Mephiles: Sorry this last chapter took so long but I've really been swamped with work and stuff. This is the last ful chapter I'll be putting up so I hope you guy's enjoy it. Thanks for all of you who have supported and reviewed my story, it really means a lot to me. So read and enjoy and don't forget to comment.

End of The Line

Serried ranks of images flashed past and around the numbed Silver, a multitude of words and colors blurring together to form a single inconsistent stream of inconsequence. For Silver though there was no comfort to be found in these bright and exuberant possibilities, images of the different tracks his life could of taken. He had made his choice and now all of these realities were merely forceful fantasies of another time.

Beside him stood Blaze her hands moving in a flurry of gestures as she took him from one alternate reality to another, explaining in detail how each one had come about. Her words fell on deaf ears, as Silver had lost interest in her visions several dimensions back.

'So what if I'm happy in some of these dimensions? Those are different Silvers, their not me at all. How can she expect me to pay attention to any of these possibilities when she has already shown me which one I am doomed to?' Silver thought to himself, his being so devoid of feeling that he couldn't even muster the strength to think the words venomously.

It was pointless, so very pointless. The more and more he watched these different Silvers the more he realized how impossible it would be for him to ever find happiness of any sort. They were nothing like him, not a single one of them. In some dimensions he was friendly or perhaps he didn't have psychic powers and in others he was a husband and a father but it didn't make any difference. The only similarities between those Silvers and himself were that they shared names. Only names.

Silver bowed his head in shame; his fate had already been predetermined for him, the mission, which for so long had been his only goal in life, would also be his death knell. So consumed had he become with hunting down and destroying Eggman Nega that he couldn't even attempt to live in a world devoid of his arch-foe. 'That is what happens when your sole reason to live is the destruction of other beings, you become your own destroyer as well' Irony reminded him conceitedly.

'End of the Line' He thought to himself calmly. 'Blaze' the thought was quiet, so small and insignificant that it might as well not of been their…but it was. 'Blaze' it was stronger this time, Silver could here it, a rebellious notion threatening to push back his walls of isolation. But Silver shunted it aside and hid behind his walls, he'd spent a long time alone, he was confident that nothing could get through his emotional armour.

'Blaze, Blaze, Blaze' the thought wailed outside of his soul, growing louder and louder inside his head till it could no longer be ignored. 'Bl…a…ze?' Silver thought slowly as he allowed the thought inside.

"In this particular dimension you rise to some prominence after…" Blaze stated as she gestured to the inert Hedgehog to take in his surroundings.

"You?" He asked all of a sudden, rising from his near prone position to meet her eyes with his own, a strange almost far away gaze in them, as if he was attempting to remember something from very long ago.

"Pardon?" Blaze inquired, her brow furrowing in confusion at the senseless question.

Silver turned away from her motioning to the multitude of dimension, which played out different versions of Silver's life like so many Wide Screen Televisions. Blaze looked, following his gesture with curious eyes but could find nothing different to what had been their a few moments ago.

"I, don't think I quite understand?" Blaze hazarded after a short moment of absolute silence.

"In every single one of these dimensions each Silver is as different from the previous dimension's as can be" Silver answered her without turning away from the visions, his voice devoid of all inflection similar to how it had been when she'd originally met up with him. 'Cold and calculating' She thought to herself miserably. 'I've failed, by showing him his most likely outcome, I've practically assured his untimely demise' Blaze thought as she watched the Hedgehog analyze his alternate lives with a detached interest, arms folded in patient annoyance. The irony of the situation was unbearable.

"Throughout each of these dimensions there is only one consistency" He stated matter-of-factly. Blaze raised an inquiring eyebrow at this statement. Silver turned to regard her with an analytical stare.

"You. In every single one of these endless roads my life could of taken, for better or for ill, there is a Blaze." He said, his curiosity peaked once more.

"I begin to believe that there is some form of connection between our…persona's which I'm quite unaware of" He said.

'No' Blaze thought to herself in despair, as she knew what would come next. She gulped.

Silver couldn't help but feel a small smirk begin to twist his lip. It was about time this seemingly all-knowing female who had decided she had the right to just pluck him from his ignorance felt what trepidation was.

"I want to see why all Silvers are connected to Blazes," He requested calmly. Blaze bit her lip, biting back a possible comment as her mind raced from some or other excuse to ignore his latest request. In the end though, in the back of her head she knew their was no way to dodge the request. She'd taken the liberty of showing him all of this and now she had to accept the responsibility of it too.

Blaze opened her eyes in solemn resignation and lifted her arm. There was a crackle of blue lightening as the two were absorbed into the dimensional rift and then only space remained. For a moment, or possibly eons, the space merely hung in silence and then…

'She has taken him to the final destination'

'He will not return from it'

'We must prepare'

Then as soon as it had happened it was gone.

Silver landed upright on his feet professionally and became instantly aware of fire and heat. As he turned his head to examine his surroundings he mentally cursed. It was a cliff, 'a fiery cliff', hanging over a boiling sea of lava, 'a fiery boiling sea of lava'

'Would you stop that' Silver thought authoritvely, quickly silencing the annoying little voice.

'Fire' He thought in annoyance. There was no disputing it, he was back where he had originally fell from, his so called 'Home Dimension' as Blaze had said. 'This particular time frame must be some form of temporal junction in which multiple dimensions coincide into one conglomerate' Silver's logic deduced…logically.

He turned to Blaze and opened his mouth to ask a question, she silenced him though, and merely pointed straight ahead. Silver turned his eyes to gaze at what she was pointing at.

The third thing that Silver noticed was the fireball. Hovering just above the cliff was a small sphere of incandescent flame, which rippled with thermal energy, a miniature sun in it's own right.

The second thing that Silver noticed was Blaze, an exact doppelganger of his traveling companion standing a small way off, watching the unfolding scene with determination and interest.

But the first thing, and this is the one that really matters, which Silver noticed was, himself. Not precisely the same, this Silver looked younger and didn't bother to garb himself in dark apparel like Silver did. This Silver's eyes glowed with passion and life in stark contrast to the empty and duty driven Silver who watched him. Like opposite sides of a coin they were similar yet at the same time so dissimilar that only an idiot would of called the two comparable.

Older Silver watched with astonishment as his younger clone winced and yelped in pain. In each of his enclosed fist a sparkling Chaos Emerald thrummed with power, drawing the fire ever closer and closer to it. Silver didn't quite understand what was going on but he could feel the emotion thick in the air. Whatever was happening had to be completed. Or else.

Yet every time it looked like the younger Silver was about to successfully draw the flames into him, they rebuked him, leaving long flaming sores along his chest. Sweat beaded on his forehead, his teeth gnashed in painful concentration. Again and again he called the fire towards him with the Chaos Emeralds, and equally as many times did the flames rebut him away.

But he didn't give up; despite the futility of the situation he didn't give up…he couldn't give up, the fate of the entire world rested upon his shoulders now. Him and him alone.

'Alone, I know what that's like, all my life I've struggled alone, carrying my burden with me so that no one else should ever have to feel it's weight' The older Silver thought to himself grimly, his eyes resigned to the scene before him. He understood now what this meant, he could see clearly again. It was fate, his destiny had been predetermined, and his actions were merely prefabricated steps towards a set destiny, which he could no more change then he could avoid.

And just like that a sickening weight seemed to descend on him as if from nowhere. He finally had closure, even throughout the entire multiverse and all existence he was alone. He was alone here and now at the beginning and he already knew he'd be alone at the end. It was over; he was doomed before he'd even begin to live.

There is a common saying; 'Hell is other people' is it true?

Isolation is a wall, a shield which acts as a last defense against the world, when a person chooses to reject all they've know in order to survive they use isolation as a shield to protect themselves from other people. At first it is a boon, a castle or safe haven from the ravages of time. But as the isolation becomes the only companion in your life it changes from a rescuer to a curse. A damnation of your own creation. A hell devoid of people.

But like with so many things by the time you realize it, it is so very close to being irreversible. So what is the point in continuing then? If it is irreversible and of your own devising then you can only blame yourself. Hating yourself is one of the most dangerous things you can ever do.

In a void such as this Silver found but one escape, to hurl himself into his duty with such unrelenting passion that he would be numbed to the pain of his life. Is this really the only way to change it?

Why bother to fight fate if life is going to make your choices for you? Sometimes it takes chance to begin the healing.

"I'll do it!" The doppelganger Blaze spoke, her voice firm and unswayable as she stepped forth confidently, to wrest the Chaos Emeralds from the young Silver. The surprise and shock of this decision was as evident, if not more, on the older Silver's face. Fragments and half-formed thoughts hurtled through his mind as he tried to make sense of the situation before him.

'She was helping, she was helping!' His thoughts roared at him, trying to make him aware of the fact. He wasn't alone, he was never alone, here she was helping him and had been doing so ever since they met. Rationality had blinded him from seeing the obvious.

Their was a flash of light as the small sun embedded itself into Blaze, the chaos emeralds slowly falling to the floor. Then slowly, painfully slowly, she began to float away. Away from him, from his doppelganger, from life and from all existence.

'It's time to choose, what is your choice?' The thought was large and firm, etched into his mind through his entire journey. The moment had come to choose between isolation or…

'End of the Line' He thought to himself with a small, if confused, smile.

"What are you doing?" Blaze asked, panic clear in her voice as she watched in surprise the figure of Silver dart towards her own receding doppelganger. He turned around, pausing for a moment to look her straight in the eye. Giving her a chance to see exactly what his choice had been.

"I'm going to save you," He said quietly. Silver quickly made his way to the fading shadow of Blaze, extending one hand to grab her and pull her back. Closer and closer he came until he was finally within reach and then…

The darkness poured in. From every corner of the world they came, all to familiar gray blobs marked by luminous red eyes. Silver cursed inside his head and steeled himself for combat. Like a swarm they came at him, circling and striking as a single mass.

He lashed out with his telekinetic powers, emerald flames searing great gashes within the gray ocean. Again and again he lashed out, but more and more they came, slowly gaining ground inch by inch. His mind was on fire with power, his body felt like it was burning from the inside out, his innards seared by the green fire's of his own might.

To no avail did he rage, slowly, painstakingly did they draw upon him, until at last they were all around him, his world became a gray ocean from which their was no escape. It drew him downwards in a maleficent spiral, slowly dragging him down into unknown depths. Amidst the gray he was a beacon of light, a flaring teal inferno surrounded by drab and drear.

'Why struggle? This is not your fight. You did not ask to be drawn into this. You must return to your time, you must complete your mission or have you already forgotten what you swore to do?' Silver heard an unknown voice whisper rebelliously within the confines of his own mind. But the more he listened the more he fought. He was done being a victim of logic and isolation; he'd been offered a chance to redeem his broken heart, he only prayed that it was not to late to earn his redemption.

'Why do you persist, why do you continue to fight for someone else, this is not your battle!' the voice continued, attempting to sway him from his futile fight. But Silver was in no mood to be swayed. 'I fight because of what she's done, living alone and only satisfying my needs is a selfish dream born from spitefulness, I've spent to much time wallowing away in self-pity, it's time to change my life' He countered, channeling renewed strength into both his physical and mental conflicts. 'Self-pity, the more accurate term would be realistic, you have a mission to complete and you must do so! Or are you so quick to forget your promise?' the voice retaliated snidely. 'No, I've not forgotten and I never will. But my mission need not be completed at the exclusion of all other factors nor should it matter more then my own life!' Silver roared into the dark oblivion of his broken soul and his gray world, the single thought carried such charge and force that it glowed, a teal blaze which surrounded everything, consuming the gray and granting Silver a short reprieve from the choking tide.

A glimmering fire, a molten sphere of lava and crimson momentarily separated the teal and the gray waves from each other. Within it's confines he could see the visage of Blaze as she walked towards him. 'Then you are free, and no longer need me' the voice carried within it such pride that the entire world seemed brighter, but Silver could hear the tears threatening to pour.

She smiled at him, her smile brighter than the sun, her tear-stained cheeks merely adding to her radiance. In that moment Silver understood. 'Good-bye Silver' She spoke within his mind, then turned to leave. 'Wait!' He cried out, another teal aura bursting out of him, holding the gray ocean back long enough for him to talk. She turned to him with a gaze of both sadness and joy. Silver paused, his heart racing and his mind racing along with it.

He would never see her again, what could he possibly say to express all she meant to him. The answer was so obvious Silver didn't even hesitate when he realized it. 'I love you' He thought quietly. Blaze paused, and smiled again as she replied. 'I know' and then darkness took him.

Redemption and Absolution can be found almost anywhere. Their only prerogative is to forgive oneself and to have that most crucial of all components. Friends.
Within the swirling gray ocean Blaze saw Silver's mind slowly carried away back to his timeline. She knew their was sadness within her, their would always by sadness that they had never had time to truly explain what they were to each other. But for the first time in an infinite space she felt content.
And far away beneath the gray ocean Silver's mind coiled slowly around his body as he returned home. For a moment he had a dream of Blaze and knew that he would never ever be able to see her again. But it was all right.

End Of The Line.

Mephiles: Yipppeeee!!! It's finally come to a close. Next up is the extremely short epilouge. I must add that the inspiration for this entire fic comes from an episode of Cyborg 009 where Joe is taken back in time by a little girl. Thanks for all the comments so far and for all those of you who bothered to read it. I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did typing it. Until my next Fic. Goodbye.