Sonic: Atonement
Chapter 8: Business & Pancakes
Silver wasn't sure what time it was right now, he just knew that he couldn't get any sleep right now.
Tails had offered both him and Blaze a place to stay. Silver sighed and rubbed his eyes as he sat up, resting his elbows on his knees. He sat in silence for awhile before finally deciding to get up and quietly exit the workshop. He made his way outside.
He floated up to the top of Tails' workshop and just sat there on the rooftop for a little while, looking towards the little bit of Green Hill Zone that he could see in the distance. He closed his eyes and just listened to the sounds of flickies and bugs in the distance.
A gentle breeze whispered through the air as a voice softly called to him, "Silver? What're you doing awake at this hour?" Blaze asked, carefully walking on the roof. Silver flinched in surprised, looking back at her as she took a seat next to him.
"Ah, hey, Blaze...I guess you couldn't sleep either, huh?" He asked.
"I wasn't necessarily struggling, but I heard you moving and figured you were troubled. You tend to isolate yourself when you feel you need to get your thoughts in order." Blaze noted.
"Ah...I guess I do, huh?" Silver said sheepishly.
"What is it that's on your mind, Silver? Are you still thinking about the future we saw?" Blaze asked him.
"Kinda...? I keep seeing it in the back of my head...but that's not exactly what I'm thinking about right now." Silver answered with a shake of his head.
"Then what is it?" Blaze asked, leaning forward a little to look at his facial expression.
"I...keep thinking about something Shadow said to me – the one from the future. He said it to us a little before we left. I don't know if you remember." He began.
"He said a lot of things to us. You'll have to be more specific."
"It was...the gist of it was that he was telling us to kill Zero." Silver summarized.
"Ah," Blaze nodded in understanding, now starting to understand what was troubling Silver. "This isn't the first time we've discussed this moral dilemma." She pointed out.
"Yeah, but last time we were being lied to by Mephiles. This time, it's the real deal. When I got there to help Sonic, that Zero guy had a gun in his hand. Now, of course, Sonic can handle himself, but still...this is no trick, Blaze."
"So now you're finding yourself facing that question again...of what's the right step to take from a moral standpoint." Blaze presumed.
"I know what the moral thing to do is, but is it the right thing to do?" Silver asked, looking in Blaze's eyes. He was speaking more seriously than usual.
"Aren't those the same things?" Blaze asked, her eyebrows furrowing slightly.
"Well...maybe that's the wrong way to phrase it. What I'm saying is I don't know if it'll be enough." He explained.
"Ah...you've...been looking at this differently." Blaze pointed out quietly. Silver sighed sadly.
"We've already failed to fix the future once, Blaze. I...can't let it happen again." He said seriously, looking down at the ground, taking note of the grass below his feet.
"Hm," Blaze put a hand on his arm and leaned in closer. "We're not going to let it happen again. We'll figure this out, and we're going to do it by keeping our wits about us and figuring out a plan of action. If we stick together and have trust, we will figure this out." She said reassuringly.
"Yeah...yeah, you're right as usual." Silver said with a small chuckle.
"Well, I'm glad you at least recognize that," Blaze smiled a little and rubbed his shoulder before standing up. "I'm going back to bed now, Silver. You should do the same." She recommended.
"Yeah, I will in a minute. Thanks, Blaze." He said appreciatively.
"Anytime. Goodnight." Blaze said before going back inside Tails' workshop.
"Goodnight." Silver said in return.
After Blaze went back inside, Silver took a little more time to reflect on her words. He wasn't sure exactly where his doubts were coming from; he had managed to stop Sonic from being taken by surprise this time, but now they were in uncharted territory.
He had no idea what would happen next – perhaps it was that uncertainty that was giving him so much anxiety. But Blaze was right, the only way that they would make it through this would be by staying levelheaded and figuring things out together.
The rest they would figure out along the way...
Silver went back to bed and, despite the anxieties still weighing in his mind, was able to get relatively good sleep. He woke up the next morning to the sounds and smells of Tails and Blaze making breakfast for the three of them. He rubbed his eyes and sighed before joining them in the kitchen area.
"Tails, your workshop is a lot more 'homey' than I remember." Silver commented as he joined the others.
"Good morning to you too, Silver. Did you rest well?" Blaze asked, looking over her shoulder back at him.
"Ah, heheh, sorry. Yeah, I slept fine. Good morning to both of you." Silver greeted them properly.
"Morning, Silver! What were you saying before?" Tails asked.
"Oh, nothing, I was just saying the workshop feels...bigger since the last time I was here." Silver rephrased his earlier comment.
"Oh yeah, I expanded the downstairs area – I added a kitchen and even a little hidden guest room. I still haven't finished up the new security measures yet, which is why I leave the key under the mat, the one Sonic used and didn't put back." Tails explained with a chuckle.
"Oh, I see. It's nice." Silver said, leaning on a nearby table.
"Hard at work as always, Tails; some things never change. How have you been?" Blaze asked with a smile.
"I've been good! Up until now, things had been miraculously quiet, which was definitely needed after all the crazy stuff that happened on the Starfall Islands. I guess you two kinda missed all that, huh?" Tails thought aloud.
"No, you'll have to tell us all about it." Blaze said, inviting him to share.
"I will, but first, we have important business to attend to...and pancakes," Tails said, serving each of them two pancakes on plates. "And here's some syrup. I'll pour you both something to drink."
"Thank you for your hospitality, Tails, especially on such short notice." Blaze said appreciatively.
"Of course! Always happy to help," Tails managed a smile before his tone grew serious again. "I want to hear more about everything that you saw and heard from the future...about this Zero guy and Sonic...dying." He requested as he gave them their drinks.
"Uh...what specifically do you want to hear about?" Silver asked.
"Everything," Tails answered seriously.
"I couldn't sleep last night. I know Sonic said that he didn't have any problems dealing with this guy, but you had to come back and warn him, which means that Zero has something up his sleeve that we need to be ready for.
"I refuse to let anything happen to Sonic. After everything we've been through together, it's gonna take a lot more than some hedgehog with a gun to take it all away. So please, whatever you can tell me, I wanna take it into consideration." Tails pleaded calmly.
Blaze and Silver exchanged glances. The way Tails was presenting himself was a bit more mature than the kid they were used to, but still, he didn't fully understand the gravity of what he was asking. Tails sighed and shook his head.
"I understand what you mean...our own knowledge is fairly limited, admittedly, but we do know Zero's end goal is to kill both Sonic and Dr. Eggman. How he achieved this in the original timeline, we have no idea, but the date has already passed, so now we are in a new timeline as far as that goes goes." Blaze began.
"Why does he wanna kill Sonic? I mean, I get Eggman, 'cause that guy is an endless supply of problems, but why lump Sonic into the same category? Did you get any info about that?" Tails asked curiously.
"Not really," Silver answered with a shake of his head. "What we do know is that when he killed them both, someone by the name of Praxis took over. The way they described Praxis, he sounds like he has the same goals as Eggman...
"But one thing that isn't too clear to me is if Zero is Praxis or if he's serving Praxis. From what I could tell, Zero sounded pretty self-motivated by a desire for revenge, but it's not like he's gonna reveal his plans to the guy he's fighting." Silver commented.
"Yeah, that's more of an Eggman move," Tails joked dryly. "So in that case, our goal needs to be finding this guy before he becomes a serious issue."
"How do you propose going about that?" Blaze asked.
"Well, I'm going to reach out to everybody and let them know to be alert, and I'll give them a description of what Zero looks like. I reached out to Knuckles and he gave me the info for the Chaotix Detectives. I'm going to get them on the case too." Tails revealed.
"The Chaotix Detectives? Do you mean Espio and Vector?" Blaze asked.
"Yeah, the whole crew recently got back together except for Knuckles. So it's Vector, Espio, Charmy, and Mighty. We still have Eggman to deal with after all, so I think it'll be good to have some dedicated eyes to figuring out where this Zero guy is and what's his beef." Tails explained his thinking.
"That's good thinking. If there's anything else we can do to help, just let us know." Silver said with a nod.
"Thank you. We wouldn't even have a chance to figure this out if it weren't for you. I can't thank you enough for that." Tails expressed his appreciation before sighing at the thought of how things could have been.
"We'll happily continue to assist until this situation has come to pass." Blaze promised...