A/N: Hey guys!
I just wanted to say that yes, I am still working on "A Soldier's Heart", the next chapter is being written as you read this.
But I also like doing one-shots, and I thought that this would be a great one to write just so I can get back into the groove of writing.
Anyways, this story is based off of the tale of 'Pandora's Box'. If you haven't read it, READ IT NOW! Then this will be easier to understand!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story. Those things belong to SEGA.
If you were to go back in Blaze's life, let's say, ten years ago, then you would see a bubbly little cat with so many dreams and hopes, and no doubts about anything.
She was always smiling, twirling around, making people smile wherever she went.
That's just what she did. And she felt at home. Loved. Important.
It was this way for a long time, and she never thought that anything could happen to her.
But that's a mistake we all make.
The corner.
The corner of her room.
That's where she feels safe now.
Without a corner to curl up in, the cat wouldn't have any safe place to go to.
Why?
Because of the nightmares.
All of those painful thoughts and things that unleashed into the world haunted her day and night.
And without that corner, she would have no place to hide from them.
How did she do this?
Why did she do this?
If Blaze just looked back into her past, she would find out why.
"Jump! God damn it, JUMP, SILVER!"
The princess was yelling all of these things to her silver friend who was having trouble defeating the machines that Dr. Eggman had sent out as another threat to the universe.
"I know, I know, I'm TRYING!" he shouted back at her.
Blaze had already defeated the foes on the left side as Silver was still struggling.
The cat sighed and quickly threw a fireball at the remaining robots, and they were obliterated.
"WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR? I TOTALLY HAD THEM!" the hedgehog screamed at her.
She rolled her eyes and turned the other way.
"Yeah, I'm sure you did, but we have to be moving on now."
The other heavily sighed and looked at the ground when he noticed something.
"Hey, Blaze! I think I found something!"
The purple cat turned back around to find her friend holding a small chest with a tiny key attached.
"The robots must have dropped it," she remarked as she took the chest from his hands.
She turned the chest around and found a warning scratched in at the bottom;
'DO NOT OPEN WHATSOEVER'
She stuffed the chest in her pocket and looked up at Silver.
"I'll look at this later, but right now we have to go," she told him.
The hedgehog nodded, and with that, the two ran off to find more robots needing destroying.
The cat lightly chuckled as she remembered that event.
She really did miss her friend.
She looked down at the chest at her feet.
How could she have been so foolish?
She wiped her eyes and then curled up again.
He was gone now, and it was because of her.
And now she could never forgive herself for that.
The pair decided that it would be best to reside at the castle that night so that they could get some much needed rest after the long day.
The princess had lain herself across her bed as soon as she had the chance. She was exhausted.
She suddenly remembered the chest that was in her pocket and took it out.
She turned it around several times in her hands before stopping on the warning once again.
She scoffed.
Considering it fell from one of Eggman's robots, it probably wasn't something terrible.
Maybe terrible for the doctor, but not for her.
Right?
The cat took the key from the chain it was attached to and studied it for a minute.
What could possibly be inside this box that could scare the doctor so much?
She decided to find out after a quick rest. She set the chest and key aside so that she could open it in the morning.
The princess sobbed at the memory.
She couldn't believe how terrible of a decision that was.
She didn't want to go on any farther, already knowing what happened next, but she knew that if she didn't, she could never get over it.
Not that she ever would, but at least it was a start.
She breathed heavily and went through her mind again.
She woke up late at night, waking up with only the moon's light to flood in her room.
The cat sat up and looked at her surroundings, the chest being the first thing to catch her eye.
She quickly grabbed it and and fumbled with the key.
Should she open it?
Before she could change her mind, she shoved the key into the lock and turned, hearing the lock click to indicate that she could open it.
The princess took the key out of the lock and slowly creaked open the chest.
At first, there was nothing.
"Well, this is bull-"
Before she could finish her statement, blackness poured out of the chest and into her room. She gasped as she tried to grab the darkness and put it back into the chest, but her efforts were futile.
The blackness went out of her room to anywhere that it could go. It poured out the windows and out through the hallways, and eventually, it spread throughout all of Mobius.
Not knowing what the blackness was capable of, she ran out of her room to get Silver.
"SILVER?" she shouted as she pounded on his door. When she got no reply after several attempts, she kicked down the door to find the blackness surrounding her friend.
"HEY! GET OFF OF HIM!" she yelled at the blackness.
The cat swatted at it as an attempt to make it go away, but it didn't.
"I SAID TO GET OFF OF HIM!" she shouted again.
The blackness eventually left the hedgehog, and as soon as it did, she quickly grabbed his shoulders and tried to stand him up.
"Silver! Are you okay?"
No answer. She tried to stand him up again, but he fell over.
"Silver! I said, are you okay?"
Once again, no reply.
She slapped him in the face to get him up, but still no response.
"...Silver?"
She sat him up straight and looked at him again.
She then opened up his eyelids to find blackness.
She gasped as tears started dripping down her face.
"Silver..."
Blaze sobbed for what seemed like forever. Her best friend was dead.
The cat then realized that this could be happening everywhere. She wiped away her tears and ran down the hall. She searched every room and found the same result every time.
Death.
At the end of her search, she collapsed to the floor, exasperated. Depressed.
Everything that just happened flooded her mind once again, and she sobbed.
Sobbed without any signs of stopping.
She then got up and resided to the safest place she knew.
The corner of her room.
The girl cried even more as she remembered.
Remembered her suffering.
Her pain.
Her dead friend.
She glanced down at the chest again and suddenly got angry.
How could that chest do this to her?
How could it take away everything she ever loved?
She swiftly picked up the chest and threw it at the wall, breaking the hinge so that it flew into two pieces.
She was about to start sobbing again when something caught her eye.
A tiny golden creature came out of the chest. It was no bigger than a fly, but it seemed to light up the whole room.
Blaze slowly got closer to it.
"Hello!" a tiny voice said to her.
"H...Hello?"
"Thanks for setting me free, miss!" it thanked her.
"Um.. you're...welcome?" she said, confused.
"I'm sorry about everything else that was set free as well. They cause mayhem wherever they go!" the creature told her.
Blaze started to tear up again at the mention of the blackness that took everything from her.
"Oh, don't cry!" it said. "I will help you!"
The golden creature left the room and went to Silver's room.
"H-hey! Don't touch-"
She was cut off as she saw the creature touch Silver, and she saw his chest slowly move up and down.
"S-Silver?"
His eyes fluttered open as he rubbed his head.
"W-what happened?" the hedgehog asked her.
A smile spread across her face as she saw her friend revived.
"SILVER!" she exclaimed as she tackled him with a hug.
The cat looked up again to see the creature looking at her.
"W-what's your name?" she inquired of it, grinning.
The creature smiled back and went to the doorway.
"Hope."
