Author Note: Here's the end. Hope you liked it.

Chapter 4: Waking Up

Silver walked out onto the beach where Blaze was waiting for him. She had spent most of the day resting in a local hospital and had only woken up a few hours ago, receiving a brief summary of what had happened before being let. Her friends had left out the paradoxical identity of the psychic, deciding that she didn't need to know about it. The first thing she had asked for after eating and changing was to talk to Silver.

"Hey." Silver said weakly. He was still physically and mentally exhausted from the previous night, and found himself unable to summon the same energy he used to fall back upon endlessly.

"Hello." Blaze said. She was back in her usual clothes, a purple coat and white pants. She kept her eyes set on the sea as Silver walked up next to her. She bowed her head and closed her eyes when she finally continued talking. "I... Just wanted to thank you for saving me. I felt so weak when that psychic attacked my mind and took me over. It was like-" Blaze's words hitched in her mouth. "You already know what I mean, don't you?" She finally said.

"No." Silver said bluntly, nearly in offense. "I spent most of today strengthening the mental trigger for reading minds. By this point I need both hands in contact with someone to use my telepathy on them." Silver looked down at his hands. "This power isn't right." He looked back at Blaze, who was biting her lip.

"It felt like he was violating me." She whispered. Silver frowned. He hadn't thought that much about how Blaze had been affected by the attack, and even then he didn't fully understand what she meant. "He told me he was you." Blaze said. Silver froze. He had known this was coming ever since he had torn into the other Silver's mind. "He said he was going to show himself, and then showed me an image of you. I didn't believe him." Blaze said, looking up at Silver. "Even when he made me throw myself at you. You would never do that." She looked away. "I'm sorry that you ended up killing him. I know you wouldn't do so on purpose."

"He's not dead." Silver said automatically. Blaze's head spun around to look at him in shock. "He used the power from Sonic's and Shadow's emeralds to go to a different dimension."

"You let him get away?" Blaze said, rage building behind her eyes.

"I had stopped him." Silver said. "I took away his anger and sorrow and gave him hope again. Should I have tried to kill him or give him up to this time's G.U.N.? The one that is historically noted for corruption? Besides, I'm sure where he's going will be able to stop him."

"Where is he headed?"

"To find an old friend."

"That can't be it."

"What could be more important to him?" Blaze shook her head.

"Your so naive." she said. "I think that's what I like about you."

OOOOOOOOOOO

In the depth of the old one's mind Silver was surrounded by fire. Everything around him was wasted ruins, and rivers of lava flowed below the ledge he was on. This was the world that the other Silver had come from, a waking nightmare he had spent every day growing up in. A pillar of flame shot out of the darkness, and Silver threw out his hand to stop it with a quick wall of energy. He saw something ahead, and began to walk towards it.

The dark memories in the shape of a man jumped down from above to stop him, and Silver tore them apart without a thought. The old Silver in his leather armor and mask rose from the ground, but Silver threw him away without breaking stride. He finally reached where he was headed and the horror around him faded into whiteness. The other Silver was sitting on the ground, naked and curled up with his arms wrapped around his knees. He looked Silver's age now, with his hair long and upright. The old Silver was crying.

"It's not fair." The old Silver screamed. "I was just a kid. I was just a kid god damn it!" He slammed his fist on the ground as he sobbed louder. "No one gives a damn about me." His head jerked up and looked at Silver, tears streaming from his eyes. "Blaze doesn't even remember me. I showed myself to her and she didn't even recognize me. No one gives a damn!"

"Silver," The young Silver said. "She's from a different dimension." The other Silver paused his crying.

"Really?" He whispered. Had he not seen that when he was in her mind? The young Silver saw an image of Blaze, drawing demonic flames into her chest and dissolving into light.

"Yes." Young Silver said. "A pyrokinetic from a long line of pyrokintecs, named for its founder." He felt horrible for taking that from Blaze's mind, but he knew it was the key to purifying the old Silver infused with the memories of a madman. The old Silver smiled.

"Thank you." He whispered. "You're giving up? Just with that?" The dark memories returned, taking no shape. The old Silver stood up and turned to face them, slipping on his old gloves and boots. "No." He said. "I'm beating you."

OOOOOOOOOO

From the bedroom's terrace, Blaze looked out over the lands that had somehow become hers as the sun sank below them. It had been ten years since she had come to this dimension to seal away Iblis, and she barely remembered her life in the flame-rent wasteland. She tried though, everyday remembering the friend she left behind.

It was hard though, when in the first five minutes of your new life you accidentally kill someone and are deemed the new queen. It had been hard taking up that much authority, but when she saw the mess that her predecessor had left the country in, she lost any doubt in her abilities and got to work building up the country until it was one of the most powerful in the world. She only wished her friend was here.

"Um, Hey?" A strange voice said next to her. Blaze turned around to face its source and stumbled away in shock, nearly falling over the terrace's edge.

"Silver?" She yelled. Her old friend was floating next to the terrace, bathed in the familiar cyan glow. He had changed as much as she had, with his quills cut short and hanging down around his head. His old gloves and boots had been replaced by strapped on leather ones, more inconspicuous apparel for the time they were in.

Silver gave her a weak smile. He had thrown off most of his outfit in the forest he first appeared in, and spent the better part of a week finding out what had happened to his childhood friend. Somehow the idea of Blaze ruling a country seemed entirely natural to Silver.

"Hi Blaze." Silver said. "I'm back."

The old friends smiled and cried and laughed as they caught each other in a tight hug.

Disclaimer: Characters belong to SEGA. Some character placement is drawn from the works of Dragonbreath1, that have regrettably been removed for reasons I do not know.