Chapter 2: And I Dream
I have dreams where I'm floating around in a world devastated by flames - a harsh, bleak place in eternal darkness... It's a world where people live without hope. The world is nothing but a sea of fire and a sky of shadows. And on the rare occasion where there are people in my dreams, I'll ask them how this all happened... But nobody will tell me directly.
They only point to the flames.
Every time I dream this dream there's this monster made entirely of fire. I win every time but my success means nothing. The dream resets itself. The monster is formed again. Another dream, another battle, another reset... Stopping the flames for a short time only for it to rise up from it's ashes again. Honestly, what's the point of all this? It'll never end. It's just a dream no matter how real it feels. But I wonder how it could be completely destroyed... How could the flame could permanently be snuffed out? Would it even end this long series of dreams?
If only I knew the truth behind everything.
…
Something strange happened in Silver's dreams that hadn't happened before. He defeated the undying flame again, the thing even taunting him with a thumbs up as it sunk into the sea of lava again... His subconscious was teasing him no doubt. In his youth these dreams were rare, but as he grew older and into adolescence they began to happen more frequently. Then it was once a month... Once a week... and now every other day... At times he feared even going to sleep because he knew he couldn't dream of anything other than that thing and their inevitable battle, the dream resetting and their fight starting all over again...
As he stood, punching the remnants of a wall wondering why he was even here, something spoke to him... Granted there were occasionally people in these dreams, but rarely did they ever speak and never did they ever speak to him without being approached and spoken to first.
"You wish to know the truth?"
Turning around there was a new person in the dream... Unlike the others he was not charred black and red by flames. He looked similar to Silver – another hedgehog but with blue-black fur and a tuft of white fur on his chest. He looked too healthy for this dying world... And what's more was that he actually had something to say.
"Everything has an origin. Just as a flower comes from a seed or a chicken from an egg. You want to know the truth of this world, don't you?" The black hedgehog looked down at Silver from atop a small townhouse long burnt to a crisp by flames.
"I want to know why I'm having these dreams at all."
The black hedgehog laughed. "Oh if only these were mere dreams... Now do you wish to know the truth or would you like to remain blissfully unaware of the bigger picture?"
"I do want to know about them... I want to stop it... I never want to dream these things again!"
It jumped down to the ground, walking like a living corpse toward the silver hedgehog and extending it's gloved hand to the naive hedgehog. "Well?"
Silver was not so sure, stepping back a single step. "But how would I know whether or not you're even telling the truth?"
The black hedgehog closed his eyes and crossed his arms. "Because I've been looking for you for a very long time..." He knew he had Silver's interest then. "This world has been dead for a long time Silver... The people who live here are remnants of the past some years ago. And you know as well as I do that even the people who can talk or who look like they're living aren't... They can never truly live again; not after the Flames of Disaster..."
"But what are the Flames of Disaster?" Silver asked. "Is that... the thing that keeps coming back?"
"Ah yes... The Eternal Flame known as Iblis... That is the thing you put up a fight against every night. And on that subject – you are quite strong... You are strong enough to fight it and reduce it to cinders night after night but you're still too weak to smother the flame for good..."
Silver looked at this black hedgehog distraught. His subconscious was fooling him into believing there was an absolute answer for why these dreams were happening. "No... You're not real!"
The black hedgehog tilted his head to the side. "What?"
"You can't be real! You're just a figment of my imagination!"
"I can tell you I'm not lying to you day and night but actions speak volumes over speech... Allow me to give you some insurance." And out of no where, a gem appeared in the black hedgehog's hands. "Take it with you Silver."
The polished purple gemstone had an aura to it that Silver couldn't put his finger on. It was like one of the Sol Emeralds but cut differently and with much more polish.
"This is a Chaos Emerald... Should the person in possession of it be strong enough, the emerald can turn that person's thoughts into power..." He put the gem in Silver's hands. "Take it... I have more than enough power without it. This should prove that this is very much real Silver... I'd never lie to you."
"But, why trust me with something like this?"
"Because you can save the world."
Just like that Silver awoke in his bed in a cold sweat and a hand falling from his chest that didn't belong to him... And then when he looked to his left he saw that hand's owner...
Blaze would occasionally stay with him until he fell asleep but this was a first. She never ended up falling asleep next to him. It wasn't fit for a princess to be caught in the same chambers as one of her guards... And even if she did care about how she looked to her peers, she still kept to herself in general. She'd usually sneak off back to her room once Silver was fast asleep after falling asleep on his own or with the help of a sedative but on occasion she could be found sleeping alongside her knight.
No doubt she was making up for hours of lost sleep – his fault for having these nightmares and the previous evening being particularly difficult when it came to actually falling asleep. The scent of the sedative still lingered in his breath but he had no complaints. He owed her for this.
Seeing her there was simultaneously embarrassing and great beyond belief – a real friend that cat...
She was purring in her sleep indicating that she could wake up sometime soon, having better dreams than he did no doubt. But he wouldn't bother her... He didn't want to burden her with something insignificant...
Until he felt the hard stone in his right hand... The Chaos Emerald...
As much as he wanted to throw the gem across the room in disbelief and wanting to believe his dreams were dreams but just the gem appearing in his waking world gave him some form of relief...
These dreams were happening for a reason...
"That's a Chaos Emerald..." Blaze stirred awake. "Why is that in our dimension?"
Silver jumped but turned toward the cat immediately after hearing her tired voice. "Blaze... You know what this thing is?"
The lavender cat sat up, shaking her head a bit, licking her left hand and cleaning her left ear. "It's a Chaos Emerald. It's like a Sol Emerald but it's from another dimension. But how did you get your hands on one?"
He shoved the stone in Blaze's lap. "I don't want it..."
She sighed, taking the stone with both hands and holding it close to her chest. "We can't have it in this dimension anyway... When the Sol Emeralds were brought into Sonic's dimension it nearly destroyed his world and mine." getting out of the bed and walking to the door she looked back at him with an unkind glare. "Silver, I'm going to need you to come with me."
"Blaze?"
"SILVER!" She shouted in a commanding tone. "This is important. Come with me. Now..."
At the princess's command Silver followed her to her quarters. She placed the emerald on her bed, tied her lavender hair up and changed into her usual clothes behind a curtain. Sitting next to the emerald on her bed she sighed. "Lock the door so no one else disturbs us."
He did as she ordered, locking the door to her chambers.
"Now take a seat beside me."
He did as she ordered again, trying to keep his face from turning red as he sat next to the impatient and unusually unfriendly cat.
"You're going to tell me how you got this."
"In a dream."
"Your dreams?"
Blaze knew of the nightmares Silver had.
She was the one who would stay with him on the really bad nights. She was the one who woke up next to him in the morning to reassure him he wasn't stuck in a firey wasteland. She was the one he vented to about these things. But she couldn't believe that this silver hedgehog's dreams were a gateway to Sonic's dimension. She hadn't seen him in a very long time but for one's dreams to bring something as important and as powerful as a Chaos Emerald to another dimension she had never considered.
"Silver, remind me how you ended up here."
"You mean how I start working for-?"
"No... Not that. I'm talking about that story - if you remember it that is."
Silver paused, mouth slightly ajar and then grumbling to himself. He was always hesitant about bringing this up especially since he lacked any important childhood memories prior to that story. His dreams and amnesia were enough but telling the story of how he ended up where he had been for years before working for Blaze was complex and emotionally draining.
The only things he could recall included a vague image of an older hedgehog taking care of him at some point and waking up in an alley all alone...
If not for becoming a recruit for the army and impressing Blaze with his powers, Silver never would've gotten where he was now. He was her personal guard and her only real companion. She had no one else to socialize with otherwise. The same applied to him.
"Without you I'd be a street rat stealing to get by. Heck, I might not even be alive if it weren't for you." he found himself speaking these words but not thinking them through entirely before they came out. "Nothing has changed about that story. I don't remember anything except for waking up in that alley by myself and having to stay there for years until your family was looking for recruits."
Blaze looked disappointed."You don't remember any more than that?"
Silver felt he had disappointed her and started feeling upset with himself for not being able to give her the story she wanted to hear (whatever that was). "I'm afraid I can' really help since nothing's changed. Just a younger version of me in an alley and the occasional nightmare back when they weren't as common."
Blaze didn't smile. "But somehow you still managed to bring a Chaos Emerald to our world through your dreams..." She looked at the emerald sitting next to her. "Have you ever considered that maybe you weren't born in this world? That you might've been born somewhere else?"
"Maybe... But what are you trying to tell me? Why are you being so secretive?" he looked to his princess for a response. "I mean it's not like I doubt you or anything but-!"
"You came to me with no records of your birth, your parents, where you came from originally. You're an immigrant, not just of another kingdom, but maybe another dimension..." Blaze got up, emerald in her hand. "I need you to come with me so we can return this emerald to Sonic's world. For this to end up here... This means something very bad has happened. And unfortunately, I might not be able to handle this alone."
"Blaze, what are you talking about? Who is Sonic?"
Taking Silver's hand and placing the gem in his palm, she looked at him with a straight face. "It's a long story. But I'll tell you that another time. Right now all you need to know is that you have to come with me to get this emerald to where it actually belongs." She said in her cool and collected tone of voice, showing just how much of a noble she was.
"Blaze, please! If this is really that important shouldn't I know about who Sonic is?" Silver thought about the black hedgehog from his dream. "Just tell me what you need to tell me now. There has to be something more to all of this but I need your half of the story!"
"If my hunch is right then it'd be much easier to show you rather than tell you." she said coldly, holding the gem in her hand and looking at her reflection in the polished gem. "All you need to know about Sonic is that he'd an old friend of mine. As for why an emerald from his dimension is here has to be related to you and your dreams. And now that this is here, we have a reason to go there and get to the bottom of all of this."
"So there are other people you're worrying about then? That's simple enough. Was that really so hard to tell me?" he asked of his princess even though it came off as disrespectful.
"It is considering that you're my only friend in this dimension." she uttered, recalling the memories of the friends she had made in the other dimension. Hoping and praying they were okay she tried to show no emotions, keeping her expression neutral.
Silver swallowed his fear. "If you want me to go with you, I will. Besides, I want these nightmares to end already... And if I can figure out where I came from along the way then-!"
"You're coming with me either way..." Blaze grabbed his hand and tried to smile but it was obvious that she was just trying to keep Silver calm and not have him worry about her. Internally she was screaming and confused, hoping that this was no more than a misunderstanding or some mix-up caused by the Eggman of their dimension...
For a Chaos Emerald to come to her dimension.
For Silver to wake up with it one morning.
And Silver himself.
She needed to go back.
And so they went together...
...
With the power of the Sol Emeralds Blaze transported the both of them to Sonic's dimension. She hoped to see everyone again and have everything be solved as soon as possible. She thought about seeing Cream again and having tea with her and Vanilla...
But that wasn't to be...
What was once a vast ocean was replaced by rock and lava. What used to be a blue sky was covered in black clouds that didn't allow the sun to shine through. What used to be sprawling cities filled with people were now mausoleums full of corpses that died by burning or starving to death... The really unlucky ones died being crushed under building materials as they fell out of place and collapsed or by drowning in lava. The whole city seemed like a candle that was snuffed out, the smell of smoke in the air and an overall feeling of unease or despair embedded into this world's core...
And this was no longer just a dream...
Silver looked around him in awe, feeling the hot wind blowing in his face and drying out his eyes. He didn't want it to be true but here he was, actually here. But what more was real?
He thought about the people he would occasionally talk to in his dreams, running into them by chance and trying to get answers as to why he'd have the same dream every night and wanting to know more about this world. They moved like living corpses as they vaguely answered whatever questions the hedgehog had... But to find them now should they have been real at all... No... The black hedgehog was more important.
"Silver... So this is the world you saw in your dream?" Blaze asked, looking up at the black sky. "Is this really it?"
"This is it..." Silver answered, the fact that his dreams proved to be someone else's reality sinking in. "This isn't Sonic's world is it Bla- BLAZE?!"
Blaze saw this world and collapsed, pounding on the cracked concrete under her and trying to hold back the overwhelming need to cry. What became of this dimension? What happened to Cream and Vanilla? Silver put his hand on her back, trying to get her back to her senses but all she could do was keep her head down and think about her rabbit friend...
"This is really what you've been seeing every night?" She looked at Silver, trying to avoid crying but needing confirmation. "Is this REALLY it?"
He nodded, wanting nothing more than to hug Blaze at that moment but his own anger and confusion was growing inside him and he wanted to find the black hedgehog and kick him in the teeth. But this was real after all... So he knew that hedgehog was around somewhere... "Don't cry Blaze... I know someone who can help..."
"What?" she looked at him with a venomous look in her amber eyes. "Silver..."
"The Chaos Emerald... I got it from this black hedgehog. He said it was insurance so that I knew he wasn't lying." Silver firmly grasped Blaze's shoulder. "As soon as I find him maybe he can tell me how the emerald works and he can explain what happened to this world."
"Silver, even I don't know how Sonic's dimension could've gotten so messed up... Whoever gave you that Chaos Emerald and whoever destroyed this world is-!"
And walking onto the scene with frame-perfect timing: the black hedgehog. "The Flames of Disaster..."
"You again..." Silver growled a bit, getting up and standing in front of Blaze defensively. "You're going to tell me what happened to this world!"
"And that I shall..." The black hedgehog mused. "This is another dimension that was destroyed by Iblis – that monster you fight ever night. There were those that fought against Iblis long, long ago but they all lost. One by one everyone gave to the despair caused by Iblis. That's how this world became unlivable as it is now."
"That doesn't make any sense..." Blaze said. "What happened to Sonic and the others?"
"Sonic you ask? He's the one that's responsible for summoning Iblis and making the world the way it is now!" The black hedgehog closed his eyes. "But to explain everything would take far too long..."
Flames covered Blaze's hands. "That's not true... Sonic couldn't do that..."
Silver turned around, seeing Blaze's flames licking her arms as they crawled up to her shoulders.
"You're lying!" She shouted, getting up picking the black hedgehog up by his chest fur. "Sonic couldn't destroy the world! He helped me save mine!"
"BLAZE!" Silver shouted, reaching for Blaze's arm only to get fire thrown at him.
"Silver, get away from me. This monster is playing tricks with you!" Her whole body was aflame, confused, angry, mourning and not trusting this hedgehog whatsoever. "YOU GAVE SILVER A CHAOS EMERALD! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU COULD'VE DONE TO BOTH OF OUR WORLDS?!"
"Blaze, he's our only lead! Don't do anything reckless!"
But the black hedgehog remained calm. "It's fine. I know what's become of this world. I'm willing to show and tell you how things unfolded - this is a shock to you no doubt."
Blaze stood silent. She didn't want him to think she owned him an apology. Silver, Sonic and the others were her concern. This black hedgehog was her enemy.
But Silver looked past Blaze and at the stranger. "So what you're saying is that the reason I've been having these dreams is so that I can save this world? Is that it?!" Silver shouted, causing Blaze to visibly tremble.
"You can save it if you want... But you won't be able to do it without my help." said the black hedgehog.
"And what sort of power do you have to offer?" Blaze asked, facing the stranger and standing in front of Silver defensively – the princess becoming the brave knight defending the innocent. "And why drag Silver into this? Why give him a Chaos Emerald and get him involved?"
"I've watched him defeat Iblis night after night. I think he's strong enough to defeat Iblis permanently." The stranger spoke. "But I propose a better plan that will end Iblis and prevent this future from happening in the first place: if I transport Silver back in time before Iblis destroyed your friends' world, we could save them. Wouldn't it be nice to restore this world back to a livable state? To see your friends again?"
Blaze turned away, eyes shut and trying to ignore the world around her. How dare he use her memories of the others as a weapon against her! She needed to concentrate either by quelling the flames into cinders or blasting this fake with magma!
But Silver started speaking to the stranger without consulting her, walking toward him with that naive look in his eyes he usually had. "There are other things I want to know. Like where I came from, who my parents are, why I was the one having dreams of this dimension's future... You know about all of that, don't you?"
The stranger opened his eyes. "I do. That's why I want to help you Silver."
Silver, with the Chaos Emerald in hand took a deep breath. "Then I'm willing to listen. For my sake and Blaze's."
"Silver! Don't make such rash decisions!" Blaze pulled him back. "Just let me handle this. You don't need to help me! You can't do this!"
"Don't try stopping me. I'm helping you and finding out the truth behind everything." He looked down at the emerald. "You're going to get your friends back and I'm going to find out my purpose in all of this! We'll work together like always, just think of this as me taking Sonic's place!"
"So shall we strike a deal then?" asked the stranger.
Blaze grabbed Silver harder, clawing at his chest fur but the silver hedgehog slipped through her fingers and walked away, extending a hand to the other hedgehog.
"If I do this..." Silver gulped. "Y-You're going to help me get what I want."
"Specify what you want Silver." The black hedgehog mused.
"I want to save Blaze's friends and find out more about myself. If I save this world..." He paused. "If I do that much everyone will be happy, right?!"
Blaze looked at him with her arms crossed, trying to snuff out her flames. He didn't have to do this. He didn't need to take Sonic's place – he never even knew him! She brought him along anyway hoping that she'd have another adventure with Sonic and Cream... Poor Cream...
How she'd love to see her again, to have tea with her and play with her for however long she wanted. She didn't need to see the destruction of the world... Just the thought of Cream having to witness such horrors upset her the most. In the middle of the ash-laden wasteland she tried her hardest to avoid crying, mumbling a silent promise to her friends...
"Is that all you desire Silver?" beckoned the stranger.
"Yes... I..." He hesitated... Long had he beaten this Iblis creature in his dreams but this proved to be a link to something much larger than he was – effecting another world entirely different from the one he'd been living in. He grew too used to the comforts of Sol Dimension and long had he forgotten anything related to where he came from originally. He inhaled. "I don't have a choice."
"Is that your final answer?"
"Yeah." The wind blew harder and warmer than before. "I'M GOING TO DEFEAT IBLIS ONCE AND FOR ALL!"