Disclaimer: See first chapter.

City of Silence

She had called it the city of silence in her head, but as Whisper walked through the broken streets and empty walkways of Spiral Hill, she wasn't actually all that far off.

The city looked as if no one had done any maintenance for years. Potholes abound everywhere, and it looked nothing like the city she knew from her dreams.

The Spiral Hill she knew was small, tight-knit and communal. This one seemed more spread out, which it had been twenty three years, so she was okay with that. But where it seemed to have spread out, it lost that sense of community. Now endless grey buildings and apartment complexes arose over every corner. The paints were chipping off the small murals she'd seen that Tangle had painted when she was younger. They usually were kept up by the various citizens, each year the mural slowly changing as more people added to it.

Those were gone. And in their place was more endless grey and silver. Even the sky, once a lovely shade of blue was now nothing more than a black expanse. Granted, it was close to sundown, but there was still something soulless about it.

She knocked gently on Orange's canister. "Time Eater's not around?" she asked quickly. The orange wisp gave a few looks around, her eyes scanning over the horizon with a precision akin to a sniper scope, before she shook her head. Whisper nodded. The streets were still in their ever present spiral, hence the name of the village. Or city, as it was now.

Jewel's museum wasn't much farther. She knew where it was from this turn. "This place is...not looking good," Orange commented as she floated over to a light pole, flickering ominously.

"No, it's not," Whisper agreed. Something was going on here. Even if it was 'late'ish, as in right after sundown, the lights should be constant and there should still be people around. There was no one around. At all. In fact, Whisper could tell that no one had been walking around for...ages. It looked as if the entire city had been turned into a ghost town.

It reminded her of those old zombie movies that Tangle had loved until the Metal Virus. Not that Whisper blamed her; she'd used to like those movies too until that incident.

Cyan popped out. "Wow this place is a mess," she said instantly. "Mind if I take a look around the electric grid?" she asked. Whisper shook her head. Honestly, there was little damage the wisp could do that hadn't already been done by time and zero maintenance.

She gave the approximation of a grin as she dove into another flickering light post. "Is that wise? That seems...worrying."

"There's not much more damage she can do in there," Whisper said. Orange blinked before she shrugged. She jumped over another broken down pothole in the road. There were some cars on the side, most of them looking rusted. The windows weren't broken in though, they were just...rusted. One was in the middle of the road, obviously in the way if anyone tried to go anywhere.

Whisper took the edge of the wispon and shattered one of its windows, the echo of it crashing down upon them. "Whisper, why!?" Orange asked immediately.

"No alarm," Whisper answered. The car looked as if it had been parked there at the end of a day and then just...left to rot. There were no blinking lights, nothing that said it had any power at all. "It's not right."

"No, no it's not. The grid is messed up, Whisper," Cyan announced as she floated back down. "It barely has enough power to support the lights it does have. Something's different. This is still Spiral Hill, right? Tangle's hometown?"

Whisper nodded.

Green and Pink both came out of their canisters, and as if not wanting to be left alone, so did Blue. "Nothing has power, it seems," Pink noted as he looked into the other cars. "Jewel's place can't be far."

"It's not. Two blocks." Whisper answered.

"I don't like the silence of this place. Spiral Hill, the other times we came here, was always loud. There's no sound." Green said softly. "It gives me the creeps."

There were no lights on in the various apartment complexes, even if Whisper could swear she saw people around. They were just shadows in the windows, impossible to get a good idea on where they were.

Jewel's museum was as colorful as it had been in Whisper's time, a small jewel hanging from the top. But much like everything else, the paint was peeling and breaking down, and there was an uncomfortable darkness around it like a thick blanket.

"Time Eater isn't around is it? This seems like a Time Eater thing," Blue murmured. Orange shook her head.

"Whisper already asked," Orange explained.

The doors didn't open automatically as they should have, and Whisper gave a glance inwards. No lights, no power. "Blue? Hammer," Whisper asked. Blue nodded, imbuing himself into the wispon. Whisper dropped the fox mask over her face, letting it scan through the doorway to find the best place to hit it and bring it down.

Blue gave the wispon a hammer type head, which on its own was akin to a sledgehammer. However, like most wisps, he also could control his own velocity. In other words, when Whisper had him imbue himself into the wispon, it was closer to a jackhammer sledgehammer.

She swung the wispon straight into the door's hinges, letting it collapse without the glass breaking. "Thanks," Whisper said quietly. Blue dis-imbued himself, giving a quiet chirp that raised her spirits a bit.

The inside of the jewel museum was...rough. A door had been shoved to the back, where it'd collapsed onto the far wall. The glass hadn't broken, if only because Jewel was used to having Tangle around. Glass containers that contained beautiful jewels were scattered around, small placards that said what they were. Whisper was half expecting them to not have anything in them.

Instead they were untouched. Literally, untouched. Some of them had started to tarnish, particularly the silver, and some of the gems had a thick layer of dust. The containers were so dusted up it was near impossible to tell what gem was inside it. This was unlike Jewel in every way...

"Alright, I wasn't scared before, but I'm terrified now," Pink murmured. "Whatever happened, it got Jewel too. There is no way she'd let this place go like this if she could do anything about it."

"Thanks Pink. That makes the rest of us feel so much better," Cyan responded.

"I'm glad. It should, because that means the rest of you are justified to feel whatever it is you want!"

Whisper rolled her eyes as the wisps started arguing again. It felt nice, actually, and she had a feeling that was why they did it. They were loud, obnoxious, colorful, and everything that Spiral Hill used to be and no longer was. It was a surprising bright spot.

There were a few doors that led to the back, where Jewel kept her personal collection before the doors that connected to her house. "Jewel?" Whisper asked as she opened the next one slowly. The hinges squeaked, and didn't want to open. Rusted? Whisper glanced at the side; the door was rusted.

Rust was common, but on an inside door? How would it have been opened directly to water? That's what usually causes rust, air and water. Some amount of rust was okay, even normal. But enough that she was having to put her entire weight to the door to open it?

No one answered her, and the voices of the wisps slowly disappeared behind her. Back here, there was even more dust than there was up front. There was a large hole in the roof, looking like it was caused by lack of maintenance and just general wear and tear. There was a puddle in the middle of the room, covering nearly the entire floor. "Explains the rust..." Whisper muttered.

The door to Jewel's house was dirty and seemingly unused. The lock wasn't engaged, and that thought made Whisper narrow her eyes. Jewel had never, ever, forgotten to lock up. She hadn't even tried the front door because of it, just assuming the door was locked.

The hallway to the back was empty, and the carpet old and moldy. It squished down as Whisper stepped on it. "Jewel?" she asked aloud again. "Are you in here? Is anyone in here?" she asked.

There were pictures and paintings on the wall, although Whisper could barely make out what they were of. Her memory of Jewel's place was so far so good, and if she was right at the end of the hallway was the living room, with a couch and a small TV that she used to play movies on.

She half expected to see Jewel on the couch, with a bucket of popcorn. The beetle was notorious for it, having dozens of popcorn buckets around her house. None around the Restoration offices, because she was a professional, but in her home?

Instead the couch was untouched. A blanket lay disheveled on the side, as if she hadn't bothered to fold it. There were buckets everywhere at least, but most of them looked like they'd collapsed into themselves. It'd been a long time since anyone had cleaned up.

A low groan flew around the place, and immediately Whisper tensed. There was someone, or something here after all. "Who's there!?" she shouted.

Another low groan, barely sapient at all. Coming from the...bedroom. Right, the living room connected to both the kitchen, and another hallway that led to the bathroom and bedroom. It was a small house, and didn't leave much room for working on things, particularly bulky variable wispons, but it was comfortable enough for the beetle.

Whisper walked near silently to the bedroom, cautiously opening the door. The carpet sunk as she stepped onto it, and immediately the air filters in the mask kicked in.

Jewel was there. Still alive, in the bed. She was lying awake, her eyes barely open, staring up at the ceiling. Her eyes were sunk in, as if she didn't get any sleep recently, and her face was gaunt and pale. "Jewel?" Whisper asked.

The low groan came from the beetle's throat as she turned to look at her. Her lips weren't moving. The room was...well, putrid was putting it lightly. Whisper gave a quiet whistle, and immediately all five wisps lined up in front of her.

"Holy Mother! What happened to her!?" Cyan asked, her eyes wide. "She's not...she's not dead, is she? We saw death earlier, but..."

"No, she's not dead. Just...wow. Hey, Green, Blue, care to help Pink take care of all this...I don't want to call it trash," Orange advised.

"No, it's trash," Whisper affirmed.

"Oh, I didn't want to call it that because it'd offend them!" Orange said, glancing over at the three other wisps. They were looking over some of the trash with curious eyes, and Whisper was glad they couldn't smell it.

"Cyan, can you give a charge to this area?" Whisper asked. Cyan gave a mock salute before ducking into a light switch. Immediately fans started, and Jewel gave an appreciative groan. The lights came on, and Whisper had to wait for her eyes to adjust.

"Oh this is disgusting. We are so getting treats for this," Pink complained as he rolled a bunch of the 'trash' into one place. Green hovered it over to the overflowing trash can, before he realized there was no room in there. Hovering the entire thing, using Blue's cubes to take their time whenever he needed to rest, they slowly pulled it out of the room.

Whisper ignored the squelch of the carpet, and pulled open the shades and windows. "Jewel," she said again.

That got another groan. "Does she need some water or something?" Orange asked. Whisper finally took off the mask, before the scent made her retch, and she hurriedly pulled it back down. "Oh, that didn't look good."

"It wasn't pleasant. Something is definitely wrong," Whisper said. It was as if a skunk's stink organ had been run over, left to bake in the sun, mixed with rafflesia, or the corpse flower, and then pushed into a sewer.

She pulled out some water from her emergency stash in her cloak, and gently let some go into Jewel's mouth. The beetle blinked for a bit, the water wetting her throat easily, and Whisper was relieved to see her throat swallow it down. "Whisper...?" she asked after a long moment. Her voice was hoarse, as if unused for a long time.

There were dozens of glasses of water around Jewel's bedside, and even more small pill bottles around. Had she gotten addicted to some kind of drugs? That didn't seem right, the Jewel she knew would never let that happen. No, something else was here.

"Am I seeing things?" Jewel whispered again. "I guess this is the end if you're here."

Whisper stared at her. "It was only time..." Jewel said softly. "But I'm still so tired..." she muttered, rolling over in the bed.

"Green?" Whisper asked aloud a moment later. The wisp answered by hovering the bed sheets up, and Whisper had the urge to curse. Jewel was absolutely covered in various sores. She was clothed, but that didn't seem to help much.

The beetle barely murmured despite the fact she had to be freezing now. There was no curling up into a ball. There was almost no reaction.

"Uh...yeah that ain't normal," Pink said. "Should I go turn on the faucet?" he asked. Whisper tilted her head, before she nodded. The pink wisp flew off into the bathroom, already knowing where it was.

"Not water...not water..." Jewel murmured. Whisper glanced at her again, ignoring the way the sheets rose up around her. She'd been lying in bed for way too long, and it was probably only luck that Whisper had gotten here when she did.

"Come on," Whisper said, ignoring the way that Jewel's body was far too warm on hers as she hoisted the beetle up. She heard the water start.

"Oh...uh, Whisper? We got another problem," Pink said. Whisper sighed and moved out to the couch, where Jewel lay still right away. Curious, and dreading to find out what had gone wrong now.

The problem was instantaneously found. The water was purple. "That's not good, is it?" Pink asked, his spikes juggling the handle.

"No, no it is not," Whisper agreed. Purple water. She was no professional tester, but something like purple water...she hit the side of her mask, trying to use the radio. "Shadow, Violet, this is Whisper."

"Whisper! We can hear you loud and clear! A lot better than we normally can at least. You do whisper a lot," Violet's voice called through the radio. It, too, was quite clear despite the distance between them. It was probably using the Tornado as a secondary receiver and signal booster.

The fact that Tails could create an airplane that does that, twenty three years or more ago, really said just how much of a genius he was.

"Found Jewel. She's in bad shape."

"How bad?" Shadow's voice came through. There was considerable more static through his headset. He must have been away from the Tornado and Violet. "Town's practically dead. Something's wrong here."

"Yes, there is," Whisper agreed. "Bedsores, looking like weeks old. No energy, at all. Barely talks. We're trying to give her a bath but ran into an issue. Purple water."

"The water's purple?" Shadow's voice said instantly. "Thick and sludgy, or thin? Water or milk?"

The lights went out, and with it so did the sound of water in the bathroom. Cyan came out of a nearby electric socket, looking a bit tired and panting softly. Whisper reached down to her emergency pack, glad that she'd restocked on the energy pellets when she could. The bathroom glowed with a purple light, the same color as the water itself.

What was it, nuclear?

"Water. Purple, and glows in the dark."

"Can you confirm that last part?"

Whisper moved the mask up her face, ignoring the way the scent of the bedroom was making its way over to her, and she could still see clearly, even if everything was bathed in purple. "Yes."

"Hmm..."

"What are you thinking, Uncle Shadow?" Violet asked. Her voice was clear, but there was a slight tinge of fear in it. Whisper didn't blame her. Right off the bat, basically into a zombie town.

"I was thinking Eggman made another play that wouldn't go off until after he died. But now I'm not so sure. Faker mentioned a 'mega-mack' back on Westside Island once. I'll get in touch with him. For now, Whisper, don't touch it."

"Of course," Whisper said. She looked to the bathroom again to see Pink and Cyan playing in the purple water, occasionally splashing each other. Orange was sighing as she was on overwatch, and Green and Blue were touching it curiously. She sighed.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Whisper said.

"Of course it is! What's going to happen oh I don't feel so good," Cyan said, answering her own question instantly after asking it. "It's like I have no energy anymore," Cyan kept going, slowly sinking into the water.

Green picked her up instantly, and Pink escaped from the water himself a moment later, then he, too, started to feel off, sinking down the sides of the bathroom even with his spikes on and out. "Yeah, this is weird...it's like the world's all...greyed." He said.

"Gray?" Whisper asked.

"Yeah," Cyan answered back softly and quietly. It was a complete turnaround from her usual 'yippee!' attitude. "Like it's just too much energy. Even with the pellet, I just...can't move. And don't want to move. Don't make me move."

That sounded like a bigger problem. It either drained energy, or it made people feel like it was draining their energy. She grabbed her own water supply, opening it and taking a sniff. It was normal water for her. And she'd recently filled it too. She was thankful for that.

She went to the kitchen, turning on her mask's night vision again. The cups in Jewel's place were always in the same place, the second cupboard from the sink. Sure enough, they were still here. A few were in disarray, as if Jewel didn't have the energy to clean up after grabbing a bunch for the bedroom.

The sink water was purple. Whisper filled up a cup anyways, and then put in one of the water purification tablets she'd stored away in her survival kit.

The tablet foamed and fizzed, disappearing deep into it, but slowly restoring the water to normal. Instead of glowing, it became dull. Instead of purple, it became clear.

And that was an entire tablet. Those things were supposed to be heavy duty ones, meant for gallons of water at a time, not a single cup. Whatever this stuff was, it could be purified, but it would take a lot to do it. They couldn't just stuff the pipes full of the tablets and call it a day.

Not to mention she only had four tablets on her. Two days worth of water, or eight gallons worth. Two each. She went back out to the living room, seeing Jewel sitting exactly where Whisper had put her down. "Water...bad..." Jewel murmured.

"This is clear," Whisper said, pouring it softly down the beetle's throat. Not a lot, just enough. The beetle panicked for a moment, before she stopped and eagerly drank the rest.

"Thank you...ghost of Whisper..." she murmured as she fell asleep again. Whisper stared at her, wondering how things had gotten this bad without anyone in the Restoration noticing.

Right, the biometrics only reported life signs, not actual quality of life. Jewel had a phone somewhere around here, Whisper knew. Why didn't she call for help when she first realized? The radio would have worked too.

The phone was...on the wall. By the TV. Whisper knew that one because Tangle liked to watch it loud, even when Whisper was trying to do something like order pizza. Right, it was right there.

She picked it up, an old landline model that had barely seen use except for when Whisper and Tangle were here. There was no dial tone, as it it had been out of service. She hit the zero button, trying to connect to an operator, but got only silence.

"How bad is it?" Orange asked as she hovered out of the bathroom. "Pink and Cyan are doing better. I don't know if it's because we're wisps or what, but whatever it is they didn't get the full effect."

That was good. It had been...completely normal for them to try something like playing in glowing purple water. Actually, what was the water in planet wisp? Was it that glowing purple too, or was that just around where Eggman was? And more importantly, why wouldn't they remember that!?

"Could be worse. She wants water. Phone line is dead. Shadow is checking. Violet's scared," Whisper recalled. Orange sighed again.

"What about food? The refrigerator?"

"Honestly if the state of the bedroom is any indication, I'm glad I have an air filter," Whisper said as walked back into the kitchen. The pantry was...there. And was empty. No food at all, not even the small scraps of bread that even ants wouldn't go after. Everything was gone.

The refrigerator was...Whisper took a deep breath before she opened it up. Jewel was a healthy eater most of the time, with only popcorn being her real snack food of choice.

There were hundreds of snacks of what used to be called chocolate. None of them were any good anymore, but it was there. Whisper was glad she had gloves on for this as she looked through, seeing the giant pile of mold that had been there.

"Chocolate? That's unusual. I didn't know Jewel liked chocolate."

She didn't, Whisper knew. Tangle did, but she'd stopped entirely when she realized that Whisper couldn't have any. "She doesn't," Whisper said softly. "Something was here."

"Whisper?" Shadow's voice crackled over the radio. "I'm at the museum. Someone did a lot of damage breaking in."

"That was me," Whisper admitted instantly, not feeling bad for a second. "I didn't check if the door was locked."

"It wasn't," Shadow clarified. She could hear him now as walked through the broken down museum. His red eyes glowed in the darkness, and she heard his radio and his real voice say at the same time, "At least you showed some restraint."

Whisper rolled her eyes. "Jewel always locked up," she answered. Shadow gave her a smirk as he walked into the room, before he gave a raised eyebrow to Jewel's body.

"What have you got so far? Anything new?" he asked as he bent down, examining some of the bed sores. "Help me get her on the couch," he said.

He didn't have to move, as Green promptly came over and hovered her up, over, and gently laid her down. "Thanks, Green," Whisper said. Shadow gave an agreeing grunt as he looked her over.

"No, nothing new yet. My water purification tablets work on the water, but it's a lot for only a little," Whisper explained.

"They work on it? So it's chemical in nature? How do those tablets work again?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Oh, I know this one!" Green said as he flew closer. "They break down the biochemical and energetic barriers of all life, oxygenate every molecule inside it which causes all bacteria to collapse as oxygen attacks them, and boils them all at the same time! That's what the fizz is."

"...How do you know that?" Shadow asked. "I thought Orange was the smart one."

"They're all smart," Whisper fought. "Just in different things. But that is usually Orange's specialty."

"I got interested in those one time when you and Tangle were out in the woods-"

"Stopping you there," Whisper said. Green gave an excited chirp that raised her spirits a bit, and got a moan out of Jewel.

She remembered that trip quite well. Out in the forest, Tangle had forgotten to grab some canteen water, and Whisper had drank all of hers because she'd assumed Tangle had brought some. She hadn't, but Whisper had brought a few tablets with her.

Much more innocuous than Blue was making it out to be.

"Also, chocolate in the fridge. It's definitely past its expiration, but its there," Orange said from the kitchen.

"Chocolate?" Whisper heard Pink's voice as the spike wisp made his way across the floor, puncturing the carpet with every movement until he got to the kitchen. Whisper took a deep breath as she heard the, "It is! Chocolate!"

"Is he going to be alright?" Shadow asked as he watched the pink wisp devour the age old chocolate cakes and pies.

"No. No he won't. But he'll learn," Whisper answered softly. "Eventually."

Jewel gave another half-hearted moan of despair.

So uh...I should probably put in a trigger warning for severe depression. In case it wasn't obvious.

Until Next Time!