--Blaze and Silver are copyrighted to Sega/Sonic Team. I do not own them or any related characters.
Mindless
by Furrtwo
The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.
The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.
-Francis William Bourdillon
This blood, on my claws. No idea how it got there, no idea whose it is.
Blank memories, all without an origin. Can't believe I can't remember, can't believe I don't know who I am, what I am, where I am....
Silver.... A name, I think?
More and more, names without an origin.
Can't....
A bright flash, all memories gone, all being gone – like death, perhaps, but not quite.
Since obviously, I'm still alive.
Sight-
No – Don't go! You can't! You have to stay with me!
We agreed to save the world – At any cost!
I open my eyes – nightmares, flooding back. Terror, once more. Can't escape the endless fear.
Deep breath. Remember to breathe.
"Are you okay?"
Voices, sounds? No, can't be-
"Hey, are you – are you alright?" Concern.
A flash of fire....
Suddenly I'm sitting, lying, on the cold, hard ground. Awakened, by... nightmares, or was it something else?
Nightmares, must be. Of what... of what life is now. More to the point, of what life isn't. All living creatures, twisted, destroyed. No free will, no minds, no conscience.
I fight them, best I can, but it's a losing cause. The losing cause, the losing cause of the lost blood on my claws, the evil, ripping, tearing-
I'm getting ahead of myself. My name is Blaze. Blaze... the Cat.
But am I still a cat? I fight, kill, destroy, and still, nothing happens, nothing brings forth, nothing, nothing, nothing-
A sound, echoing through the blackness, jerks me out of my trance. A twig breaking. Someone, something out there, possibly a Mindless… And I'm here, defenseless....
After a tense second, I sigh with relief, knowing if it's a Mindless, I'd be dead by now.
I get up, wondering if I'll survive one more day, if this day will be my last.
Reality, so similar to my nightmares. Shockingly similar, sleeping now becoming a twisted, yet horribly similar version of reality. The Mindless, their deep, penetrating eyes....
The Mindless. They've enslaved all life with their deathly gaze. What you see in their eyes, so completely evil, you become one of them. A Mindless pawn, sole purpose to kill.
The eyes that haunt you in the worst of your worst nightmares, eyes you can only wonder about. Eerie, mystifying... but oh so horrible....
I'm the only one left, so many dead, my family, my friends....
And the ones not dead, enslaved, a fate worse, even, than death.
"Over there...."
The rasping, hissing voice of the Mindless that makes your fur stand on end, your blood chill.
I half run, half stumble away, knowing it's no use, they've found me-
You've gotten out of worse situations....
My own thoughts jumbled, a blur, as I run....
Panic. Fear. Fear! No idea, the fear overcoming me. My pyrokinesis, no match, my claws, can't think, can't think, death at my heels, no chance for survival-
The shadow, out of the darkness. I trip, fall, and feel gloved hands twist my arms around my back, my head back, into impossible positions. I screw my eyes closed, can't risk looking into those eyes of the Mindless, though it isn't much use at all to try, they have punishments, tortures, ways to make you do what they want-
"It won't be long," the voice hisses, "soon you will be ours, pretty one...."
The oddly, strangely familiar voice – know it, but where, who-
"I would rather die the most horrible death, be beaten and starved, my carcass thrown to the vultures than become one of you!" I spit, knowing my incessant, meager insults mean nothing but might buy some time, as I try to remember-
The Mindless chuckles, an empty rasping sound. "Feisty one, you are too valuable to us, you will never be simply killed.... We will take you, like we did all else, you will be enslaved, enslaved, forever, for eternity...."
"Never... never...." No use. I will be enslaved, be a Mindless, an evil, pitiless-
I struggle, but what's the use? My life, over, no choice, never to fight, never to be free, doomed, doomed to never care, never think, never love…
"Release me!" I yell, naturally ignored. I try my flames, nothing happens, can't concentrate, can't be taken, can't-
To be doomed, worse than death! Worse than death! The worst fate imaginable, no, can't be imagined, too dreadful, to evil to comprehend! My life, not my own! A Living Nightmare, my own mind my life's pall....
"Why even try to struggle? You are trapped, trapped, trapped!" the Mindless yells in ecstasy, too evil to care for me, too evil-
And yet, behind the voice – A desperate cry, the poor person trapped in his own head-
I open my eyes a fraction, squint down at the hands holding me so roughly – hands, familiar hands even with gloves on, an old memory ignited-
Hands with emblazoned with a turquoise insignia-
The memory, crashing upon me like a wave.
How did the world become like this? Who caused this? Could I have prevented it?
"Silver the Hedgehog...."
I whisper the words, practically silent, escaping my lips against my will, and yet the Mindless still hears. He jerks his head down to stare at me, and I shut my eyes once again.
"Yes...." the Mindless, the Mindless that is Silver says, in a hoarse whisper, "That was my past body's name – Silver the Hedgehog. A naïve, simple hedgehog – all too easy to possess.... "
"You're wrong," I whisper, tears burning, trying to escape my closed eyelids. "You're wrong. Silver was a brave warrior."
No idea where the sudden floods of memory are coming from. How I can even remember Silver's name, much less everything about him, and yet, even still, suddenly I just know.
I can feel the Mindless's gaze on my face, and I keep my eyes screwed close, knowing any action of opening them would be my last.
"But I forgot," the Mindless says, very, very quietly. "You... you were that girl, weren't you? The cat... the cat he was with, the cat that gave her life in a futile attempt to save the world – to save the fool of a hedgehog that was her best friend."
"Silver is not a fool!" The tears leak through the tiny gap between my two eyelids and fall, silently.
"You loved him, didn't you?" the Mindless sneers. "Your foolish love – nothing at all attained from it. The world in an even worse state of turmoil, your beloved Silver enslaved, and soon you will follow suit."
I open my eyes to the tiniest fraction possible. Simply to see, to know it's really, actually Silver the Hedgehog speaking these words, actually him, mutated by his own mind. Argent fur pierces my vision, like the steely blade of a knife…
"I did love him," I whisper, so quietly I can sense the Mindless strain to hear my voice. "He was brave; ever so brave, he deserved so much more than the life of slavery you've given him now. He was so just and right, you taint his very memory by possessing him, as the words you speak, they aren't him, not at all!! The real Silver would never, ever condemn me to live the life he's forced to live, a trapped slave, the worst kind! Slave to my, to his own mind!!!"
The words sting my mouth, and yet the bitter truth lies like a coiled snake in the undergrowth, poised to strike at any moment.
"Don't you see, you vain cat? I am Silver, nothing less, nothing less at all!! These words I'm speaking are all Silver's words! He's here, very much alive, watching with distaste at your foolish naivety! I am Silver the Hedgehog!!!"
"You aren't Silver...."
"And how do you know for sure? Open your eyes. Open your eyes, Blaze the Cat, and become what I am. Be with me eternally. See for sure that I am Silver!!"
His hands slacken slightly and I twist free of his grip. In one fluid, catlike motion my claws are at his throat.
"You are dead," I hiss, "worse off than you ever were, Mindless."
"Then kill me," he rasps. "Kill me, and go on killing more and more weak, defenseless people, blindly deluded into thinking someday everything may go back to normal, until the day comes when you, solely you, are left."
My breathing comes in short, ragged bursts of fear....
"Or simply open your eyes, Blaze the Cat, eyes you've remained closed through all of this, eyes that have seen a thousand horrors. Open your eyes, and let all this, all this killing be over.... Finally be with your beloved Silver...."
Trying to get at me, trying to trick me.... Can't let....
Can't let....
Blood-encrusted claws dig into skin, and wet beads bloom around my fingertips.
Kill. Kill, or....
Become a slave....
Silver, brave, brave Silver, dying because of me....
We agreed to save the world – at any cost!
Blaze...? Blaze!! Come back, there has to be another way! I'll go instead!
You're still so naïve.... But I... I've always liked that about you....
Have to; have to see Silver, one... more... time....
I open my eyes, and....