Chapter One: Her Return

I want to die…

It was strange how empty the thought felt now; ten years of thinking this same mantra, over and over inside her mind, and yet it had become as meaningless as everything else. As deadened as her nerve endings and several layers of her skin. Each time it faded, she went through the agony of feeling each cell and nerve ending regrow back in place, each time the pain felt more and more dulled. Maybe it was just in her mind that it wasn't as bad, or that she simply couldn't be bothered to feel it anymore. Strange, what the mind could do in its last gasps to try and keep itself sane.

The last decade had been a continuous nightmare with small moments of apathy blissfully peppered into it like some sort of cruel afterthought. No amount of meditation or focus could trly keep Iblis's essence from reappearing again, no matter what she tried. There was no cool nor frigid place that could give her a lasting relief from the anguish, and she had tried, and looked everywhere.

Originally, she had transported herself and its violent spirit to an empty zone, one that had no sentient life and thus she had calculated as 'expendable', though she mourned inwardly the loss of the flora and fauna that would come. Iblis's flames had made short work of it, but for the first couple of years, she had been able to tolerate the pain of housing such a mindlessly destructive creature. In some ways, the intellect and higher breeding that she had because of her lineage had made it easy for her to simply ignore the ravenous beast's tendencies.

But as time wore on, the one thing that had truly feared finally caught up to her: the isolation, and loneliness. She couldn't travel anywhere that there were other intelligent beings to socialize with, lest she tempt Iblis to reduce their worlds into ashes, as he had in the future of Mobius Prime. Thus, she was doomed to roam painfully empty worlds, willing herself to keep going in spite of the pain she was in.

But the anguish grew, in spite of her confidence.

There was more to Iblis than she had originally accounted for. She had assumed that Iblis was simply a vehicle for destruction, mindless and brutal in nature and little more; Mephiles had always cast himself as the identifiable mastermind behind the evil of Solaris. But the longer that she had acted as its container, the more she came to realize how untrue that was. She wouldn't qualify him as a being like its other half, but its presence began to trigger sentient thoughts in her…terrible ones.

Iblis craved the same kinds of dark and vile things that Mephiles had: destruction, anguish, suffering…all kinds of truly terrible things. That alone wouldn't have surprised her, but something about its presence seemed to reach deep into her soul, as though it were slowly corrupting her own mind. It was easy enough to detach herself at first from its psychotic dreams at first, but the more that it burrowed into her, the more it started to twist her own thoughts. Visions of Iblis's destruction warped into images of her creating the same kinds of violence and terror that the parts and whole of Solaris had strove for. It was this that sent her reeling more than anything: the thought that with such horrors within her, her powers were now strong enough for her to do the same thing to any world she came upon.

There was no way for her to stop herself all of the time; she sometimes stumbled into unsuspecting worlds that were dimensionally distant from Mobius, and she laid them all to waste, one by one. She didn't even have to do it consciously; the darkness of Iblis within her would drown out her persona, and she'd awaken, surrounded by the charred carnage of another annihilated realm.

No…no…! This wasn't supposed to happen! I was supposed to seal it…forever…in myself…forever in isolation…

All of those people…dead, because she had overestimated her own power. Now, she was slave to it and Iblis, acting as its host instead of its prison. The only respite that she had was when the beast fell asleep in the recesses of her soul, usually for up to a few months, and her body would heal. Using such full extents of her power left her unrecognizable after some time had passed: her fur was all singed, or gone completely; her skin burned and blackened. Her clothes had been lost ages ago, and she wandered around bare to the world, uncaring anymore. During these times, her body could recover, but she still would have flares, where it would stir in its slumber, and cause fires to burn around her, almost as though spiting her for any shred of happiness she might find.

It was during this most recent respite that she realized it was now or never. She would die and she would drag its soul down into Hell with her own if she had to. She couldn't keep living like this, however; it was too much, too painful, too ceaseless. The eternity of it was too much to bear, and the creature was a constant; it would keep her alive with it forever, and eventually, she knew that it would consume her entirely.

There was a peace in her resolve, but still a certain pang of anguish remained within her; she couldn't die, not yet…she had to lay to rest one last thing before she could do so.

She had to see him again…just one last time. Then, her soul would be at ease. She only hoped that he would understand, and forgive her.

She still had the two chaos emeralds that she'd used to seal the creature in the first place; it took a lot of focus, but she was able to use them to form a portal back to the now slowly-healing Mobius Prime. She immediately felt resistant, and fearful that Iblis would awaken and lay waste to the world she had struggled all this time to protect, but she knew she could not be fully at rest until she could say her farewell to her old friend. At least she would be coherent and not burned to a pulp when she faced him; she could only imagine his horror, if he saw how much of a husk she'd really become, both inwardly and sometimes outwardly.

Staggering through the fluctuating opening that it formed, she found herself on the outskirts of the city; she was amazed at how much the world had recovered in the time she had been gone. The cool autumn breeze felt relieving against her still somewhat burned and permanently marred skin, even under the thin layers of iridescent fur she'd grown back. A small smile appeared on her features, albeit a sad, and weary, one.

I always knew…that deep down inside you would be a good leader, Silver…you just needed confidence…

As she took a few steps, however, she looked in horror as her very presence seemed to ignite some sort of urge from the demon inside of her; the trees closest to her almost immediately started to simmer, and then turned into full-fledged flames; she managed to calm down the beast's insatiable hunger, but the damage was already begun, and she could only collapse down onto her knees, holding her face in her hands. Her mind was screaming at the creature in torment and loathing.

Please stop…please stop this…I don't want to harm anyone else, I don't want to bring the end to anymore worlds…I can't take it…!

She paused, suddenly feeling the heat seem to extinguish almost as feverishly as it had begun; peering between the limited space betwixt her fingers she could see that the trees and foliage that had caught fire in her presence had been smothered, faint wisps of blue energy trailing from them. She let out a shaky breath as she suddenly heard someone and onto the ground just a few yards ahead of her; she could feel his stare before he even spoke. She couldn't help but smile faintly into her aching palms.

"Blaze…?" he whispered it, as though he honestly thought he was imagining things. She didn't move for a moment, but then slowly lowered her claws, her fiery yellow eyes staring at him with equal parts intensity and weariness.

Just seeing him standing there brought a sense of peace, and contentment, that she hadn't felt now in what felt like a true eternity.

"Hello…Silver…"

Silver honestly expected this to be the moment where he'd wake up again in a cold sweat of some kind, maybe bash his head comically into the shelf that he'd bolted far too low into the wall over his bed. He even felt the innocent inclination to pinch himself in his side as he half-expected the image of her to fade, or turn into some absurd fever-dream in front of him as it had before.

But no, there she was, sitting on the ground just a handful of feet in front of him. He could see a spark in her eyes that was definitely real, though as he observed her, his heart immediately contorted painfully in his chest.

Blaze had always prided herself in being elegant and refined, obviously traits that she had obtained because of her royal blood he'd always assumed. He could remember how she'd fuss and lecture him if he did the smallest things that she deemed uncouth, stating that it didn't matter that they were trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, that if they lost their sense of decency and civilized behavior, they'd be no better than what they were fighting.

Yet here she was, crumpled on her knees weakly, completely nude and covered in grime. Her fur was matted and smeared with soot, along with exposed parts of her skin, which in turn were also marked with old scar tissue.

I've still…never seen someone so beautiful…

He realized she was shaking, this woman who he'd never seen so much as show a shred of fear once in his time with her. He also realized that he was just standing there, staring.

It took only a second to close the distance between them.

Her form was searing to the touch, and yet he didn't give a single damn about it. His own form shuddered a bit just feeling her this close to him once more as he knelt down in front of her and wrapped his arms around her.

"Blaze…" he choked a bit, shutting his eyes tightly, just taking in her presence. He didn't care if this was a dream or not…it was the first time he'd gotten to touch her in so many years. "I didn't think…I'd ever get to see you again…"

He heard her murmur his name, and felt her body go almost limp, her forehead leaning in against his chest. He could feel her shifting and shivering as though she were cold in spite of the heat radiating from her.

How did this happen to her…? Her skin, her fur…her body…it's all been burned, ravaged…

"Silver…I'm so…so glad…to see you as well…" her voice sounded hoarse, and dry, like she'd crossed the expanse of many deserts to get to him. "I wanted to see you…one...one last..."

He suddenly felt her go completely limp, and his own blood turned to ice in his veins as he realized she had lost consciousness. He swiftly picked her up off of the dry earth beneath her and turned towards the city.

'I have to get her help…I'm not going to lose her again…!' His mind thought frantically; his powers surged around him in response to the urgency of his thoughts, and without any more delay, he suddenly took off as quickly as he could back into Renascentia with her tucked cautiously in his arms.