bloodbath below, along with the thick, sonorous growling of something large quite nearby.

The two slowly looked up into the piercing yellow eyes of a snarling feline/canine heliopath. Its quadruped looks, with small, pointed ears, large stone claws, and viciously sharp teeth could belong to either a powerful wolf or lithe leopard; though at the moment Silver and Blaze could only wonder if it would be the teeth or claws that would finish them... assuming they got past the fact it was encased in magma.

The heliopath's molten nostrils sniffed the air tentatively, and Silver wondered for a moment if it could see at all out of those yellow eyes, or if it relied on its sense of smell and hearing - and if that could possibly save their lives.

After several tense, anxious seconds passed by, during which Silver and Blaze were too terrified to even inhale, Silver decided that the heliopath's sight was less than perfect, as it's yellow eyes never wavered from where they were standing and yet it still seemed puzzled whether they were there or not. From this judgement he was able to deduce that if they stayed perfectly still and silent, it might not notice them. Nevertheless, this deduction didn't help that they might sit here forever, or at least until the heliopath found out they were in front of it.

Silver desperately tried to think of some way to distract the heliopath, some sound to divert its attention, but his thoughts kept straying back to his mother and father, mauled and now killed, while he could do nothing to save them...The thought gave him a surge of determination. This creature, it was one of the creatures that killed his parents – he couldn't let it kill him too; he had to keep living, keep fighting in their name-

At first he thought it was the fact that his mind was racing faster than it ever had, but then he realized, his mind was racing, a sickening pain in his head as his mind seemed to be struggling with itself, craning, stretching, collecting all of its power to one communal point...

To his immense shock and surprise a turquoise insignia began to glow on the back of his hands, brightening and dimming, fluctuating with light. He began to feel slightly dizzy with the wave of thoughts rushing through his head. It was much more power than had ever been used by thought.

Suddenly he felt as if the entire world was frozen around him; the power created in his mind was enough to halt everything around him, to paralyze the entire world. So much energy was collected in his mind, he could stand it no longer...

"Aagghh!" he yelled in agony. He threw his hands forward and the collective energy of thought released in a massive wave from his palms.

The heliopath was thrown backwards by some invisible force. Trees, rocks, bushes, anything and everything was blown back, everything except for the lavender cat beside him. The hedgehog, discovered, to his immense shock, that he was the one causing all this, that he could control this! It was mind-blowing, too much to comprehend!

He collapsed to his knees, thoroughly exhausted and completely drained from the blast of thought energy. He felt his consciousness ebbing, the world growing blurry before his eyes...

All he could feel was a pair of arms grabbing him and hauling him away.

Blaze's heart was beating frantically in her chest as she half carried, half dragged Silver. She had no idea where she was going; all she was trying to was to get him away, away from where their family and village had been murdered, away from where their hopes had been crushed.

And, most importantly, away from the murderous heliopath who was bent on devouring them alive and now undoubtedly angered more than it was before.

She towed Silver as far as she physically could, fear driving her far past what she could normally accomplish. She prayed that he was only unconscious and would awaken soon. Finally, she could bear pulling him along no longer. As soon as she set him down in large clearing located in an unknown part of the forest, she collapsed as well, weary and exhausted. She lay there, panting in fear and fatigue. She had no idea what had just occurred near that ravine - what could Silver have possibly done to make everything there just get blown back like that, as if size or weight didn't matter? How could he possibly be able to make something like that happen?

Her feline curiosity was growing. She had to find out.

Using all of her energy, she moved over to Silver and gently shook him.

"Silver... Silver, please wake up..."

The hedgehog twitched slightly and tried to open his eyes.

"B-Blaze...?"

"Silver! Oh, Silver, please get up! I managed to carry you away from th-that big ravine where the heliopath was. I think you might have stunned it somehow but I bet it's still going to be after us. You have to get up! We can't just stay here or it'll come find us!"

Silver tried to sit up, and upon discovering he hadn't yet recovered enough strength to, Blaze gently tugged on his hands and pulled him into a sitting position.

"I-I don't think I can go anywhere yet," the hedgehog admitted sheepishly. "I'm not strong enough. That big wave of power just sort of drained all my energy away."

"How did you do that, anyway?" As concerned as she was for her friend's well-being, she still wanted to know how on Mobius he did that big powerful blast-of-energy thing.

"I'm not exactly sure. I just felt all this energy rushing through my mind, and it was so much, more than I ever thought was possible... Well, it was too much, and I just felt like I had to... get it out. And then all this massive energy was just released. I felt like I could... more or less, control it."

"Control it?" The kitten's gold eyes sparkled with excitement.

"I think... It's really hard to describe... I mean, I didn't feel like I could physically control it, you know, like restrain it. It felt more like I could mentally control it, just with my thoughts. It all felt like it came from in here." Silver pointed to his head for emphasis.

"Silver... that is SO COOL!"

The hedgehog had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing aloud at Blaze's enthusiasm. All the weariness shown moments before was completely gone as she bounded to her feet and leapt about. Her keenness about this recent event was absolutely exhilarating.

Pausing for a moment in her excitement, she said, "Silver! I just realized something! You know what this reminds me of?"

Silver looked at her curiously. "What?"

"Remember all the stories our clan used to tell during the rituals? I just remembered that the elders oftentimes mentioned a certain prophecy. A prophecy that foretold someday our world would be saved by one, the Chosen One, who could crush mountains and move oceans with only the power of his mind!"

The hedgehog remembered the clan rituals of storytelling well. On certain nights, when the moon wasn't visible in the sky and an eerie silence seemed to spread over the world, the adults in the clan would hold special rituals to honor the Mobian deities. They would stack pieces of dried wood and grass into a towering bonfire, which the clan leader would ignite. The twenty-foot pillar of flame was truly awe-inspiring and could be seen from miles in any direction. And there, in the harsh glare of the flames, the clan would honor the most ancient of all Mobian traditions – story-telling. The concept of verbally transmitting ideas, tales, and legends is the core of Mobian life. The children are introduced to this tradition as soon as they're old enough to grasp it, and spend their growing years perfecting it.

The tales told by the clan differed night by night. Sometimes the elders would tell the history of the planet Mobius – how the goddesses came together and created the earth and sky, which gave birth to the planet's original inhabitants. They explained how these "inhabitants" lived and prospered for hundreds of thousands of years in a bountiful environment – the "Golden Age" of Mobius. Then, something happened – an apocalyptic event that shook apart Mobius as we know it.

The elders never went into specific details about this event, or what happened in its particularity. But they did say that someday, as the prophecies told, the world of Mobius would, in fact, be revived. It would be revived by, as Blaze had so rightly said, by the one with a mind as strong as the forces of nature - the "Chosen One"; they had come to call it.

"So?" Silver asked.

Blaze gave a small, put-out growl. "So? What if you're the Chosen One?"

The wave of realization passed over the hedgehog, followed by a feeling of doubt and increased anxiety.

"N-no," he stuttered. "I mean, I can't be-"

Silver broke off and pricked his ears as a familiar sound reverberated throughout the clearing. A low rumbling that vibrated through the hedgehog's ears - a sound he recognized at once.

"Move!" Silver yelled, and in a moment he jumped to his feet, swept the stunned purple cat into his arms, and leapt out of the way, and not a moment too soon as a familiar Creature of Fire landed in the clearing, and slowly turned his flaming head toward the duo.

For a moment the two were paralyzed with fear; the heliopath seemed a thousand times larger in the confines of the clearing. The trees bordering the clearing were gradually disintegrating from the intense heat emanating from the monster.

The heliopath snarled, and the two could see its blood spattered, stone fangs. Silver held Blaze even more closely; he would try to protect her as best he could. Even if he died like his poor mother and father, he would never let it get to Blaze!

Silver noticed the molten muscles in the heliopath's rear legs tensing as it slowly lowered the front half of its body. With a jolt of fear, Silver recognized the position as one Blaze often took before pouncing on him.

"Blaze?" Silver whispered. She turned to look up at him with golden irises full of fear, and he continued, "The heliopath's about to try to leap onto us and kill us. I know what I have to do - when it pounces, I'm going to let go of you - and I want you to get as far away from here as you can! I'll try to hold it off, but you need to - listen to me, Blaze - you need to get as far as you possibly can!"

"I'm not going to abandon you with this creature!" said Blaze. "There's no way you could ever hold your own against it!"

"Maybe I can't," said Silver with a small smile, "but the Chosen One can."

Silver stepped back and gently placed Blaze onto her feet. "Go!" he said, turning an ear back to the monster, who began to growl slightly.

"I'm not leaving you!" the cat answered fiercely. "I'll help you in whatever way I can!"

Silver had no time to answer, as a fierce, ear-shattering roar filled the clearing. The heliopath pounced, streaking through the air as fast as a comet. Silver desperately held his hands in front of him, concentrate, concentrate... His mind raced as he tried to achieve the same feeling of power, to create the same, massive energy wave as before... to no effect whatsoever.

Time seemed to slow down as Silver realized with horror he was simply too frightened to concentrate hard enough to focus his thoughts.

He closed his eyes and turned away; there was no use, as much as he had tried, he just couldn't stop the heliopath. He was going to die, and Blaze as well...

Blaze...

Several tense seconds passed, and Silver realized he hadn't died yet.

Or is this what death feels like? he thought.

He wondered if he should open his eyes. But what if the heliopath actually hadn't struck yet? Or... wh-what if it had attacked Blaze, and was at this very moment-?

The hedgehog slowly opened his eyes, and blinked, awestruck.

A thick wall of flame burned in front of him - and around him - and behind him. A circle of fire encompassed him from all directions. He could faintly see the silhouette of a monstrous, quadruped form hissing beyond the flames' perimeters.

Standing next to him, a pale-faced lavender kitten held out her delicate, softly glowing hands. Minuscule embers danced around her fingertips.

"Blaze- how are you-"

She glanced at him, and hesitantly withdrew her hands. The ring of fire died down at once, so quickly Silver felt as if it had just sucked into the ground.

The heliopath lunged forward, hissing like a snake. Silver gave a small gasp, but Blaze calmly held out her hand. To Silver's utmost astonishment, a crimson pillar of fire erupted from her palm and collided into the heliopath, engulfing the creature with a cocoon of flame.

She closed her eyes, deep in concentration. Her ears flattened against her head, and Silver noticed her tensing muscles and bared teeth. The cat's viciously determined expression was a shock to Silver, who had never seen it on her before.

Just as suddenly as she had held it out, she took back her palm, and once more the flames dissipated... and within them, the heliopath was... gone. Simply... gone.

"That's what you get, heliopath," Blaze said harshly. Silver was taken aback by her composure, relentless and unfeeling, and generally... unlike Blaze. Little did the hedgehog know that as the years would go by, he would see more and more of this side of Blaze.

Blaze stepped back from the scarred patch of earth and flicked her tail. Her expression was unfathomable as she stared at the spot where the heliopath had disappeared. Was that... remorse? Or simply bitter contempt?

The cat twisted her wrist and conjured a small ball of fire in her hand. She willed the flame to elongate into a twisting serpent of flame running lambently up her arm, the fire skimming her very skin but apparently causing her no discomfort.

"How do you do that?" Silver asked.

She looked up at him, and Silver felt a chill pass over him. He had a feeling that somehow, finding out about these abilities had ignited more than a flame within her.

"I concentrate. I will the fire to obey me, to come whenever I might need it. I respect the flames, and they respect me."

"Does it... hurt?"

"No. At the most it just feels slightly warm against me. I can tell the fire not to harm me."

She almost sounded like she was... anthropomorphizing fire.

"I can't believe it." Silver watched the trail of fire gently brush against the kitten's face before gracefully leaping off her shoulder and extinguishing in a puff of smoke. "How could we have had these powers within us for so long without knowing?"

"Maybe it's just something else the elders... forgot to tell us," Blaze said bitterly, kicking at a clump of ash on the ground.

"Blaze, don't be like that. You know the elders only had our best interests-"

"Our 'best interests'?" The cat turned to face the hedgehog, who stepped back, frightened at her ferocity. "So keeping us sheltered from this for our whole lives was keeping our best interests in mind?"

"Well it kept us alive this far-"

"It almost got us killed! If they had told us about the heliopaths and our powers before, we could have been ready! We could have helped defend the tribe! We could..." Blaze choked on her words as tears rose to her eyes. "We could have kept Mother and Father from dying!"

Silver suddenly felt terrible. He hadn't cared enough to remember, even for a second, that Blaze's family had perished as well.

"It's their fault they died!" Blaze spat. "If they had let us stand by them, if they had let us fight with them! No one told us anything!"

The hedgehog realized he now had tears, as well. He had a feeling that, as much as Blaze could say it was the tribe's fault, she'd always blame herself for the death of her family. He stepped closer to Blaze and, hesitating for a second, gently put his arm around her. Blaze flinched and made a motion to move away, but then... accepted Silver's reassuring display.

"...You know what this means, right?" Blaze said in a small voice.

"That now we can roast our Mrakarah Berries by ourselves?" Silver said, cracking a grin.

Blaze couldn't help but smile. "Well, yes, that."

"I know," said Silver. "You have to fight the heliopaths, don't you?"

The cat nodded. "Yes. We do."

Silver was taken aback. "We? But, Blaze- I'm no good! You're the one with the fancy fire powers! I'm just... me."

"No, you're not," Blaze said quietly. "You're the Chosen One. And a fine one, I'm sure, once you're trained a bit. You need to learn to concentrate. To sense your surroundings without seeing them. To attain a higher level of thinking and acting."

"I-I'm not sure I can do that," Silver admitted.

"I'll help you." The sincerity in her eyes was truly astounding.

"But, we're just two kids. How are we going to ever try to defeat these monsters?"

"Maybe alone you couldn't. I know that I wouldn't be able to. But together? We could do anything."

It was a touching little speech. Silver knew how serious she was. And he couldn't help but feel excited. He wanted to hurt the heliopaths for hurting him. He wanted to fight.

"Then we will, Blaze. Together, we fight."