Chapter 7

Welcome to the buffer chapter!

Yes this can be considered a filler chapter but I'm of the school of thought that if you have filler in your show, movie, comic, whatever: it should be interesting and useful filler!

In general these might focus on either a single character's memories or several character's memories told from a more general and objective perspective. The first chapter of this variety revolves around Silver: starting to remember things from his past. BUT the past isn't all that clear. It may contain red herrings, things he's not remembering correctly and a whole lot of other things that may or may not have happened the way he's recalling it – if he's not making whole parts up for that matter! In other words: take these chapters with a bucket of salt and start formulating your own theories and await chapters of this type to see if you were right.

That's also a side effect of writing time travel stories – which is not a bad thing, just requires a lot of focus and careful experimentation. Definitely not something I'd recommend for a first-time writer unless you are really passionate about time travel stories from the get go and perhaps your story is more character-driven above all else.

And so I present Silver Edition's first filler chapter:

Memories of a Past that may or may Not Have Happened – part 1

Silver was young at the time. If he had to guess, perhaps he was around three or four. He remembered being a mess of white fur with quills that could never be combed back and tamed without a pit-crew's worth of assistance – not helped by the fact his chest and neck were covered in fluff.

Mom took a peak at him from behind a wall. She liked to do that when she had something to tell him. He waved her over. She sat with him on the couch, holding a black box. Being nosy and a curious child he opened the box on her lap: there were gold bracelets inside.

She put them on his wrists. "This will help you control it better."

She was obviously referring to his psychokinesis. He vaguely recalled it being much more difficult to control when he was very young. He didn't recall every single incident caused by uncontrollable powers at the time – and when he thought about it too hard he just filled in the blanks with stories that were far more embellished than what was likely reality; stories too close to fiction to have actually happened.

"Try using your powers with them a little later. I'll get started making dinner soon."

He clanged his new bracelets against his mom's. It was his non-verbal way of pointing out that they matched and he got a pat on the head in response.

"I know. Now we match, don't we?"

He remembered the feeling of not wanting mom to leave but she left anyway. And the worst part was that he had the gut-wrenching and foreboding feeling that this single memory he had of his mom was the last time he ever saw her...

...

He was being tested. He was placed in a padded room, hands restrained to a wall. He was sweating bullets. He was hesitating. He wanted to go home and cry all day instead of taking part in this stupid and scary experiment. A team of human silhouettes watched him from behind a glass window, telling him instructions he couldn't remember before getting balls of varying sizes thrown at him.

He managed to stop a few with his mind, throwing them at the wall parallel to him but could only stop one object at a time... The rest ended up hitting him in the head, chest, arms or knees, hit with nothing hard enough to make him bleed but he could end up stuck with blue bruises for a ...

Eventually the cruel testing stopped and like any sad child he hid his face behind his knees and broke down crying. A hand was put on his shoulder, being told instructions in a soft tone of voice that was desperately trying not to yell or scream at the hoglet.

The voice sighed. "I know it's hard. I know it hurts. There's nothing we can do about it." And it continued in that cold and aggravated tone of voice. "This is the reason why I... Never mind. There's nothing I can do about it now. This wasn't my choice."

The silhouette walked a few steps away, punching the padded wall before falling on his knees.

"Damn it all... I didn't ask for this... I have no idea how to take care of you and I can't even help you with your abilities. It's no use!" He punched the wall a second time. "DAMN IT ALL! IT'S NO USE ANYMORE!"

He remembered several humans in white coats running into the room, picking him up and taking him out of the room and he struggled to free himself from the arms of humans trying to hold him and push him away to safety as the room he was previously in started growing a violent shade of red - that same glow Shadow had or something similar...

Of course he couldn't tell if he was genuinely remembering Shadow being there or just placing him there for some level of self-satisfaction but then alarms started going off, human soldiers in full armor rushing in with guns. A nice human with short blonde hair stood hugging Silver in a corner, trying to cover his hears so he wouldn't hear what was going on.

But he did hear... It was muffled, but he heard. He heard what could only be gunshots and the person who may or may not have been Shadow (in reality) walking out of the room with an injured and fatigued gait but with no physical injuries anywhere on him.

He shot a look at Silver and the woman guarding him. "I'm... sorry..."

The woman didn't say much – or at least nothing Silver could remember.

"Is he going to be okay?"

"He'll be fine. It's you who everyone should worry about." said the human.

"I never asked for any of this... I don't see why-." something was left out, something Silver couldn't remember. "-has to run all of these tests. The world is on fire, I'm sitting on my ass when I'm not trying to save the damn world and I'm saddled with this burden I never-!"

"SHE WOULDN'T WANT YOU TO THINK ABOUT HIM LIKE THAT!" shouted the human. Silver remembered the feeling of being held as close as possible to the point of having trouble breathing. "Do you really think it'd a good idea to think of him like that? Is that what she would want for him?"

The person who may or may not have been Shadow in reality groaned. "Silver, we're leaving." He walked to the small hoglet, cowering in fear of the person who had to have been his father.

But the small hoglet couldn't speak, looking up at the figure in fear.

"I'm sorry Silver. We can go home and forget that any of this ever happened." While his eyes were still sinister and he tried to maintain a strong gait the tone of his voice changed. He was still obviously angry but there was a growing sense of urgency and fear in that voice. "Whatever you want to do we can do it... I don't care anymore... Just work with me. You feel safe at home right?"

He did want to go home but he was also too afraid to move.

The human woman picked him up. "I've got him. You should take some time to cool off."

"No... I'm going home. I'm taking him with me... Let me at least do that..." He attempted to smile while accepted his despair, looking absolutely horrified by something. "I mean I'm encouraged to bond with him, right? If I'm a parent, let me do my job."

The human woman muttered something that Silver couldn't remember, her mouth moving with no words coming out.

"I know this isn't ideal..." that horrified smile was glued to his face. "But this is what we've got..."

"Yeah."

"Just let me take him home. I know I'll be reprimanded for this later on so at least give me some time to at least pretend to be alive before I'm executed."

Again, she said a name or something that Silver couldn't remember as she put Silver down.

Immediately he was collected by the older hedgehog and dragged back to that same living room setting he recalled in the one memory he had of his mom. This older, darker figure just had that horrified smile glued to his face. It was a level of despair Silver wouldn't wish upon anyone but there it was: utterly consuming this man.

"They're going to come for me soon. You stay here." He pat the small, white hoglet on the head. "I know I'm not a good person. I certainly haven't been a good parent to you. But for your sake and hers, I won't let you be punished for my mistakes."

He pulled out a green gem with an ethereal glow to it that Silver couldn't help but want to touch it.

The older hedgehog snickered. "You remember this, don't you? I'm afraid you can't take it with you." He shook his head, the distorted smile on his face worsening and contorting in ways that turned the mystery man in Silver's memories into a literal monster made of shadows.

"You have no place or reason for being here. You were better off not being born..."

Whether he was remembering any of this correctly or not, this confirmed two things: whoever his mom was, she was already gone and trapped with a single father that didn't seem to want him around...

…

Chapter end