Chapter Text
Blaze
Time warped around her, morphing into strange portals and black holes. It curled delicately over her, moving her slowly down its mysterious course. It pulled her through one of the open holes, tugging at her still form and offsetting her focus.
‘A golden sun setting, casting its warm rays across a clear blue sky, washing over a perfect world with bright green hills.’
‘Is this what the world is like now?’ she wonder absently, her mind dulled from the constant shifting of space. Was that strange image that had entered her mind the kind of world Silver was living in? Now that Iblis was gone?
‘Blaze...’ his soft voice echoed in her thoughts, bringing her memories of his gentle face. She hoped he had managed to get rid of Iblis in the past, and the world was the paradise he had always dreamed of.
The sudden sensation of falling yanked her forcefully out of her thoughts, replacing the dull feeling in her mind with cold panic. Before she could open her eyes to see the world closing in beneath her, she smacked onto hard ground. Pain seared through her back and down her legs, a slow hiss escaping her clenched teeth.
The pain subsided rather quickly-more quickly than seemed natural-and she forced her eyelids open. Black. Nothing but black swirled with white, merging into random splotches of gray. She sat up slowly and blinked several times, the swirl before her a hypnotic void.
‘Blaze, come closer...’ The gentle, starry voice sounded so far away, pulling her to her feet and tugging her towards the merging colors. She didn’t wonder why she was walking deeper and deeper into the swirling madness, all she knew was that she wanted to reach that beautiful voice so full of kindness. ‘Blaze,’ it pressed, sounding more urgent than before. ‘Blaze, we need you.’ Her vision blurred around the edges, her thoughts becoming muddled and slow.
A face started taking shape in the void, innocent and childlike yet so full of understanding. Spiked silver quills sat atop the figure’s head, and bright eyes peered at her through the emptiness, light yellow tinged with orange like the setting sun...
“Silver,” she whispered, reaching towards the ghostlike figure. The smile he gave her sent a sudden jolt through her, sharpening her thoughts. ‘Stay focused, Blaze,’ she scolded herself, shaking her head slightly. ‘It’s just a hallucination.’ She turned around and started retracing her steps, trying to find where she landed. But as she continued walking, it felt as if the world was moving rather than her.
Mephiles
Stars, moons, delicate lights he felt would extinguish as he passed, their bright glows illuminating his dark fur with and azure aura. Space and time enveloped him, embracing him in its cold clutches.
‘Iblis.’ The word echoed in his mind and slipped from his lips, a cloud of breath lingering in the starlit atmosphere. ‘Iblis,’ he murmured again. ‘Iblis, where are you? I do not feel you.’ His voice whispered across the glowing darkness, reaching for the stars in hopes they could hear his plea. ‘Iblis...’
He had felt his brother slip away when they had first started to drift through space, but how far had he gone? Images of three hedgehogs entered his mind; silver, blue, black streaked with red. He clenched his fists, anger boiling deep within him. They had separated him from Iblis, just as they had in the past.
‘I’ll find them,’ he vowed. ‘I’ll find them and crush them until they’re nothing but dust. And then I’ll-’
He was falling at the speed of light, falling passed the stars and planets, falling passed time itself. Everything folded around him, colors blurring and smearing together, creating a swirl of rainbows. And then they faded into black and white, merging into random splotches of gray.
Blaze
‘Blaze.’ Silver’s voice kept echoing in her mind, more persistent and urgent each time it spoke, trying to force her to think it was really him. And every time his face started taking shape in the void, she ignored it; cast him from her thoughts.
‘Blaze, we need you. We can’t stop Iblis on or own, we need you to control him. You’re the only one that can stop him. He’s already destroyed one city. If you don’t come back, he’ll destroy the whole world.’ She kept walking, kept ignoring the bright eyes that tried to form, the familiar voice that continuously called for help. ‘Blaze..’ it pleaded, trying to claw at her heart and make her look into the void. But she refused to let the hallucinations control her mind.
‘He destroyed everything you loved, took away the one person you trusted and cared for.’ The new voice surprised her, yet it somehow seemed familiar, like she had heard it speak all her life.
“Who are you,” she growled, stilling her steps and searching the void for any shapes that might have formed. Nothing was there except the swirling colors, not even Silver’s shining eyes. The voice laughed, reminding her of something she had once heard as a child, but couldn’t quite place it.
‘I am you, Blaze, and you are me. I’m the voice of your heart, the voice of what you feel. And I can tell just how much you hate him, how much you want to destroy him, destroy them all.’
“I would never want to destroy Silver. He’s done absolutely nothing to make me hate him,” Blaze said calmly, her fire beginning to ignite within her. “Don’t pretend to know what I want and feel.” She stopped suddenly, realizing she was talking to a voice that was most likely another hallucination. She shook her head and started walking again, ignoring the sharp pain that pierced through her skull when she moved.
‘I never said I was talking about Silver,’ the voice chuckled, sounding far too similar to her. ‘Maybe I was talking about Mephiles. It is his fault that you’re here, after all. Isn’t it?’ She ignored the voice, even though its words made her heart skip a beat. Why had she thought it was talking about Silver?
‘Because you hate him, you want to kill him,’ the voice growled. ‘You want to make him pay for what he did to you and your brother.’ Brother? She didn’t have a brother. But something dwelling deep within, something bound to her soul, made her believe the voice, made her want to destroy something; destroy everything.
‘Mephiles,’ the voice breathed. ‘Your brother was Mephiles. And those hedgehogs killed him.’ Blaze growled, lunging into the void, fire bursting from her flesh.
“I’m going to kill them,” she snarled, her voice a violent rumble. “I’m going to kill every last one of them. And then, I’ll destroy their pathetic world piece by piece.” The voice laughed at her anger, fueling her rage and desire to kill. But somewhere in the edges of her mind, she wondered why the anger didn’t feel like it belonged to her.
Mephiles
The ground beneath him pulsed, beating like a cold heartbeat. He pressed his hands upon the strange earth, feeling it thump against his fingertips. He lifted his head slightly, surveying the world around him. It was so full of unborn life, sprouting with energy. He rose to his feet, reaching out his hand to feel the stale air.
There was no wind. But there was nothing to create even the smallest breeze. Not yet. He took a step forward and felt the worlds shift, felt the stars swim around him. It could be beautiful if it could fully form. But it didn’t have enough power to start shaping itself, didn’t have anything to feed off of.
He shook his head and started walking, feeling the swirling colors and shifting worlds for a way out; a way back. Nothing. The portal he had been sent trough had closed, leaving no way home. A low growl ripped from his throat, echoing and fading into the void, a strange sensation running through him. The worlds were reaching out to him, trying to get his attention. He closed his eyes and felt the atmosphere again, reaching deeper into the surrounding energy. All the stars and planets had felt something, and they wanted him to feel it too.
As he searched deeper, he started to feel a force of life, a powerful energy radiating from its form. A faint smile twisted his muzzle, contorting his face into a cruel mask. He understood why all the worlds had reached for him. The void wanted the energy for itself, so it could start forming. And it seemed to want Mephiles to get the source for it. But as he felt the power and strength of the creature, he had other plans.
If he could harness the energy, he would be powerful enough to open a portal large enough to get back. Powerful enough to destroy everything. And that’s what he wanted more than anything; to destroy every living and nonliving thing. A dark chuckle rose from his lips as he took a step forward, walking towards his freedom, his way back. Walking towards the destruction of all existence.