Author's Note: Sorry for the delay on this chapter! RL things, you know how it is. I've also gone back and made a few small changes to chapters 5 and 6 and am now a lot happier with both, but nothing in the overall storyline has changed so rereading isn't nessesary unless you want to.
Part 7
The wall around Crisis City must have come from the time before Iblis, because it served no obvious purpose against an enemy who could burrow beneath the Earth. To all appearances it hadn't been maintained at all in the last two centuries. It served now as only a reminder of the boundary of the city, and as a marker for any who dared go beyond it. Names, messages and warnings were carved or painted on its surface by people long gone. Explorers hoping to find a better life, or the desperate just hoping to escape the flames.
"Just wait a minute," he asked Shadow, and using a fragment of sharp rock and pressing hard against the tarnished metal, he carved his own name. He wondered if anyone from Rebirth would find it and carry word back to the city.
Shadow looked impatient, but also curious, and Silver explained, "It's tradition," and offered his rock to the other hedgehog.
Shadow seemed to consider, but shook his head. "I don't like to leave a trail behind me."
Silver found that an odd sentiment, but then he supposed that the survivors in Crisis City had nothing to fear from markers. Neither Iblis nor the creatures would ever notice them, but Shadow might have had enemies in his own time who would. There must have been some for him to have been sealed in that cage.
The wall was no real impediment to anyone who wanted to leave. It had plenty of gaps, some made intentionally and others just torn as the earth below had shifted, but Shadow didn't leave immediately. Instead he vaulted upward to stand on the top, taking stock of the road ahead. A little tentatively, he took hold of his own body with his powers and followed, floating gently upward.
He might not have been quite at his best, but he'd finally gotten more than a faint whisper of his strength back. Even if sleeping on the hard ground of the bolthole hadn't been as soft as the mattress on the ARK, it was infinitely more familiar. With the Emeralds at his side and even Shadow's wary presence nearby, it was almost as good as having Blaze there. He didn't think he'd slept quite since before she'd left. Today he wasn't going to hold them back, that was for certain.
It was almost cold on top of the wall, with the wind blowing hard and the sky a dull, unpromising grey. Silver set down on the uneven ledge behind Shadow and immediately noticed the tension in the other hedgehog's stance. He suddenly regretted not softening the blow of the outside world more than he had, and was tempted to reach out and touch Shadow's arm but had a feeling it would only cause that tension to snap.
He remembered Shadow's time; so green, so full of life. Even the harsh, dry desert had been beautiful to his eyes. His world probably came as an unpleasant shock.
"The sky was smothered in smoke for years," he said quietly, approaching Shadow as much as he dared. "Nothing could grow here."
The outlands were barren, riven with cracks and completely devoid of live or feature. The earth looked scorched from all the soot that had fallen from above, colouring it black. Even after the sky had cleared nothing had been able to flourish, and there was only a few patches of rock to break up the monotony of bleak emptiness. It was why few people had tried to leave the city in Silver's lifetime. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing that looked like hope out there.
But hope was not always easy to find, and somewhere the Chaos Emeralds waited for them.
"Shadow?" he prompted softly, not wanting to break the black hedgehog from his thoughts, but lingering here wouldn't do them any good. Dwelling on things that couldn't be changed was counter-productive, or so Blaze had told him.
To his relief, Shadow shook off his daze, looking briefly back at Silver with another of those indecipherable looks before moving forward like a statue come to life. "Let's go."
The worst aspect of the endless, featureless terrain was the seeming futility. Miles and miles of travel seemed to have brought them nowhere, and now Crisis City was only a speck on the horizon, too far away for refuge should they need it.
Silver clung close to Shadow, floating just far enough away not to be knocked about by the black hedgehog's back draft. They hadn't seen any visible threat, but he had a feeling that was more because he didn't know what he was looking for than because it wasn't there. "What will we do if we don't find any shelter before dark?"
"We camp out in the open," Shadow replied. "No light. It might draw attention to us if there's anything out here." It wasn't a prospect Silver was looking forward to, and Shadow must have caught the sound of discontent in his sigh. "You didn't think this would be easy, did you?"
"No," Silver said defensively. Nothing in his lifetime ever had been. "I just feel too exposed out here."
"Agreed." Shadow glanced around, perhaps hopeful that something might present itself on the empty horizon before looking at Silver. "Try flying higher. You might find something we can use."
"Right!" At last, something productive that he could do. Adjusting the angle of his body he let the wind act as a buffer to slowly climb upwards, still trying to maintain the same speed so Shadow wouldn't get too far ahead of him. The first stretch was the hardest, when gravity seemed to press down on his back and the ground didn't seem to recede at all, but after breaking through that nebulous barrier it was suddenly like he was weightless.
He'd always been tempted to see how high he could go, but Blaze had warned him against it. The top of the sky had only thin air and cold – two things Blaze flatly disliked because they affected her flame – and despite Silver's whimsical notion there was most likely nothing above the clouds…although once or twice he thought he'd seen a dark shape floating over Crisis City, but he'd never been certain that it wasn't just a particularly dense cluster of smog. These days the sky was much clearer, Though the sun only shone weakly, as though it were still uncertain about offering its light to the world, it cheered Silver immensely to see it.
He hadn't expected to find much better than an outcrop of rock that might offer some meagre protection, but to his surprise there was something barely visible on the horizon. From this distance he couldn't tell quite what, but it was a tangible feature on an otherwise nondescript landscape, and that was good enough for him.
Newly energised, he dropped eagerly back down beside Shadow. "I saw something. If we keep going in this direction we should run straight into it."
"The Emerald's getting closer," Shadow said thoughtfully, more to himself than Silver.
Silver's ears pricked attentively to the suggestion. If he squinted, the hazy shape was just starting to come into view. It wasn't entirely unlike the distant silhouette of Crisis City. Maybe another town?
He wasn't sure which of them started it, or whether it was a mutual decision, but with a goal in mind they unconsciously quickened their pace. At least they wouldn't have to spend a night out in the open, though whether the alternative was better remained to be seen.
It turned out to be not a city, but a small base that Shadow's memory told him wasn't any kind of military standard that he was familiar with. Two large smoke stacks didn't seem to be in use, and he could see the crooked outline of a satellite dish that had broken and rusted, but even at a distance he could feel his fur tingle from the electric charge that made the thick cables between energy towers hum.
Shadow didn't like it. Even if his instincts weren't tuned to the dangers of this time, he doubted he was wrong about there being something not right about the place, and not just the inexplicable fact that it still seemed to have power despite its abandoned exterior.
Silver seemed more hopeful. "There's no pockmarks or cracks in the ground. At least we don't have to worry about the worms."
There weren't any prints to suggest those four-legged creatures from the city either, though there were other tracks that Shadow couldn't figure out. They didn't seem especially fresh, but that didn't make him any less wary. He was almost prepared to suggest that they leave, but with night falling slowly he couldn't ignore the obvious protection of the buildings, and though his sense of the Chaos Emerald's location had become oddly indistinct since they'd started approaching the base's proximity, he couldn't ignore that it was nearby.
"Let's see if we can get inside," he said, setting out in hopes of locating a visible door.
The exterior was bizarrely cluttered, with scrap metal clustered in messy piles to make the site look more like a junk yard. It didn't seem to match, and after picking their way around an old sign Silver confirmed his guess. "I've seen posters like this back in the city."
A stack of skeletal cars looked equally out of place. At least some of this junk had been taken from Crisis City, although what purpose it served and how it had gotten there was a mystery. Again, nothing looked like it had been moved recently, but it was yet one more oddity that made Shadow distrustful of the place.
He didn't need to tell Silver to stay close. The initial glamour of being somewhere rather than nowhere seemed to have worn off, and Silver was eyeing the scrap piles uneasily. It would be an unfortunate place for an ambush. Shadow kept their pace quick.
The first door they found was welded shut. Shadow glared at it viciously, but the thick line of scorched metal refused to budge.
"There must be some other way," Silver said trying ineffectively to see over the junk piles. "There's another building over there."
Shadow turned, but as he did so a flicker of movement passed just by the limit of his field vision. He glanced back quickly, but it had vanished around the corner of the building. A trick of light, or…? "Did you see that?"
"See what?" Silver asked, tensing almost imperceptibly in response to his tone.
Shadow made a silent gesture for him to follow, and stalked to the edge of the building. A narrow alley had been made with the scrap backed up to a chain link fence on one side and the side of the building on the other. At first glance it was empty, but he had been trained to observe thoroughly, and high on the wall there was a small vest with its cover knocked askew and left to dangle. It swayed as though from a recent touch.
He looked sternly at Silver. "Wait here while I have a look."
"Shouldn't we stay together?" Silver questioned, but Shadow didn't bother to reply. This smelt like a trap, and it would be better to have only one of them caught in it than both.
He vaulted up to the vent with ease, and though it was dark inside he immediately noticed a discrepancy. If the place were really as abandoned as it looked, the inside of the vent should be thick with dust but instead it was perfectly clean. The observation filled him with a sense of predatory anticipation. Perhaps it was Rouge's lingering influence, but whatever mystery this place held, he would solve it.
"I shouldn't be long," he called downward before climbing into the tight space. He resolved to see what might be waiting at the end of the tunnel, ignoring Silver's grumbling from below.
After all the time he'd spent trapped in small spaces, it was amazing that he hadn't developed an aversion to them. In truth, he still found solid walls more of a comfort than open spaces. The ARK hadn't had grass or trees or fresh air. He hadn't known those freedoms until much later.
The vent suddenly trembled with the resonance of an impact up ahead. He paused only long enough to assess any possible threat before crawling faster, and shortly found the cause. A hole had been torn in the side, the metal shredded as easily as paper, leaving a nice, convenient exit that couldn't have been more noticeable if someone had painted a welcome sign on it.
He should perhaps have displayed a little more caution with such an obvious set-up, but the itch under his skin was announcing itself to be more than simple impatience. He glanced down at his wrists, but the rings that had once held back his power were long gone. He'd removed them himself in the fight to avoid his capture, and without them he was having a much more difficult time controlling his power.
Chaos energy. His body generated it of its own volition, giving him a near endless reserve. Though he could reign it for a time, the more there was, the harder it was to tame. It had been too easy to believe that his sole purpose was to destroy when by simply existing he would eventually overflow with destructive force. Joining GUN had been his salvation, giving him a chance to release that power regularly whilst still carrying out Maria's wishes. Cynically, he had noted that if there was ever a day when he no longer had to fight for peace, there would be no more need for the Ultimate Lifeform.
Wanton destruction was wasteful, and it was his private fear that one day he might start to glorify the act too much to ever stop, so he never allowed himself to simply let go. Always he needed a purpose, a goal, or an enemy to fight, even if it were only sparring with Omega or Rouge-
The chaos spiked, making him visibly flinch, and he silently scolded himself for skirting too close to those memories once again. Dark emotion always incited the chaos to grow faster, and every memory he had of his former partners was tainted with it now. He honestly hoped there was something here that would present itself as an opponent, and with little care to the consequence he leapt down from the vent.
The drop was a mere twenty feet, and he though he made little noise as he landed, he doubted his presence was overlooked. Unlike the outside, the interior of the building made no pretence of abandonment. He could hear the regular churn and clank of machinery, and the place looked spotless and well cared for. Everything was made of metal, but instead of flat, sleek surfaces it was an uneven web of thick cable threaded into the walls and ceiling as though they had grown there, taking root like a tree. It was bizarrely organic looking, and beneath his indifference there was a certain amount of distaste for the sight of it.
Something flashed in the darkness, barely visible as it fled deeper down the twisted passageway. Not just a trick of light then, but something tangible, and on the heels of its retreat he heard an unmistakable echo. Laughter; a deep, taunting chuckle.
It almost made him smirk. "So that's your game."
Hide and seek in the dark. Unknown, dangerous territory. A adversary of unknown intent and abilities. He felt almost nostalgic.
He cast a brief thought back to Silver, but it was better if he followed this path alone. It might still be dangerous – in fact he was counting on it to be – and as long as the other hedgehog didn't wander from where Shadow had left him he should be safe enough.
Silver did not appreciate being left behind, and scowled fiercely in the direction the black hedgehog had disappeared. Didn't Shadow know it was always safer to go with someone? It was why he and Blaze had been inseparable for years even though she was more independent by nature.
He also didn't like the implication that he couldn't take care of himself, and he kicked huffily at the dirt, ignoring the quiet observation that he was being childish about it and the equally unpleasant knowledge that he just really didn't want to be alone out here. That unpleasant notion that he was being watched had returned with a vengeance once Shadow was out of sight, and the gloom of the alley seemed to be clinging slimily to his fur.
The compulsion to leave was almost enough to make him ignore Shadow's suggestion, but he determinedly forced himself to wait. Shadow said he wouldn't be long, but the minutes dragged on and he started to get nervous. Did something happen? Should he try to follow or find another way in? Wracked by indecision, he turned fiercely to pace in the tight confines of the alley and was stopped dead by the realisation that he was no longer alone.
"Shadow?" he questioned in disbelief. The black hedgehog was standing back at the mouth of the alley, still and silent. Silver hadn't heard him approach at all, and hadn't expected to have him return from that direction. He must have gone right though the building and found another way around.
"What did you find?" he asked, stepping closer, but all of a sudden his instincts were screaming dire warnings that made him pause. Was there a change in the air or was he just being paranoid? He couldn't define it, but when he pressed his senses for more all he got was that there was something wrong with Shadow. Something about the way he stood. Something about his eyes.
"Shadow?" he repeated, unnerved by the lack of reaction. "Are you okay?"
Shadow's head tilted with near-painful slowness, and Silver stood rooted to the spot. Shadow's gaze always had a particular aura of intensity that varied with the heat of his contempt or just the warmth of his scrutiny, but this was different. Cold, like it pierced his soul with a dagger of ice, and immediately he felt a chill that was too much like fear.
But it did not linger, because Shadow suddenly turned away, vanishing behind the corner of the building. Silver needed a few moments to collect himself before he could force himself to move, but after the first stumbling step he snapped back to himself as though from a trance. "Hey, stop!"
He sprinted after the black hedgehog, but was only in time to see the tips of his crooked quills disappearing into the tall stacks of scrap. He hesitated, because suddenly the lonely alley seemed like the preferable alternative to the unknowns of the junkyard, but he couldn't afford to let that stop him. He forced himself not to think of unseen eyes and creeping darkness as he followed the other hedgehog's trail.
