It was nearly sunset by the time Silver had managed to make it back to the city on foot, and he hoped valiantly that Gordon had found the others and managed to get back inside Rebirth's walls. The skeletal buildings were casting heavy shadows and the sky was a dying ember shade of orange. Soon the creatures would come out to hunt, and even though he was tired the knowledge made him quicken his pace. The cage followed sluggishly behind. He was tempted to drop it, but even though logically he didn't think Shadow would be at risk he didn't like the idea, and in any case he was nearly there.
No place in the city was entirely safe, but Silver and Blaze had survived for years by finding little havens to crawl in to at night; large enough for just the two of them, where the creatures couldn't follow, and where they could curl around each other and sleep a little easier in each other's presence. It was in one of these that he'd hidden the Emeralds, locked safely in a box that smothered their energy and kept them from harm.
He let the cage drop – not quite as gently as he'd wanted to, but Shadow had yet to voice a complaint about the bumpy ride – and looked around cautiously. He still had that unpleasant vibe of unwanted company, but nothing moved in the darkness. He should have waited to be sure, but impatience and urgency made him direct his mind to the hidden entrance and with a mental nudge an innocuous rock jumped out of the way, revealing a small tunnel beneath.
He couldn't take the cage with him, so he would have to trust that it would be fine for a few minutes while he retrieved the Emeralds. He turned a small frown on it, as though daring it to move while he had his back turned. It sat innocently in stillness. Satisfied, he crawled into the small hole, and into the space that had once been his former home.
Or one of them, at least. It was wise to have several places to hide in just in case one was compromised by the creatures or in case their scavenging had taken them too far to reach safety before nightfall. That had been less problematic as they'd gotten older, when Silver had learned to lift himself telekinetically and Blaze had become an expert at navigating the buildings with elegant grace, but he too easily recalled a number of sleepless nights spent huddling in unsafe buildings and praying that they wouldn't be found before dawn.
Of all their burrows, however, this was the one they had used most frequently, and it had been the last they had occupied together before Mephiles had offered them his deal. More than any place else, even more than Rebirth City, Silver associated it with 'safe', and so it had seemed natural to keep the Emeralds there.
He found the box exactly where he had left it, standing out all the more because he and Blaze had never kept much in the way of possessions. He touched it, struck momentarily by the uncertainty of whether he was doing the right thing. It was always so much easier to make these decisions when Blaze had been there to point out the pros and cons in her logical way. He wondered what she would tell him now.
Probably to stop time wasting, he thought with a small smile. And to mind the noise of that motor. It's probably important.
In his distraction he'd almost missed the fierce drone of an engine and the squeal of tyres. It was completely out of place in the city ruins, and with a rush of bewildered surprise he grabbed the box and pushed it hastily back through the hole before crawling out himself. His tired, aching limbs protested being made to move so quickly but he ignored them. He recognised the sound of that truck.
Gordon should have been back at Rebirth already. He shouldn't be risking himself in the city so close to dark. Did getting rid of Shadow really mean so much to him?
Apparently so, judging by the way the engine screamed and the speed with which the truck rounding the buildings, miraculously avoiding the potholes and debris that littered the road. It bore down on Silver with deadly intent, and the pale hedgehog jumped desperately for the cage, landing unsteadily on its top.
"Up!" he said desperately, willing the word to be the focus of his powers, and the cage lunged awkwardly upwards just before the truck would have crashed into it. For a moment he wondered if Gordon had just intentionally tried to kill him, but decided it was more likely that the General had trusted Silver's reflexes to get out of the way.
Below him he heard the vehicle squealing to a stop but he couldn't afford to spare it a thought when the cage was wobbling in his mental grip, threatening to drop like a stone. Barely considering the consequences, he spied the window of the closest building and hurled the cage towards it like a drunkenly thrown stone. His aim was true, however, and he curled up into a tight ball to protect himself as the glass shattered and rained down around him.
It was a miracle he didn't lose hold of the box or fall off the cage altogether. He staggered back to the window, looking down at the truck. Gordon glared back up at him, and Silver's temporary relief at counting all members of the team alive and present was quickly snuffed by the realisation that they were stalking towards the building, guns drawn.
Uh oh.
He'd wanted to wait a while to rest before trying to use the Emeralds, but now it seemed as though he didn't have a choice. His temples pounded angrily, his vision gone watery, and he knew he wouldn't be able to use his psychokinesis on the heavy cage any longer, but if he could get it open he could still probably still carry Shadow himself. The black hedgehog would be much lighter. Silver might even be able to lift them both, and then when Shadow felt ready prove that he was a person instead of a weapon he could come back with Silver to Rebirth City and they could explain everything to Gordon.
He pried open the box, trying to ignore how his hands were shaking and how the rusted lid was almost too much for him to manage. It made an audible 'pop' when it came loose, nearly throwing him off balance and causing the two Chaos Emeralds to chime together. Their light seemed to drive away the darkness, and with a soft sigh he took one in each hand.
Just holding them made him feel stronger. Exhaustion melted away, his headache receded, and the world snapped back into sharp clarity. This room was a few stories off the ground, so he had a minute or two before Gordon reached him. Plenty of time to crack open the cage and be gone. With two Chaos Emeralds it would be easy.
He drew a deep breath, calling forth the power in the jewels and feeling it flood into his veins and into the room. He looked towards the cage and willed the layers of mesh to peel away. "Open!"
There was a noise. It might have been the rending of metal or it may simply have been the gasp of his own breath. Pain, he thought hazily as the world spun and very suddenly went dark as the shadows swallowed him whole.
"Hey."
Something cold was poking into his forehead. He wanted to bat it away, but his arms felt too heavy to lift. The taste of blood in his mouth was startling enough to rouse him though, and Silver opened his eyes to be confronted by the barrel of a gun and a scowling soldier on the other end of it. He blinked rapidly, voice thick with confusion. "What-?"
"Don't move," she advised him, and though the inherent threat of the gun was being literally waved in front of Silver's nose, her eyes showed just a hint of sympathy. She wasn't much happier about their relative positions than he was.
He tried to raise his head a fraction of an inch and failed even at that. The room seemed to be swaying under his back. It felt bizzarely like when Iblis had dug beneath the city, causing earthquakes at random, but the soldier seemed to be having no trouble staying upright. He moaned softly, feeling like his body was half on fire and half asleep, but from somewhere in the region of his numb hands he realised he could still feel the hard surfaces of the Emeralds against his palms. He hadn't lost them yet.
He turned feebly, trying to reorient himself in the suddenly alien room, and almost immediately his eyes fell on the cage. The mesh burned white hot, and had been ripped open down the centre. Had he managed to make it though the rest of the layers? Was Shadow alright? The need to find out nearly won against his body's weakness and he twitched convulsively before being jabbed by the tip of the gun again. "Stop that."
"Shadow," he gasped, not liking the odd compression of his chest. It felt like his ribs were bruised, but he couldn't think of how it might have happened. "Is he-?"
"Silver," Gordon's voice was soft but stark despite the ringing in the hedgehog's ears. "Enough."
It was hard to ignore an implicit order from the General. Silver quietened, dimly wondering when he'd last felt quite this terrible. Not for a long time, he thought. Not since before Blaze, before he'd gotten control of his power and it had had a tendency to backfire on him, turning his brain to mush and his muscles to jelly. Had it happened again?
"Get the charges ready," Gordon said lowly. "We'll destroy it before it has a chance to emerge."
He could hear the rest of the unit spread out, forming an arc around the broken cage. He could feel the vibrations in the floor, hear the clank of their armour, the scuffle of their boots, and he could hear their breathing. As his hands clenched involuntarily around the Emeralds his senses seemed to magnify a hundred fold. He could hear ten distinct patterns of breath; seven soldiers, Gordon, himself…and one more coming from the cage.
Shadow, he mouthed urgently, silently. Wake up.
The Emeralds seemed to be burning, but Silver couldn't figure out how to order his fingers to let them go, and suddenly his heightened senses picked up a change in the air. His fur pricked uncomfortably, and the lighting changed. The white glow of the metal seemed lighter and darker all at once, and there was a spine-chilling shriek of metal being torn once again. Maybe he hadn't managed to open the cage completely, but it didn't seem to matter. From amongst the wreckage, Silver saw a flicker of movement; black against black, so subtle he thought he imagined it
Gordon saw it too. "Open fire!"
"Wait," he croaked, but his voice was smothered by first barrage of gunfire. He lost the quiet sounds of breathing in the deafening ruckus, but his eyes somehow managed to follow the shape moving against the darkness.
So fast. Time had dimmed Silver's memory of just how fast it was. The bullets never had a chance to connect, and Silver saw the indistinct silhouette shoot out towards the nearest wall, hanging impossibly against gravity for a moment that seemed too long before shooting violently towards the nearest soldier.
Silver hissed in agony as he forced himself to sit up, but he was still far too slow to make a difference. The man collapsed with a startled yell, and pandemonium immediately ensued as the other soldiers realised the enemy was too close and their weapons were made useless unless they wanted to shoot at each other. The black blur didn't hesitate. The moment it was done with one target it shot to the next like a guided missile, and one by one the humans were falling.
It wasn't supposed to happen. Silver stared in horror, still struggling with vertigo to move and somehow make it stop, but he couldn't do anything but watch as the last soldier fell and the dark shape aimed for the General…but missed! Gordon had spent most of his life surviving in their war-torn world, and despite his opponents' incredible speed he managed to duck and roll out of the way, his weapon rising in one smooth motion to bear on the dark shape just as it landed.
Shadow the hedgehog looked exactly as Silver remembered him, and his red eyes were narrowed to thin slits as he glared at Gordon. One leg bent minutely, the only warning Silver had to know that Shadow was going to leap again.
He stretched out desperately, his hand still closed around the chaos emerald. "Stop!"
Shadow froze in mid-air, his fur tinged with green from Silver's psychokinesis, but without the Chaos Emerald it wouldn't have worked. Even with its power could feel his strength failing rapidly, slipping away like sand through an hour glass. He dropped to one knee but doggedly refused to let go, Blaze's voice whispering encouragements in his ear. "Shadow, please…do you remember me?"
Shadow could still turn his head – even move his limbs because Silver's grip wasn't very secure – and his gaze locked unerringly on Silver but remained unreadable. If there was acknowledgement there, or even recognition, Silver couldn't tell.
Gordon, however, was not frozen, and paid Silver no heed. Silver saw the gun being raised even though his perception felt sluggish and his reactions all too slow. The second emerald felt like it weighed a ton and his arm ached to lift it. "General, no-!'
He'd intended to pull Gordon's gun from his hands but his weak tug only managed to disrupt its aim, and in the same instant Silver lost his hold on Shadow and knew he would never regain it.
You have to push yourself Silver, Blaze murmured quietly, her voice the echo of a nearly forgotten memory. But not too far.
He'd gone too far. Like over-stretching a muscle, when he taxed his powers too much it left him sore and aching for days, barely able to move. Only sheer will power kept him from falling on his face, but what happened next was difficult to follow.
Gordon was righting himself, with a reaction speed so impressive for a human it was almost supernatural, and Shadow had started to move again but this time with a different target in mind.
The Emeralds, Silver realised hazily. Once he got them, Shadow would be unstoppable.
Hands closed over his own, simultaneous with the end of that thought. It was already too late for Silver to move, but if there was one final defiance he could offer it was that he refused to let go. He forced himself to look up at Shadow, neck craned uncomfortably, and his last wild thought was that the red waves of power rippling through Shadow's fur looked eerily like the crimson colours of Iblis's flames as the black hedgehog spoke.
"Chaos Contr-"
