A/N: Back again. Lol thank you for the reviews even after i had abandoned this story. I hope you enjoy this next little instalment!

crimson-obsidian-rose: Thx for the review and thanks for hanging around long enough for me to drag my lazy self back to the keyboard. I love your support.

spirit sl: Lol, thx i was never very good at commitment.

NTC Slaughterhouse Mania 2009: Hmm, nice name. And thx for the review, sorry i let you down with not enough updates.

Disclaimer: We don't own Sonic or anything that belongs to his greatness. What a shame.

Chapter 11: Insurmountable

'I think, therefore I am.' Descartes

Blaze. I miss you.

He saw her in his dreams. Saw her all the time. It brought back his happiness. Her smile gleamed. Her eyes sparkled. They were walking together over a small grassy elevation that looked over the Wild forest and the catacombs of gorges and mountains. Here was his home. Here was freedom.

Collect seven, and a miracle's supposed to happen.

Keep it as a lucky charm.

"Blaze," they stopped walking, and he looked abstracted, "I don't know what I'm doing anymore. Help me."

She smiled cheerfully at him, as if secretly knowing the answer to his problem. "Sometimes we all get confused and we all look for a purpose, Silver. But other things can motivate us in life. Like love, friendship, and family."

"I don't have any of those."

She grinned and jabbed his chest playfully with a paw. "Yes you do."

Silver chuckled haplessly. But behind it all, it still didn't change anything. Then, as quickly as the joy had sparked in his eyes, it faded. "I… I miss you Blaze."

"I know you do, but I'm always with you. Always. Remember that."

"I will."

"Good."

Then, as playfully and as free-hearted as a child, he took her by the hand and together they raced down the hill on that bright summer's day.

***

Sonic came into the tent for a brief visit at noon. He looked uneasy. Then, with kind requital, he asked, "How is he?"

Sally raised her hands in a half-hearted gesture. She accompanied this with a light shrug. "He's much better."

The blue hedgehog strode towards the bed, and sadly cast his eyes over him and said with little conviction; "we're doing okay, Sal. Trust me."

She wondered what he referred to. The battle? Silver? Or the fact that they were all surviving somehow? She decided it didn't really matter what Sonic meant, she trusted him no matter what.

Knuckles did come later, but he looked shaken and tattered. Sally offered him a chair and gave him a glass of water. Then while he rested, she bathed his worn paws in warm soapy water, then bandaged them up. The inflections he had received were going to leave scars.

"Stupid badniks," he drawled sublimely, "they never back down or give you the easy option. I don't want any cheap deaths." Sally smiled despite herself.

"Well, you can rest here. I don't mind the extra company."

"Princess?" Knuckles looked at her abstractly. Then stifled a shrug. "Naw. They need me out there."

Sally shook her head. "And Robotnik? What about his forces?"

Knuckles shook his head grimly. "His robots are very strong and intelligent, almost as if Eggman anticipated our move for war and I can't exploit any of their known weaknesses, yet." Then he pointed over to Silver. "How is he holding up?"

"He's got a fever. Can you do anything more for him?"

Sonic looked at them in turn. He had been the fortunate one so far. His quills were recovering from the attacks he used, but he hadn't been harmed like the others had, yet. He wondered how much longer his undue luck would last.

Knuckles gave Sally more herbs for Silver, then Shadow came promptly into the tent when Knux left, but he did not come for amelioration. He came for Silver. Sonic did not know what drove him, but Shadow had obviously been waiting for the younger hedgehog to recover and explain his cause. And the black hedgehog did not gently rouse Silver form slumber. He roughly, almost violently shook him awake.

"The hell?" Silver rubbed his eyes before trying to shove the offending arms off him. When he had woken up a little more, his vision was confronted by a pair of blood-red eyes. He had a feeling he wasn't going to have a desultory conversation.

The sky was a bruised purple. The wind was chilled and a storm was slowly clasping over the snowy hills. Inside the tent, Silver's shrill voice inflected the silence.

"I had these dreams… I kept dreaming of Shadow getting killed. Over and over. I never started to dematerialize or anything like that, I just made that part up to make it seem more urgent. You wouldn't have listened if I said it was all dreams."

"So you just came to the past because of a few dreams?"

"Yeah. I never actually knew if the real Shadow died or not in my time. But I had such strong feelings that something bad was going to happen to him. I had to see him!"

Shadow was leaning against the wall with his slim arms folded. He didn't look angry or displeased. In fact he appeared all very calm about it, as if he had already heard this sort of thing before.

Sonic tilted Silver's chin towards him, so that he forced the child to look directly into his eyes. "That was a dumb thing you did, pal. You nearly got killed out there, just because of a maybe premonition. Next time, just stay out of danger, okay?" He sounded almost patronizing, though he probably didn't mean it to sound like that.

"But I can take care of myself." He defended, before leaning away from the much older hedgehog.

Sally had to let out a small chuckle. When she saw Silver's scowl, she said, "I think you need to be a bit more careful before you think you can handle yourself."

Silver coerced a shrug and glanced ambivalently at them. Shadow was staring at the floor between his shoes. Sonic was watching him tediously.

"I think…" He gulped and fought for breath, "I think it's time I told you the real reason I came."

Sonic jumped to his feet. "What?"

Silver didn't lose his cool exterior, but he did notice Shadow raising his head in sudden interest. "What I have been telling you is still the truth," he exclaimed, "but its only partially true. I still had the dreams of Shadow, but the real reason I came to your present was…" He looked down at his blankets, as he was no longer able to meet their gaze, "to find Blaze."

Yet more befuddlement. Sonic sighed and was tempted to stand by Shadow and emulate his tactical frown. Just once he wanted to be an observer. Too see problems and solutions come and pass freely without interference. Alas, life didn't work like that.

Before Sally could ask him who Blaze was, Silver rushed on. "In the future," he persisted urgently, "you, Sonic, find the two chaos emeralds which had sealed Iblis inside her. When you used them, they unleashed her soul back into your dimension and Iblis along with her. The catastrophe resulted in flame and the death of Blaze. So, the future that I once knew replayed itself, only it was worse than before. Everything was dying and this affected my existence." He nervously pulled at his quilt, "I found the chaos emerald you dropped in Eggman's base and used it to go back exactly one year before you find the other two."

"Hold on," Sonic waved his hand in the air, "that doesn't make sense. You're saying that I find the emeralds. How can that be if we don't make it through this war?"

"You will." Silver replied earnestly, "it just lasts for that one year before you find the emeralds. You use them to help you stop it. But it doesn't work." He straightened his shoulders. "But I think I've played my part. I think the future's changed already."

"What makes you say that?"

Silver didn't respond. A glazed look misted over his eyes.

Shadow rebuked crossly, "why did you go back one year from when he discovers these emeralds? Why not two days? Or a night?" Why go back to the point where life is just about to tip into hell.

Silver gave him an answer that could have been the truth, or it could have been just a ploy from the real reason. "Going back in time is not easy. I had to know the right co-ordinates… I had to use the full abilities of my psychokinesis to go back… how was I supposed to know the emerald would take me back one year before the event?" He coughed harshly, "I know from the way that you're staring that you don't believe me. Well that's just fine."

Sonic ignored the young hedgehog's irresolute temper, "where are the chaos emeralds? Where do I find them?"

He answered quietly. "I don't know. And even if you did find them, the events that took place in my past, may very well happen again. It's best that you don't find them."

"Yes, but something made me find them I'll wager. And I probably had to use them too."

Shadow cut in smoothly. "We won't know until we do find them. I suggest we start looking."

"No!" Silver had his gold eyes on them now, and his chest was heaving thinly, "you can't! It'll ruin everything!"

Shadow snorted. "We'll see, kid."

He turned and left. Sonic watched him go. Silver sounded very angry. "Are you all insane? Get Shadow to come back here!"

Sonic wistfully shrugged and left also. Shadow was gazing sharply at the mountains to the east outside the tent. He looked tall and strong against the soft light.

"I don't believe him." He murmured softly.

Sonic produced a fleshy smile. "We have to believe in some of it, or else why would he even bother coming to the past?"

Shadow didn't meet his eyes. "It just sounds so stupid. He says the future he's in replays itself, and becomes worse. How is that possible? If the future changes and rewrites everything, doesn't that affect him? I don't understand it."

Sonic stood in line with him. "What if he's telling the truth?"

"Doubt it. He's not telling us everything. Ever since he came here, he's been talking utter nonsense, like me getting killed. Please."

Sonic wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all. He would have done if this had been any other day without wars and tribulations.

"Shads," the Ultimate Life Form tensed at the nickname, "I don't think I ever told you this, but Silver thinks he's a descendant from you." At that, Shadow threw his head back and chuckled. It was rare to hear him laugh for any reason and Sonic almost joined him. "That's what he said. In fact, that was almost the first darn thing he said to me when we met."

Shadow bit his lip to stop himself from laughing. "Sonic, that is the most stupidest thing I have ever heard since I joined you."

"And why is that?"

He rested his hands on his hips, and the laughter was gone. "I was engineered. I am not a real hedgehog. You know that. Silver should know that. Why does he make these tales up?"

Sonic shrugged. "Maybe when he got shot, all his senses deserted him."

"Perhaps." In an apologetic tone, he added resolutely, "you must understand that we have to forget about him now, and continue with our battle. If you hadn't noticed, Eggman's winning."

The blue hedgehog didn't need reminding and he shot Shadow a look of annoyance. His anger dissipated fast however, and instead he held his head and sighed. "There is no food for anyone."

"What?"

"The food wagon that we brought with us… Eggman found out and destroyed it. So now we're low on provisions. We have smaller rations of course, but it's not the same."

"When did this happen?" Shadow held the hint in his voice that he was angry he was not informed earlier, or had not known and seen it for himself.

"A few hours ago."

Shadow grunted with malice. He saw Sonic wobble forward. Then he asked dryly, "when was the last time you slept?"

Sonic paused in mid-step and chuckled nervously. "Dunno. To be honest I don't think I have napped since this whole war started." Shadow's face tensed.

"Then you sleep for now. I'll take watch duty."

He smirked like an overzealous child. "You? Watch duty? Ah this is sweet!" He loved the befuddled expression Shadow threw at him; "you must be exhausted yourself. Have you rested since we started?"

"No."

The blue hedgehog whistled. "How can you be on watch duty then if you're just as tired as I am?"

"Who said I was tired?"

Fine. Be difficult. Sonic rested his blood stained gloves on his hips (he had forgotten to wash them) and set Shadow a hard smile. "Let's not argue. I admit I am tired and my back is literally killing me, but I can't rest. There are citizens out there, warriors who'll fall. The nightfighters did okay last night, but that was only because we had to help them."

"Oh, keep your lectures to yourself. Sleep dammit, Sonic!" Shadow slapped his hand across the air to show his impatience, "it would be better to your entire force if you rest! You will be no use to any of them if you fight as tired as you are! You'll either get hurt, or you'll get killed. Got it?"

Sonic didn't lose his cool smile. "Okay. You've made your point. I'll rest, but I don't think I'll actually be able to sleep."

Shadow inwardly grinned. Oh, you'll be surprised. He thought.

Sonic chose a smaller tent off the site from Sally's. It was picketed with several others that belonged to rats and foxes. All the tents faced inwards and in the center of them was a sooty patch of soil littered with burnt twigs. A recent fire had been made but there was no one around now except for the elite crocodile guards. Shadow felt that he didn't have to watch over Sonic after all. The guards knew their jobs.

Sonic opened up the tent and went inside. Shadow followed. Within its confinements, it was much smaller than Sally's, but it had just enough room for a flat bed. Inside, the air smelt thickly of cloves.

"Why aren't you going to sleep in Sally's tent?" Shadow asked.

"For two reasons." Sonic sat on the mattress and began rearranging the blankets. Some were still sodden with cold sweat from the last animal who had slept here. "For one, it's the smallest infirmary tent. I haven't been injured. I can't sleep there. And two, can you really fall asleep when you have all those machines and apparatus' in your ears?"

Shadow faintly smiled. "Right now," he said, "I feel like having toast with jam on top."

Sonic laughed. Shadow's strange mood and his allotted words made him feel much better.

He took off his gory gloves, ate a small meal of bread and water, and went under the blankets to sleep. Shadow left to allow him privacy.

Will Sonic make a mistake?

Is Silver lying to his very friends that seek to aid him?

Is Sally even safe where she is?

TBC