"MAMA!" I reached out, fingers trembling in pained agony. Then blood... so. Much. Blood. My eyes were wide with distress. I watched as mother was impaled by a pale purple spiked tendril, right through the heart as the crimson fluid painted the concrete.

"Daddy! Please, sa-"

More bloodshed. Followed by flames. Within seconds, life had changed for me. Both of my parents had ceased to exist within mere seconds. What once were bodies that held me tight, were now reduced to ash upon the rubble. I had no one to blame for this aside from myself and those impaling spikes. The tendrils of rocky fire that dripped molten lava onto the crimson concrete, flames that licked the walls of my once easeful home. The cursed Flames of Disaster known as Iblis, and the one who seemed to "control" them, Mephiles.

I stared, amber eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep, cheeks stained with trails of tears, clutching bits of ash-dusted rock in my hands. They shook. I screamed until I couldn't speak. I didn't have the strength to save them. I didn't have the power to seek justice for them. I was weak. I did not have any power.

I was powerless.

Powerless until verdant met amber.

"Pity how frail mortal bodies are." His words cut the silence. A loud voice in my head as stillness surrounded the rest of my being.

A limb was held out to me, crystalline and radiated a coldness similar to the arctic winds of winter. His face held no expression, his mouth was barren, his eyes were such a deep shade of emerald, like two pools of vile poison. That crystal limb began to liquefy into something somewhat human- a hand.

He would appear to me as a black and verdant green-striped hedgehog. He had bright green eyes, odd bracelets on his wrists and below his knees, some special shoes, and spikes that pointed upwards. He did not have a mouth, instead, he opted to speak to me telepathically.

If only I knew what he wanted with me back then.

He took me in, keeping me locked up in some sort of crystalline prison. It was dark, contrasting the suffocating heatwave of vermilion I would wake up to. Coldness was nice for a change, but it was too cold. Too... hostile.

Not free, I was never free.

Friendly and protective became a two-faced manipulator as time went on. I was so... alone, the only company being the walls of the prison, my reflection in the violet crystals that surrounded me.

It was then that I could not remember where I was, let alone, who I was.

I didn't know freedom. I never was a friend to her. Instead, I only knew one being, and that was Mephiles. It was always Mephiles.

"You must wear these to control your powers." He said to me.

The feeling of harsh coldness wrap around my wrists and the top of my shins; metal bracelets sealing seamlessly into place. By him. Always by him. His leash, his puppet, his toy.

I told him that I did not have any, to which he only laughed.

And then vanished.

I lay on the cold crystalline floor, staring at the gold bracelets that adorned my joints. Strangely, there was a dark line in the center of all four bracelets.

I did not question it. Strange things like this happened.

My memory is so broken up, so foggy of life in his prison. But I do remember my escape. My return to Crisis City. Bleak and thick with smoke, but somewhat free from his grasp.

He began to show me things, teaching me about something called the Iblis Trigger, explaining how that because of the Iblis Trigger, my future was this broken. They're the reason that my parents...

I was forced to watch families die, children are killed, molten lava flood my home city. His spiked tendrils held me in place, forced to stare from the sky at all the turmoil.

No, those poor people did not deserve this.

"You amuse me, Silver." The dark one spoke via telepathy.

I tried to shut my eyes, tried to turn away, tried to do anything than see another person fatally hurt.

Crystal spikes tore into my flesh every handful of seconds. I could feel the blood trickle down my arms and hands, tears mixing with the blood from my mouth as blunt crystals would punch my abdomen.

"You do not reply to me. Are you scared?"

A pause as another crystal jabbed my stomach. I bent over (as much as the tendrils allowed me to), nearly retching from the pain. I felt my mind starting to go blank. I began to feel... nothing.

"No, not scared- disconnected. As if a part of your brain has ceased functionality." The dark one submerged himself in the shadows, now becoming nothing.

I was so hurt and angry. At him, at myself, at Iblis, at the world. I felt like I was reliving it all... reliving the death of my parents, my psyche finally cracking after years of Mephiles' taunting and abuse.

The crystals around me shattered as I cried out from the tsunami of memories. My body burned, my hands and feet tingled with such an odd surge of chaos energy. Neon teal colors burst to life through those dark indents in his bracelets. My powers were no longer dormant. It was as if my body was on autopilot as I felt all emotion drain from me. Feeling this new rush of energy take hold, scarlet energy swirl around my body like an aura; I destroyed Mephiles' lair with a single thought, "go away." He was surprised at this power I held. I wonder why. Perhaps, a piece of him feared me, or he was just trying to psych me out.

Shards of crystal rained down upon me, pelting my quills as the red energy radiated from my being. The teal light from my bracelets were no longer teal, instead, they were scarlet. This new energy was... indescribable.

Do I owe him thanks for my power? Absolutely not. This power is mine. All Mephiles did was activate it. The other one, however... took longer to realize his strength.

He went to sleep.

And I awoke in his place.

"You keep impressing me, Silver." He reformed from the shards of crystal, appearing completely different from his previous appearance. "The orphan of a dystopian world wrecked with misery. Despite your tragic life, you continue to persist."

I levitated (an ability I never knew I had) past him. Starting into my reflection, I noticed something: this body is not mine. It was his. Of course, it was his. Regardless, I turned to the crystal figure.

"...Yes, I see."
"What do you see, Mephiles?"
"I see the beginning of a story- your story, Silver."

Then, the shadowy-being vanished into a cloud of mist. I could only scoff as I turned away, looked to the threatening black clouds that rained ash, and took off.

This world was devastated before I was born. A harsh, bleak place, where we live in eternal darkness. Life is a struggle, and people live without hope. How did this happen? No one will answer me directly. But they always point... to the flames.

I landed on a platform of shattered building, my psychic energy fading as I watched the fires burn. It rained ash, the fog was thick with smoke. Misery was what this scene was described as.

"Silver."

I turned to face the familiar voice, my spirits lifted as I saw Blaze. She was the only living connection I had in my life, the only person holding together my hope to fix the future. If it wasn't for her words and honesty, I would be too lost to try and find a way to defeat the fires.

"Coming, Blaze." I smiled at her as she nodded in acknowledgment.

We began to walk away, towards the smoke and raining ash.