Chapter 3: Separate Wills
"Silver? Silver! Siiilveeeeeer!" Silver's eyes snapped open to the sound of Sonic's yelling. The blue hedgehog noticed immediately. "Are you okay?"
"The owner of the hotel keeps a shotgun under his desk. Take it out and break it." Silver said. Shadow turned to do it, but Silver stopped him with his telekinesis. "Not you. It needs to be Sonic."
The blue hedgehog carefully stood up and walked over to the desk, took out the gun and paused to inspect it. With one sharp motion he broke it in half on his knee and threw the pieces to the floor.
"Now, why did I do that?" Sonic asked, looking back up at Silver, who let go of his hold on Shadow."
"To prove you were yourself. A telepath took over Blaze's mind and has now attacked me twice. And before you ask, I am telepath too." Silver said.
"You're kidding me." Knuckles said. "Mind readers? That's ridiculous."
"Says the man who spends his time guarding a giant rock." Rouge replied, making Knuckles glare at her.
"If it were true, it would provide a good justification for Blaze's unusual behavior." Shadow said.
"And why she attacked Silver." Amy said.
"If our enemy could control Blaze's actions, what is keeping us safe?" Espio asked.
"Me." Silver said. "He attacked me first because I was the only person here able to stop him. If I wasn't a threat he wouldn't have needed to go at me before anyone else."
"Great. How do we find him?" Sonic asked. Silver could already see the way the blue hedgehog's muscles were tensing and his face betrayed his desperate need to leave.
"I managed to reach into his mind. He's hiding himself in an abandoned warehouse. All we have to do is find that."
"Did you see anything else about it?" Espio asked.
"I... Think it said 'glue' on the front." Silver replied. Espio slipped over to the hotel's desk computer and began typing rapidly. There was a pause and then the sound of a few mouse clicks.
"Acme Glue Company warehouse is the only likely place. I can lead us there." Espio finally said.
"What about Blaze." Amy asked.
"We need to take her with us to keep an eye on her." Silver said. "We don't want the enemy to catch us unprepared a second time. Can you carry her?"
"I think..." Amy said.
"Then do that. Everyone stay close to me until we get there. Lead the way, Espio." The motley team trailed out of the hotel and into the street. Surprisingly, Sonic and Shadow hung to the back.
"What's wrong?" Shadow whispered.
"What do you mean?" Sonic said.
"You look nervous, something extremely rare for you." Sonic glanced away.
"It's just," Sonic looked back to the grey-white hedgehog that had suddenly taken charge of things. "Have you ever thought about it? How dangerous Silver could be if he really tried?"
"Don't worry yourself." Shadow said.
As they walked down the streets, Silver began to feel like part of a mob hunting down someone they didn't truly understand. All they were missing was torches and pitchforks. The scariest thing was that he was the mind behind it.
"Shouldn't we call the others?" Knuckles asked into the silence.
"Leave them be." Silver said. "They don't need to get involved." Knuckles fell silent, and Rouge started to whistle half-heartedly, occasionally dropping out entirely. Eventually she gave up and total silence reigned throughout the night drenched city once more.
They came to a building with imprints where letters once were bolted on, and every window on it was broken.
"This is it." Espio said. Knuckles smashed through the boarded up door and stepped aside to let them through. The mob walked through the dark expanse of the empty warehouse. They saw only a single light, and unconsciously walked towards it. Only a few yards in they found the one they were hunting. The figure was taller than anyone else there, obviously an adult, and aside from the shape of his snout nothing else could be determined about him. His body was covered in bizarre leather armor and his head covered by black cloth wrapped around it. If he noticed their entrance, he showed no sign of it, and simply continued his idle tracing on the floor. Knuckles leapt forward to challenge.
"Alright you freak, show yourself now." He yelled.
"Why?" Knuckles stumbled back as the enemy spoke, utterly surprised by the simple response. "We've all met before. Except the chameleon, but I don't think that matters much." The man's voice was higher than normal, and he spoke with an eerie nonchalant disregard for the situation. "It's a pity so few of us can remember that moment."
"No." Shadow was the only one who heard Sonic's fearful muttering, and his eyes turned to see the blue hedgehog shivering and readying himself to run away from the mysterious enemy.
"But, since you asked, I feel I must comply with your wishes." The figure said as it took its hand away from its tracings and slowly unwound the black mask over his features.
Silver blanched in shock at his revealed enemy. He was at least ten years older, his quills had been hacked short and hung limp, and the black around his eyes had shrunk. In everything that mattered he was a perfect mirror image. Sonic was the one who confirmed it.
"Silver." he yelled. The figure smirked sarcastically.
"Shall you tell them or should I?" The other Silver said. Sonic twitched his lips. "I will, then. It was a god we fought, a sun god driven to complete madness that was devouring all of time. Sonic, Shadow and I fought it together and when it fell I used the power of Chaos within me and flew back to my own time, and guess what I found?" No one answered, but Silver shivered as he realized what was coming. "It was gone! Everything I lived and fought for had been replaced by shimmering glass and joyful morons. There was even a specific moron that was me." The old Silver's hand lifted up to point at the young Silver. "In my shock I drew upon the last of the emerald's power to find what had happened." His hand drifted ever so barely to point at Sonic. "I saw you. I saw you and that human b itch of yours destroy Solaris. Don't bother trying to excuse yourself. You knew what you were doing. You probably didn't let her escape the changes wrought either. You're the only one left who remembers, right? But you didn't think of me. And now, after ten years of waiting, we meet again. I beat you last time, when I was naive. What could you hope to do now?"
"Forget him." Knuckles barked. "I'll turn you into paste." He began to charge forward, and the old Silver sighed and lowered his head.
"You, a guardian who has failed his duty every time?" The old Silver said. Knuckles stumbled and fell flat on the ground, groaning in some sort of pain. Shadow started to step forward.
"Chaos-" The black hedgehog began.
"Please." The old Silver said. "Maria would weep if she saw half the things you've done in her name." Shadow's throat rumbled harshly until he finally broke into tears and collapsed onto his knees. Rouge leaned back to attack.
"Oh, you're here. What grand purpose do you stand for exactly?" Rouge trembled and straightened herself, hugging her body tight and whispering to herself. Amy laid Blaze down on the floor and pulled out her hammer.
"Your insane." she growled.
"Look at yourself." The old Silver said. "Obsessed with a man who does everything in his power to get away from you. He doesn't even want another hedgehog." Amy shivered. Hadn't this Silver talked about a human being with Sonic?
"Really?" she asked. The old Silver stopped his tracing and looked her in the face.
"Yes." He said. Amy's hand flew to her face as she started to cry in fear. Sonic seemed to reach out and try to catch as she collapsed on the ground. A green outline of an arm holding a knife appeared behind the old Silver.
"And you:" The pale-furred psychic said. "You're just worthless." The outline twisted violently and Espio collapsed to the ground behind the old Silver. "Who is left now?" The young Silver gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.
"I know I can stop you." Silver said. "You wouldn't have attacked me if I wasn't a threat."
"As if. I chose you first because you were even more gullible than I ever was: the perfect person to set my trap with." The old Silver said.
"A trap?"
"A trap within a trap within a trap. As you overcame one part of my plan you were simply drawn closer to me and the full extent of my powers."
The younger was about to reply when Sonic's gloved hand cut him off.
"This battle is between us." Sonic said he lowered his hand stepped forward to line himself up in front of the old Silver. "I know you held back last time. You didn't want to kill even though you thought it would save the world."
"That was a me ten years younger." The old Silver said.
"I know." Sonic said. "That's why I won't hold back either." Sonic pulled out a purple Chaos Emerald from behind him. "Ch-" He tried to say it as fast as possible, but Sonic found his mouth clamping shut.
"Your will is unyielding, Sonic, but your body is too weak." The old Silver said. Sonic's head began quivering. "Now I can finally finish what I set out to do all those years ago." The old Silver went back to his tracing on the floor. "I dare say I will enjoy this." Sonic fell on the ground. "What?" The old Silver did his best to show no surprise, but he couldn't stop his eyes from narrowing.
"It's not over yet." The young Silver said, stepping forward. The glow that had held Sonic's jaw was being forced back to the old Silver.
"It seems I underestimated your determination, Young Silver." The glow quivered and stopped halfway between the two Silvers. "At this rate your allies will be able to recover even if I win."
"I won't let you." Young Silver yelled, even as he glanced at his fallen friends to see if they were recovering. Sonic was clutching his face as he crawled over to Amy.
"You seem to misunderstand me. At this point I have already lost the battle. All that is left is to retreat and craft a new plan."
"Then I will win." Young Silver said in a nearly silent whisper. The old Silver's eyes twitched wide. The glow held between the two hedgehogs trembled towards the elder. "Your power comes from your mind, from your will." The old Silver threw out his arms and clenched his hands to counter his opponent's surge of power. "You've already given up. Running when you could stand and fight." The older Silver scrambled to his feet and threw his other arm up as the glow nearly reached him. It stopped just short of him. "And I will never give up!" Young Silver roared. The glow slammed into the old Silver's head and sank through, Young Silver's mental assault going in with it. The old Silver's eyes rolled back in his head and he screamed.
The heroes scattered across the warehouse floor lifted their heads from the floor to watch their foe. The old Silver's scream cut short just as suddenly as it began as he collapsed back onto the ground. Sonic stood up and walked over behind the young Silver, looking down on his old foe and ally. The bottom of the old Silver's feet began to glow, and as the yellow glow started to climb up his body the bottom began to dissolve into scattered sparkles.
"He wasn't supposed to be here." Sonic said.
The old Silver's body was beginning to float off the ground as his torso began to dissolve.
"I guess the time stream is trying to correct itself, pulling him back to his own timeline." Sonic continued.
Everything that was left of the old Silver was glowing as he reached the roof of the warehouse.
"I never could understand what he was fighting for, and now I never will. I wish it didn't have to have happened like this." Sonic bowed his head and shook it.
Silver was the only one who saw the other Silver smile as his head reached the roof, and Silver winked in return. The head exploded in a sudden shockwave of light, and the light of the dawning sun poured through the warehouse's missing windows.
Disclaimer: Characters belong to SEGA.