Author's note: Hello! Apologies for the delay with this chapter — Iumm-ed andahh-ed for a long time about the direction I wanted to take Chapter 5 in and I'm finally happy with the final product, though it is rather different to what I had originally intended! This is the final 'angst' chapter for a while, as we'll be moving into light-hearted fluff after this (Chapter 6 will be on time, *hopefully* released in late September, as I have already started working on it!) so yay! :D

As always, thank you to the lovely people who reviewed on the last chapter:Ladywhite, asynt, Kawaii17, Roasted Toast, Random Dudette, cheru andrandomcitizen12! I adored reading your comments and you are the ones who bring this story alive, along with those who are favouriting, following and reading! Thank you so much!

Replies:

Ladywhite - Thank you so so so much! I'm so glad that you enjoyed that scene! I started off loving the idea of Amy, Silver and Cream discussing crushes and getting all giggly (or, in Silver's case, desperately trying to hide his crush xD) and somewhere along the way the tarot cards came into it :D And it's incredible to hear that the ending had that effect! Thank you! Whilst Silver's reading of "Death" will clearly have an impact on the plot, his other cards and Cream's cards also hint towards future events, so keep an eye out for them too ;D Thank you ever so much and I really hope you enjoy this chapter! :3

asynt - Thank you ever so much! It makes me astoundingly happy to hear that, like you wouldn't believe! ^w^ I very much hope that you enjoy this chapter!

Kawaii17 – Haha, aw, I'm so glad that it was suspenseful! *grins as widely as possible* Muhahaa, my plans for Silver are...interesting ;D That is such a sweet thing to say, thank you! The portrayal of the characters is possibly the most important thing to me, in this fic, so I am insanely happy that you're enjoy it! Gah, that is so awesome! Thank you! I shall certainly carry on with this story — this chapter may have taken me a while, but I am LOVING writing this! — and I sincerely hope that you enjoy the rest of it! :D

Roasted Toast – Ahh, I'm so happy that the cliffhanger was so effective! :D Definitely expect the unexpected — who knows what might happen? And THANK YOU! I'm so glad to hear that! Ooh, yes, I love introducing Silver and Blaze into this world, where there are so many experiences which they haven't had the chance to enjoy, like chao and Crush 40! Yes, Shadow is certainly mistrusting of Silver! Yay, thank you so much, I'm ecstatic that the tarot cards were such a hit! I will definitely be bringing Amy's readings back in and they may hint towards future events ;D Your reviews always make me smile and I am LOVING their length, so please keep your thoughts coming! I always consider them when writing the next chapter, so they definitely make an impact!

Random Dudette – Eee! Thank you ever so much! I am squealing just a teeny little bit! ;D (Translation: I am squealing a hell of a lot)

cheru – Gosh, your review left me with a ridiculous amount of happy feelings! Thank you ever so much! Really? That's amazing, I'm so glad you felt like that! :D Aww, yes, Silver and Amy's friendship was something that I loved about 06 and Amy's experience with love will certainly come in handy! ;D I am so flattered, thank you! A focus on Shadow's issues will certainly pop up, later on, when Silver gains more of an insight into Shadow's true nature, which I am really looking forward to exploring ;) Not at all! Thank you for supporting me!

randomcitizen12 – It is amazing to hear that another writer of Shadilver is reading this! Are there really so few Shadilver stories? No, we must increase the number, as I am insanely in love with these two ;D Aww, thank you ever so much! I'm blushing over here! ;3 I really hope you enjoy this next chapter!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and Silver's misery!

5. Forget-Me-Not

He winces against the floor, rubbing his cheek across the cold stone, as he moves. There is a mechanical thumping in his head, low and booming, and everything swims when he rises. Raw, broken sobs echo in his ears, but his eyes are dry. With crushing effort, he props himself up on his elbows, trying to lift his gaze, only to face a crowd of shadows: horrible, looming and bereft. Then he rolls, stares at the sky on his back, feels queasy, watches the purple clouds burst and contort. And then he is gasping and choking and retching because Sonic is lying next to him, with soulless, dull emeralds and stiffening limbs and ajar lips, which have died with the words You did this, Silver, you caused this, there's nothing you can do to change it, you will live with this forever, but it still won't be enough—

A hip bumps against him. Silver flinches. He grips the bag for something to hold onto and shamefully turns away, to avoid the human's confused stare. Abruptly, he flees in a brisk walk and really, really wants to be able to go outside without witnessing traumatic flashbacks — or maybe they're flashforwards, because his history is doomed to repeat itself — and his arms stick to his sides, rigid and defensive, as he continues along Station Square's pavement.

It had been his idea to go grocery shopping. A solo 'mission'. Silver has been going stir-crazy, cooped up in the Workshop, with that tarot reading pulsating in his head.

The skeletons visit him, at night, dancing in the fire.

He has never slept well, not since regaining his memories. But, upon coming to Sonic's time, there had been some recent, slow improvement. Now, it's even worse than before. The days are spent trying to conceal yawns; the nights are filled with jolting awake and melting-hot sweats. At the moment, he's succeeded in hiding it from Blaze, Sonic and Tails, but there have been instances where he's dozed off and spluttered awake on the couch, at the table, in the bath.

"The Death card doesn't mean that someone is going to die," Amy had told him, "It just means that it's the end of something. Please, Silver, don't read too much into it. Look at me. It really doesn't mean anything—!"

It means everything. He can feel it. Silver's destiny has placed a target on someone's back. He's going to cause yet another death.

He'd asked Amy and Cream to keep the tarot reading to themselves, for now. ("I promise I will, Silver, but I really think that Sonic can help you with this! ...Okay, I understand.") They're trying to stay strong, by believing that it simply can't mean death, but Silver's witnessed enough to throw off that naivety. It is entirely possible and he has to be the one to stop it, because it's his fault. He's not going to tell the others, though. Why ruin their happiness, again, when he's finally in a position to do some good? He can finally do what he had always intended and save someone's future.

Silver doesn't know exactly how he's going to do that, but he will. Maybe this will go some way to relieving his guilt. Maybe this is his atonement.

Station Square is currently teeming with people, humming with life. He wonders if Crisis City used to be like this, long ago, before everything was burnt away — the streets, the people, the enthusiasm: all of it now ash — and he hopes that it was.

Silver can't understand why he feels a stronger connection to that future, rather than the new one, which is his 'true' timeline.

Is it the true one? He remembers being happy, in a peacefully boring way. Had he been? He thinks so. Right? He's not entirely sure, either. Ever since the memories returned, it feels false. He no longer knows what is real and what is not.

Emerald Coast glimmers behind him, as Silver travels onward, into the darker depths of the city. The crowd thins out, a little bit, as everyone seems fixated on racing to the sandy beach and gloriously spreading out under the sun. He wonders what is so attractive about the idea. He'd heard Tails pondering to Sonic about inviting several of their friends to the beach — although, Seaside Hill had been the suggested destination — and making a day of it. But the blue hedgehog had stuttered and quickly babbled about Tails' research on locating the next Chaos Emerald.

Silver is pondering this over, when there is a piercing sound, like thousands of crystals shattering. Something smacks into him, before disappearing in a gust of wind.

His eyes dart about. What the heck was that? There's no one around. By chance, he's standing at the mouth of an alleyway and he peers down it, shakily cautious for any kind of follow-up to the attack.

Someone is standing there, in the alley, with their back to him.

At first, he thinks it's Shadow — with the hard posture and the curved quills — but there are no red streaks. Only powder-blue ones. And then the figure is turning towards Silver, with no mouth, but somehow smiling all the same. Amusement swells in those dead, green eyes.

The bag slips from Silver's hand. There's no air.

He can't breathe.

"I-It can't be...you can't—!" But he is. Mephiles is standing there, abhorrent and victorious and alive.

And, suddenly, gone.

Silver's boots smack against the concrete, before his mind can catch up. He's now in the alleyway, with his feet aligned to where Mephiles had been standing. Because he had been standing there, he had! Silver has been out of it, lately, but he's certain. That was real. But it can't be, you killed him—!

"MEPHILES!" He yells, glaring up at the sky, wondering if Mephiles has fled to the rooftops. But these walls are smooth and high; there's no way that he could have climbed up, because Silver would have seen him. He presses a tentative hand against the bricks. Nothing, "Mephiles, if you're here—!"

"Silver?"

He spins on his heel, with outstretched, glowing hands, ready to flex his powers and grab Mephiles by the throat. Silver has never before wanted to kill, but the guilt doesn't overwhelm him, in this exception.

And now there's too much air and it's choking him. His fingertips are inches away from Shadow, who slowly tilts his head.

Silver can't move.

Neither of them say or do anything. But an unspoken conversation passes between them, through deadlocked eyes alone. Silver has no idea what they've just said to each other. He lowers his arms to his sides.

Shadow just stares.

Seeing him again is unsettling and mind-blowing, all at once. Silver has been easing himself into a state of acceptance — Shadow doesn't feel the same way. So what? Who cares? I don't care — with questionable success. But he's getting over it. Slowly. Really, really slowly. Thoughts of Shadow don't pull at his innards like they used to; the sensation is now duller, like he's buried it in cotton wool. It's still incredibly distracting and he still can't think straight, but he doesn't feel like doubling over.

But Silver knows that he's on the precipice of those feelings again. He's so close to experiencing them, in their endless, agonizing regime. Perhaps it's already too late. He'll never pull himself free from this. He's been doomed from the start.

"Why are you...?" Silver trails off, but the unsaid words are louder than anything he could ever dream of saying.

"I saw you standing out there. You froze and ran in before I could ask what was wrong. It was strange," Shadow steps forward, brushing alongside Silver's shoulder, as he glowers up at the walls, which had transfixed the time traveller, moments before. Silver holds in a pleasurable shiver, wondering why the universe hates him, as he thinks about how easy it would be to press lips into lips, "Who's Mephiles?"

Silver blinks, "He's... he's no one important."

Shadow is looking at him again, disbelievingly. He briefly clenches his jaw and almost calls Silver's bluff, but decides against it. Maybe he can sense that it's a touchy subject and understands the need to have secrets. Whatever the reason, Silver's grateful, though he wonders if Shadow's clemency comes from personal experience. He remembers the sadness that had seeped from the black hedgehog, right from the start. It's better hidden, now, but it's still there. Lurking.

"Why did you follow me?" Silver can't help but ask, "I thought I was not to be trusted?"

The scowl in response is fierce and indignant, but there's no edge to it. Shadow acknowledges his hypocrisy by clearing his throat — deep and rumbling — and looking at a singular spot on the floor, "I am willing to admit that my opinion of you was premature. You did nothing to suggest that you are untrustworthy. It has also been brought to my attention that I was... unfair. I spoke harshly to you."

"... It's okay," Silver wants to reassure him, but doesn't know how, doesn't know if it's needed, wishes that Shadow would give him the chance to learn, "Let's pretend it didn't happen."

Shadow's head snaps up, as he narrows his eyes. Doesn't he believe him? A nervous smile from Silver causes him to look away, again, but the tension fades and his features faintly soften. Or maybe it's just wishful thinking from Silver, "Is there any improvement with your injuries?"

"My—? Oh," Silver reaches up and brushes his gloved fingers over his ear. The bandages had been removed, a couple of days ago. The bruises by his ribs have faded and paled. But the hand-print is still dwelling on his collarbone, proud and strong, announcing Shadow's presence, "They're okay. A bit sore, but healing. I've had worse."

Shadow's gaze has fallen to the mark, ghosting over Silver's torso on the way there, leaving a burning feeling as it idly drifts. Silver hates fire, but is struck by the stuttering pleasure that these flames bring.

Crimson meets gold. Another unspoken conversation passes.

Shadow steps forward and grips Silver's shoulder, angling the grey hedgehog so that he can examine the bruise with a thoughtful eye, "... Hmm. It will fade within a few days. It has been well protected."

"I-I see," Silver stutters, because Shadow's hand is still there. On his shoulder. Waiting.

And then, with the black hedgehog seemingly unaware, the hand drifts and settles in its clearly-defined place.

It doesn't register to Silver, until a little pressure is applied and a shaky gasp is ripped out of him. There's an ache, which lingers even after Shadow snatches his hand back, but only a small amount of it is pain: the rest is an ache for more.

Silver's inhale is loud and wobbly. Shadow has retreated to the other side of the alley, glaring at the wall. His shoulders are tense, but Silver doesn't dare say anything. Just what was that?

"That wasn't..." Shadow grinds to a halt, clenching and unclenching his fists, before heaving out an exasperated sigh. Silver doesn't know what Shadow had been intending to say and certainly doesn't have the concentration to work it out, right now.

Shadow grunts his annoyance and begins to storm off — Silver is going to let him go, but then he notices something in the black and red hedgehog's grip.

"Shadow?"

He halts.

"Is that... my bag?"

He looks down, as if he doesn't know what Silver is talking about and he's only just noticed that he's holding something. With an unconscious nod, Shadow turns and hands it to him, but pulls away as quickly as possible. Silver tries not to feel hurt. He fails.

"You dropped it," Shadow gruffly tells him.

He grasps the handle tighter, "Yeah. I must have. Thank you."

"I meant what I said, Silver. You're wasting your time on me," The words are soft. Silver swallows and cherishes how it almost feels intimate, because the baritone growl — which can so easily rip up into a roar — is now like a whisper. But the feeling is quickly yanked back, because Shadow is not inviting Silver into any kind of intimacy, "I'm not what you think. You shouldn't...hm. It will be better, this way."

His mouth runs dry. Purple lights dance in Silver's eyes. But he lets him leave, restraining himself from clasping Shadow's arm and pulling him into the fire, too.

The skeletons grin.

Silver flies back to the Workshop and sinks with relief when he finds the living room empty, save for Blaze.

Her tail coils inwards, when she gasps at Silver's sudden presence by her side, previously being lost in a symphony of thoughts within Sonic's headphones, which are plugged into the laptop resting on her curled-up legs. Blaze fondly smiles at him before freeing her ears and straightening, so that Silver can press closer into her side, slumped against her, weary and worn. He picks up the headphones and briefly holds them to his ears, listening, and places them back down.

"Classical music?"

"The very opposite," Shyly, she quirks her lips upwards, "There are things known as covers, where musicians recreate famous songs in their own style. I suppose they've gone out of fashion, in our time. It seems I have taken a liking to the violin versions."

"Ah. Now the violins make sense. It's pretty," The end of her tail curls into a hook.

"... Thank you. The variety of music here is remarkable. I am almost starting to wonder if there is too much choice."

Silver rolls his gaze over the computer screen, where she's gesturing, and ends up collapsing. His cheek slips off Blaze's shoulder and he manages to catch himself, but her comforting hand on his back prompts him to tentatively lay his head in her lap, stretching his legs out on the couch.

He's exhausted.

Blaze stiffens, initially, and he is just about to get up and apologise and say he doesn't know why he's being so clingy, all of a sudden, when her hand returns to him, now brushing through his quills in a cycle, fingers soothing and relaxing against his skin.

He sighs, content. Silver can hear her small huff of laughter.

The stress of earlier on slowly seeps out of him, combed out by her fingertips. If Silver closes his eyes, he can almost block out the maniacal laughter and mouth-less face from his mind. Almost. The echoing of It will be better, this way, still rings in his ears, though, and isn't something that he can easily dislodge.

"Silver?" Blaze leans forward, attempting to catch his eye, but her hand continues to move, unwaveringly, "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, of course. I'm just tired, that's all."

The hand slows. Blaze sighs and he can feel the air caressing the back of his neck, "You don't have to pretend, with me."

"Pretend?"

"You become grumpy when you're tired. But you show affection when you're sad."

"I'm... I'm not..." There's no use in feigning innocence. She knows him too well. Blaze can read him like an open book, in an instant, and it's always been that way - for someone so closed off, she's astoundingly perceptive. Or perhaps their unbreakable bond has simply carried them to this point? Should Silver be able to read her, in the same way?

"Tell me," She utters, softly threading quills between her fingers, "I wish to help you."

Bile rises in his throat, curving along the roof of his mouth, tasting foul, "I..."

"Yes?"

"... Mephiles is alive."

Her hand stills. He waits for her to say something, but it is a long time before she nuzzles the back of his head with her knuckles — a comforting gesture that sends both of them back to their childhoods, but he can feel the nervousness, "That's impossible."

"Blaze, I wish it were, but—"

"No, Silver. It is not possible. Mephiles is dead."

He doesn't know how to react. Unable to see her face, he listens to the stoic tone of her voice — almost as if she's been set to default, blank and expressionless — and wonders if she feels (remembers?) the terror and guilt as much as he does, "How do we know that for certain? We can't just assume, not with him, we can't!"

"Exactly! We cannot assume. So did you verify his presence? Did anyone else see him? What makes you so sure he's alive, Silver, when it is absolutely impossible for him to be?"

"I saw him—!"

"That is not valid proof," They're sitting up now, staring each other down, breathing heavily and becoming riled, "Even if you were completely yourself. Which you are not. You have not been yourself, Silver, you've been all over the place, distracted and quiet and—!"

"I am fine!"

"You are anything but fine!" She yells, voice strained, leaping from the couch to clench her fists and glare down at him, "Do not think that this is about my reservations for coming to this time, because it is not. This is about you, Silver, because this 'reappearance' of Mephiles is yet further proof: you haven't been fine ever since you got your memories back!"

"What are you talking about?!"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! It is impossible not to notice! I see it whenever I look into your eyes, Silver! You are haunted by what happened, for whatever reason, be it trauma or guilt or—"

"Of course I'm haunted! I killed someone!"

There's a deafening silence. Blaze still looks like she's glaring daggers into him, but her voice breaks as she says, "You can't honestly believe that."

Telling him that it wasn't his fault because he didn't directly fire a beam into Sonic's back doesn't mean anything. Silver made it possible and, therefore, there is just as much blood on his hands as on Mephiles'. Blaze realises that he feels this way as soon as he raises his head and looks at her.

And, aside from that, there are still so many other things to feel guilty for, "And then I... lost you, Blaze. I couldn't save you."

"I chose that fate—"

"It should've been me!"

"It breaks my heart to see you like this, Silver. When I think of what you used to be—" She corrects herself, knowing that Silver no longer regards the new future as his home, not really, "—what you should've been...I wish we'd never even known about the other timeline. I can't watch you destroy yourself like this and I refuse to. But I don't think the answer is to offer yourself up to the first person you identify with."

"...Offer myself up...?"

"I'm talking about Shadow. He is not the answer."

"There's nothing..." Nothing to fear? Nothing going on between them? Nothing that will make him even remotely trust Silver?

"You wish there was," Blaze hangs her head, half-wincing, "I...understand the appeal. There's an intriguing...background to him, which has clearly hardened and defined him, so that he can function. But he is not what you should aim to be, Silver."

He stands and takes a step closer, "We don't know anything about him—"

"No. We don't," She glowers up at him, "You have been quick to trust him, but I have not and that was apparently a wise precaution. I asked Sonic about him—"

"You had no right," He is mildly surprised by the ferocity in his voice, instead of a plea.

"Why not? Why do you trust him, when you admit that you know nothing about him? What can have happened, in Soleanna, that makes you vouch for him, this much?!"

"...Why do you vouch for me, Blaze?! Why am I anymore trustworthy than him? After everything I've done and put you through, why do you still think that I'm redeemable?!"

"Because I—!" Grinding her teeth together, Blaze turns her head to one side and lets her eyes flicker over the wall, as if she's watching her thoughts zip and buzz around in her mind, "You're still doing it. You're comparing yourself to him. He is dangerous."

"I don't care," He's being petulant. He should care. But Silver has never stopped being naive and he can't bear to watch this one perfection in his life be shattered.

"Then he will hurt you."

Silver knows this. He's always known it. But hearing it aloud is different, somehow, and he honestly doesn't know what he would've said in response — something along the lines of and I'll still feel this way, regardless, but probably far less eloquently and much angrier — if Sonic hadn't chosen that moment to walk through the front door with Knuckles.

"Are you guys okay?" Sonic asks, hesitantly, because it's pretty obvious that he and Knuckles had heard the shouting, from outside. His head swivels from Blaze to Silver and back again.

"... Yeah, we're fine," The grey hedgehog lies, when it becomes clear that Blaze is too stubborn to even pretend that she wants to be in the same room as Silver, right now.

"If it's a bad time..."

"It's not," Blaze decides to speak now, for whatever reason, but Sonic looks like he wishes she hadn't, not with that razor-sharp edge in her voice.

Knuckles raises his eyebrows, leaning in towards Sonic, but he's just loud enough for Silver to hear, "Good goin', Blue."

"Shuddit," Sonic turns the gritted teeth into a grin and Silver appreciates the effort, because none of them are making it easy for him, "Okay. Well. Knuckles and Silver, you've already met each other, but this is Blaze. She's also got cool super powers, remember I was tellin' you, Knux?"

"I remember," The Guardian of the Master Emerald leans forward, thrusting out his hand. Blaze grips and shakes, her slender palm dwarfed by thick, spiked gloves, "You're from the future too, huh?"

"Yes."

"...Cool."

"I suppose."

Sonic's eyes drift to Silver, who tries to send back an apology, "Blaze is a Guardian, too, Knux. For the Sol Emeralds. You ever heard of them?"

"'Can't say I have."

"Unsurprisingly, as I prefer to keep their existence unknown, to avoid any attempt of thievery..." Blaze sends a side-long frown, accusingly, to Silver, who stiffens but boils under the skin because come on, Blaze, this is Sonic! "But I imagine that our roles as guardians vary quite a bit, even though they are all emeralds."

"Exactly," Knuckles has one eyebrow cocked, flinging a strangely smug smile in Sonic's direction. Blaze looks entirely unimpressed, "Though, the Master Emerald ain't just some emerald. You used Chaos Emeralds to travel here, from the future, right? Well, since the Master Emerald can control all of them, I'd say it's probably the most powerful thing in the universe. What do your Sol Emeralds do?"

Silver says nothing, waiting for Blaze's reaction to the obvious rivalry, but smirks despite himself, because really? An emerald-comparing-contest? Now?

"They ensure the survival of my entire dimension — past, present and future — and without them there would be chaos. Islands would sink, skies would fall, oceans would boil..."

"Huh. Angel Island falling doesn't seem so dangerous, now," Sonic ponders with a wide smirk, baiting Knuckles and shaking his head when it works.

"Angel Island is extremely dangerous, in order that it can ward off thieves! And there is little that the Master Emerald can't do!"

"Yeah, like not getting stolen every other week..." The blue hedgehog drily quips back, "Though, I guess I can't really blame the emerald for that, eh, Knux?"

Stone-face, Knuckles pauses and grinds out a reply, "Well, it's a task I've been assigned, as the last member of my race, which is why it always comes back to where it belongs."

"...Mine is a task I have been training for since birth," Blaze helpfully adds, a competitive glitter in her eye, as she ignores Silver's warning glare.

"Yeah!? Well! ...My emerald's probably bigger. Ha."

Blaze blinks. Waits. Snorts out a laugh, possibly at the ridiculousness of it all. Her lips curve upwards, "Yes, well. Perhaps you have beaten me, there."

"Heh," Knuckles juts out his chin, victoriously, and it's difficult to tell whether he's sending himself up or genuinely pleased. It doesn't matter, though, because the tension has decreased and they're smirking at each other, amiably, "You're not so bad for a guardian."

"Same to you."

Silver watches, as they engage in conversation, and leans closer to Sonic when the blue hedgehog sidles up to him, without looking away, "You were right, you know."

"Eh?" Sonic peers at him, "Right about what?"

"Blaze and Knuckles. It didn't take that much pushing for them to start swapping guardian stories."

Sonic chuckles, rubbing a hand against the back of his neck, "I guess, sometimes, kindred spirits find each other despite their differences."

"Yeah..." Silver echoes. His mind wanders to Blaze's strange observation, about him identifying with Shadow, and wonders if there is some truth in it.

"Listen, Silv, sorry about barging in on you and Blaze. If I'da known—"

"No, no. It's fine, Sonic, honestly. I'm sorry that we were being so loud..."

"Nah, dude, it's cool. I...I get it, you know? Tensions are high. You're in a strange place and it must be getting to you. It's understandable."

Nodding faintly, Silver fixes his stare on the floor and lowers his voice, "Blaze and I have...different views, about our past, and they've unfortunately come out, since being here. It's something we need to sort out."

"It's better to let it out than bottle it up. It's gonna be hard, but you'll pull through, I know you will. You guys have something strong. One lil' disagreement won't break that."

"I worry that, one day, the disagreement won't be so little."

"Maybe that day'll come, but maybe it won't. You can't let it affect the now, Silver. You can't live like that. You just gotta live for the moment."

Silver looks up at Sonic. Certainty swirls in his eyes - Sonic absolutely, one-hundred-percent, believes this to be true. Maybe that's where Silver's gone wrong. It has always been about the past or the future: never the present. Coming here, seeing Sonic and Tails, Amy and Cream, and Knuckles... they're content in a way that Silver and Blaze have never been.

"... I will try to remember that, Sonic."

Sonic smiles. Some of his lightness returns to his shoulders, as he glances over at Blaze and Knuckles, who are intensely sharing knowledge about something, nodding their heads passionately in understanding, "Tails has got an exact reading on that Chaos Emerald. We can set out, tomorrow, to get it, if you want? You're both probably anxious to get back home."

Silver is silent, trying to work out where home is.

"Not that you have to, though! You've got a place here, for as long as you want it," Sonic reaches out and places a hand on Silver's shoulder, reassuringly squeezing, "It's nice having you here. I dunno what it is, but it feels like we've known each other a lot longer than we have. Like we're meant to be friends? Maybe. S'probably just me."

Silver meets those emeralds again, instantly beaming, "No, Sonic, I know exactly what you mean. I feel it, too."

It is late in the evening and the laptop has been sitting on the table, staring at Silver, from when Blaze left it there, hours earlier.

Mephiles is still behind his eyes, whenever he closes them. Silver knows that sleep will not come easily, tonight, and will instead be a battle. But he wonders if perhaps a sense of closure, however small, might soothe his wild fears. Just a reassurance, that there haven't been any other sightings of Mephiles, that maybe Silver really is just going insane.

The computer is cool, as he lifts it onto his lap, but it whirrs to life and grows warm as it begins to boot up. Alone on the couch, Silver is illuminated by a low, honey-coloured lamp nearby — Blaze and, surprisingly, Sonic have gone upstairs and drifted off to sleep, exhausted, and Silver's heading that way himself — but there is also the brighter light seeping through the Workshop door's glass window, where Tails is working on blue-prints and other quiet tasks.

There's a ding, when the machine has finally opened onto the desktop. Silver clicks on the strange circular icon, like Tails had explained to him a couple of days ago, and blinks as the internet page opens.

Silver is used to holograms and thought recognition, but he doesn't let the old technology faze him. Instead, his fingers flitter over the keyboard and the fine black letters start to appear in the search-box.

He presses enter.

Your search — Mephiles — did not match any documents.

The relief is overwhelming, juddering through his bones, but he's frantically deleting and re-typing different strings of words.

Your search — Flame of Solaris — did not match any documents.

Iblis. About this result...

... There are several links to religious scripture, about an evil Jinn of the same name (how fitting, Silver wryly thinks), but there's nothing to suggest the imminent resurrection of Silver's nightmares.

Oh, thank Chaos.

(He's starting to pick up Sonic's language, but he doesn't mind, because he certainly doesn't want to thank Solaris for anything.)

Just to satisfy his paranoia, he searches for sightings of: 'Black hedgehog with blue streaks'.

There are no descriptions of Mephiles — Silver has never been so thankful to be wrong, though he now needs to deal with the problem of PTSD hallucinations, it seems. And there are, however, articles and descriptions and reports and documents all centered around the blue streak, Sonic the Hedgehog.

He stumbles across a photograph, from way back when, and smiles to himself, knowingly. A younger Sonic grins back at him, arm slung around an even younger Tails' shoulder, completely unaware of how mighty he will become. You will be the saviour of the universe, Sonic the Hedgehog.

A brief glance at headlines allows Silver to build up a timeline of events, of this world, in his head. "Chaos Clean-Up Continues!" talks about the rebuilding of a flooded Station Square, after Sonic's victory against Perfect Chaos. "One Small Step for Hedgehog!" details Eggman's destruction of the moon and the power of the Eclipse Cannon. "Metal Madness!" reveals the existence of Metal Sonic and his desire to eradicate everyone and everything, until his fateful demise.

Solanna is never once mentioned. Maybe Sonic has never even visited the City of Water.

What about Shadow?

Silver hesitates. There's a nagging itch under his skin, a profound sensation of wrong — this feels a lot like spying — but his curiosity sings even louder. He blinks and suddenly he has typed in 'Shadow the Hedgehog', has hit a button and the articles all pop up, one by one.

He guiltily reads.

An hour slips past. Silver's head is filled with confusing theories over the Space Colony ARK and the Biolizard and Shadow himself, the Ultimate Life Form. His mind is bursting with bitter remarks about the Black Arms and the alien invasion of 2005 and Black Doom. Anonymous people have drawn connections between Shadow and Eggman; Shadow and Sonic; Shadow and something called GUN.

Silver researches Guardian Units of Nations and a blank webpage loads. He frowns.

But then Tails' laptop suddenly beeps, steadily and frequently, as the screen flickers and Silver feels a sweat break out on his forehead. Have I broken it? He panics, internally, as code taps itself out in green font and flashes dangerously. Then, the code stops and the computer whirs as it processes.

Files load on a black screen. One thousand, eight hundred and sixty six files, apparently. There is a search-box, for keywords, and the GUN logo glares at him from the top-right corner.

Silver fearfully stares back at the screen.

Six taps of letters — S-H-A-D-O-W — and seven sub-folders leap towards him.

"Agent Shadow"/ "Black Arms"/ "Prison Island"/"Project Shadow"/ "Shadow Clones"/ "Space Colony ARK"/"Ultimate Life Form".

He instantly cancels the search. This is wrong. This is Shadow's privacy, formally organised and typed up and easily accessible! Clearly, there is much more to Shadow than meets the eye - this doesn't surprise Silver much - but how could Shadow allow it to be so available?!

The Workshop door clatters shut and Silver snaps his neck up. Tails blinks, from the other side of the living room, and offers a sympathetic smile.

"Sorry, Silver, I didn't mean to startle you. I was just grabbing a glass of water. Everything okay with you?"

"Y-Yeah," Silver swivels the computer towards Tails, revealing the GUN archives. The kitsune swiftly approaches, squinting at the screen, "I was online, though, and read something about GUN. When I looked at their website, all this code appeared and the laptop started beeping and this came up."

"Ohh, okay, I know what happened," Tails sinks down onto the couch, next to him, and Silver only now notices the oil smears on his face, as if they'd been absent-mindedly smudged there. Silver hands over the computer, "GUN doesn't offer up information, easily, which is really annoying because we sometimes need to access stuff that could help save the world. So, after a bit of work, I managed to build a program which can hack into their system and files, no matter the clearance level. To save time, I made it automatic — that beeping and code was the computer hacking into GUN's database. That's what all these files are."

Silver stares at him, wide-eyed, "Isn't that... kind of illegal?"

"A little, yeah," Tails grimaces and scratches the back of his head: a nervous habit which Silver suspects he picked up from the Blue Blur, "Sonic and I aren't too comfortable about it, but needs must, you know? We just don't mention it to Shadow and Rouge, since they're GUN agents themselves. Thinking about it, Rouge actually probably wouldn't care. She's kinda lax about things like that, especially if she can get jewels out of it. Shadow wouldn't be pleased, though."

"Shadow and Rouge are GUN agents?"

"Surprising, right? They don't strike anyone as the militant-type. Rouge joined, a while back, because apparently it's good pay and they overlook some of her, uhh... indulgences. I honestly have no idea why Shadow signed up. He gets to work with Rouge and they're both pretty high-ranking, but it still doesn't seem like his thing."

No, it really doesn't. Silver can't picture Shadow being barked at and ordered around; he's always struck Silver as an autonomous figure. What could have prompted him to join?

"Anyway," Tails rapidly types something, not looking up from the screen, "Even though it's dangerous for us to have access to this, we still have to hack into each file manually, which protects the information. GUN's firewalls are annoyingly long-winded. Is there anything that you want to cross-reference, with the future, from here?"

Silver tries to cover up his surprise at the offer. But no matter how enticing the files had looked, he's made up his mind. Privacy is a precious thing, "Thank you, Tails. But no, there are some things which should stay unread."

"Good call," Tails wistfully nods.

"Is there any way just to see if GUN has information on something, though? Not read it, just... see if it exists?"

"Yeah, sure! What do you want to know?"

"Can you see if they have anything on 'Mephiles'?"

"Me-phi-les..." The orange fox sounds it out, as he searches. After a short moment, he vigorously shakes his head. Silver releases his breath, "Sorry, nothing on Mephiles. Is that a place in the future?"

"No, it's a person. I just wanted to know if GUN knew of him."

"You know, Shadow spoke to Sonic today, while he was out. He was asking about a Mephiles, too."

Silver's blood freezes in his veins. Dread tangles and settles in his chest, "A-Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure. Sonic didn't know anything. He's never heard of it before. Is Mephiles someone that both you and Shadow know?"

Oh Chaos, oh Solaris, oh Iblis, "Sort of. Tails, if you hear anything else about Mephiles, will you let me know? And can we... can we keep this between us two?"

"Of course. Even from Blaze?"

Especially from Blaze, "I think that'd be best, for now."

"I understand," Tails' baby-blue eyes follow as Silver stretches up and pads towards the stairs, his gaze innocent and thoughtful, "Silver? Is Mephiles someone that we should be wary of?"

Dull emeralds, glazed over, in the pale face of a corpse, making the blue quills glow even brighter. He can hear one of the mourning voices. A young male, anguished and screaming. Sonic, please, you have to wake up, this can't happen, you're my brother, I didn't even get the chance to say goodbye...!

"I will take care of Mephiles, Tails. No matter the cost. I swear it."