Chapter Text
Before Silver even knew what he was doing, he threw himself off the balcony after Blaze. His psychokinesis was out of control—he knew it was the psychokinetic burst that had cracked the balcony—and it didn’t respond to his commands. Jumping off a building was a sure-fire way to get himself killed. If he didn’t get shot on the way down, the impact would definitely kill him.
Was this how the prophecy was fulfilled? Blaze fell to her death because of him?
Adrenaline completely blocked the pain in his body. Before the jump, his ribs strained, his head spun, and his wounds burned, but now as he found himself in freefall, all he felt was the wind in his face and the terror in his heart. He reached out effortlessly, the fire in his shoulder gone, and begged his power to listen. The castle was tall, and they were high above the remains of Onyx. Even the skeletons of old skyscrapers weren’t as tall as Blaze’s suite. The height gave him a few extra seconds to catch her, but it also meant that if he failed, they both had very slim possibilities of surviving.
Come on, come on, come on—
Blue energy thrashed around Silver’s body like a wildfire, and taming it was just as hard. Theoretically, without his inhibitors, he had unlimited power. But said unlimited power was no good if he couldn’t use it. Beneath him, the psychokinesis wrapped around Blaze’s body for a split second before failing.
Come on!
He channeled every bit of strength he had left in his broken body and aimed it towards Blaze. He wouldn’t let it end like this. The energy flickered around her, and then it stayed. He yanked upward as hard as he could, and her fall began to slow. Grabbing himself was easier, and when he had them both in his psychic grip, he focused on stopping their descent.
Unfortunately, that was when he ran out of time.
He’d slowed them enough to make their collision with the ground painful but not deadly, and Blaze barely had time to yelp from her landing when Silver crashed down on top of her. He couldn’t have screamed even if he tried.
Blaze pushed him off and climbed to her feet. He was amazed she hadn’t broken any bones—or maybe she had, and she was just good at hiding the pain. She put her arms around his waist and hauled him to his feet, and then held him up as his legs refused to cooperate. “Silver, you have to hide,” she said desperately.
The knife wound in his thigh felt like a hot poker. Now that the adrenaline from their plummet had worn off, his body took the consequences of his idiotic actions. He took a breath to tell her that he couldn’t hide like this, but his chest screamed at the movement, and he broke into an agonizing coughing fit. Blaze held him against her as he practically convulsed. When he finally stopped coughing, there was blood in his mouth and on her dress.
He was dying.
He’d sort of known that already. He knew there was most likely some sort of internal bleeding, thanks to the merciless beatings they subjected him to. And now with a hole in his thigh and his wrists slit—he didn’t remember the baron cutting him, but it had to have been him—his chances were shrinking by the minute.
“Can you walk by yourself?” Blaze asked. It was a stupid question and they both knew it.
“You—okay?” he managed to choke out.
“I—yes, I’m fine. Just a little bruised. We have to get you out of here. We only have a minute at most before they catch up.”
A biter leapt over the castle wall into the courtyard and stalked towards them, like a wild animal hunting its prey. Blaze threw her arm out, but judging by her grunt of exertion, it took more energy than usual to explode the monster. Iblis was getting stronger. How was that possible?
Blaze shifted Silver’s weight to her side to help him walk, and they broke into a pathetic excuse for a run. Even if they did manage to escape, the guards could easily follow the trail of blood that turned the dust into a crimson mud. He coughed hard again, his chest feeling like he’d been stabbed a dozen times over.
Sure enough, barely a minute after their fall, at least a dozen soldiers poured out of the castle. They easily caught up and formed a line in front of the gate. Every single one of them had their guns pointed at him. He only prayed they wouldn’t shoot for fear of hitting Blaze.
He didn’t want to die. He was just a kid.
“Stay away,” Blaze ordered, shuffling backward. She angled her body to shield Silver—the closer they were, the harder it would be to shoot him without hitting her, too.
More fliers came closer. Silver could hear the people of Onyx screaming. What did Iblis hope to prove? Silver knew he hated the other gods, and therefore hated the people they claimed to love, but was this it? To destroy the world?
Aurora, give us strength.
“I cannot. I’m sorry.”
If Silver had the energy, he would have jumped. He tipped his head to see around Blaze’s, and there, behind the row of soldiers, stood an echidna woman with pink quills and a blue dress. She was crying.
“Why?” he breathed.
“It has to be this way. I’m so sorry, Silver.”
“Stay close,” Blaze said to him, as if he had any other options.
She carried most of his weight as she moved backwards, away from the castle guards. A few of them started after her, and she threw her hand out. A massive wall of flame blocked their path, and they shouted in surprise. She adjusted her arms around Silver’s waist and broke into a staggering run, practically dragging him along when his legs couldn’t keep up. The bandage around the wound was completely soaked. Every sudden movement sent chaotic bursts of psychokinesis out of his body, cracking stone and smashing anything weaker to pieces. It didn’t hurt Blaze, but it was only a matter of time before it did.
“Need—my inhi—” He cut off with a strangled yelp as Blaze yanked him to the side, just in time to avoid a lunge from a snake. The monsters were everywhere, multiplying by the minute.
“I know,” she said. She pushed the snake away, but didn’t destroy it. “I just—I don’t know where they are, and I can’t leave you.”
A gunshot echoed through the courtyard, followed by a frantic order of Don’t shoot! The sound startled him enough for his power to tear a chunk straight out of the castle wall, hurling the broken stone in every direction. “I…” Chaos, talking hurt every part of his body. “I am—I am gonna k-kill people if…if I don’t…”
“Then why don’t you give up?” Iblis mocked them from behind. “Aren’t you desperate to keep the princess safe?”
“Don’t listen to him,” Blaze said, not even looking back.
Silver risked a glance over his shoulder at the fallen god, and despite the heat, a shiver ran down his spine and his quills prickled. Why could he suddenly see him? Did that mean he was too close to death?
“We have the same goal, Silver.”
He did his best to focus and throw something at him—said something turned out to be another chunk of stone—but Iblis passed right through it as if he were made of nothing but smoke. Though Silver wanted to try again, it took all his energy to stay upright as the world spun around him. A glance at the bloody bandages on his wrists confirmed what he already knew. He was losing too much blood too fast.
“We both want the princess alive.”
A wave of nausea crashed through him, and he almost collapsed. Blaze had to pause their run to keep him upright, and the flaming hedgehog approached almost calmly, a hideous grin spreading across his face.
“It’s only a matter of time, psychic.”
As Blaze pulled him along again, darkness spotted his vision and he tripped over himself. At this rate, he was going to get them both killed.
“This is your last chance.”
And yet something bothered him. Iblis’s monsters couldn’t hurt Blaze. Why hadn’t they attacked him already? If Iblis was getting more powerful, and he most certainly was, why wasn’t Silver dead already?
When neither of them answered, the fallen god sighed. He kept a steady pace behind them as they shuffled along. “Do you think your guardian is still around?”
Even though Iblis was literally on fire, his voice was ice cold, and Silver froze in his tracks. Edmund had no way to protect himself. If Iblis’s monsters went after him, there was nothing Silver could do. “Don’t,” he tried to snap. His voice barely came out, and with it came a dribble of blood down his chin.
“Edmund has nothing to do with this,” Blaze said, her voice much stronger than his. How she was able to move and talk so easily after their fall was a mystery. Was Iblis still subconsciously protecting her?
“Of course he does.”
“Why are you doing this?” she demanded.
“Do you remember your family, Silver?”
Silver couldn’t move, even with Blaze’s support. He stayed completely imobile as Iblis came closer, and even though Blaze tugged on his arm and then his waist, she couldn’t get him to step away. Silver barely remembered his family. He could see his mother with spots of red spreading across her yellow dress. He remembered holding his father’s strong hands, and he remembered the tone he often used with him, but he couldn’t quite remember his actual voice. He couldn’t remember his father’s face—the only image of him he had was his charred corpse.
“Do you remember how it felt to lose them?”
Of course he remembered that. He relived the moment in his dreams far too often. Even now, he could almost hear his younger self screaming.
“Don’t you want their murderers to suffer?”
“Stop it,” he whispered.
“I would like to introduce you to someone.”
“Silver, we have to get out of here.” Blaze practically lifted him off the ground to drag him away. Silver couldn’t take his eyes off of Iblis’s sharp grin.
“Why don’t you come on out, dear brother?”
Silver had heard this story once, but only a vague retelling of it. How Iblis’s brother had done something truly horrible and been banished—without a seal, cursed to roam as an empty shell. Silver had thought it was just a ghost story to scare kids so they wouldn’t wander off alone at night.
The thing in front of him was a ghost of some sort. It melted in and out of the shadows on the wall, struggling to hold the shape of a hedgehog like Iblis. Its limbs and quills seemed to drip with liquid darkness, and its lifeless green irises pierced right through him.
“This is Mephiles, the former god of divine darkness. A mere fragment of what he used to be.”
“Why are you showing me this?” Silver whispered.
“So that you understand my motivation. We’re so very similar, Silver.” Iblis moved to stand beside his fallen brother, who looked up at him like a zombie. “We both lost everything. We both have incredible power hated by others. We are both cursed to be alone for eternity.”
I am nothing like you! Silver wanted to scream, but nothing came out. Three monsters burst through the wall and surrounded them—a flier, a biter, and a snake, circling them like vultures. His knees shook and he finally fell to the ground. Blaze knelt next to him, holding him close and trying her best to cover him with her own body. She shouldn't have to sacrifice herself for him. He wasn't worth dying for.
“Don't listen to him,” Blaze said. He could feel her trembling.
He didn't know what to do. There was nowhere left to run, and he was helpless like this. “I'm scared, Blaze,” he whispered, hearing the voice of his five year-old self. “I don't wanna die.”
“I won't let anything else happen to you,” she insisted. “I swear on my life.”
Silver was going to die. There was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Either Iblis and his monsters would kill him, or he would lie here and bleed out. Neither option was appealing, but he was out of time.
“You're going to be okay,” Blaze promise, kissing his forehead, and he realized he was crying.
He pushed his head against her chest for a final moment of comfort, and blue streaked off his quills and pushed back against the monsters slowly stalking closer. Maybe there was a third option—maybe his body would be overloaded with power and he would explode, killing him and everyone unfortunate enough to be around him.
“It’s going to be okay,” he heard someone say.
He forced himself to look up despite it taking most of his energy. There, between him and the monsters, sat someone he knew he'd never see again.
His mother was a ghost—her entire being was mostly transparent and tinted blue, and Blaze didn't react to her. Silver decided he must have been hallucinating, but at this point, he'd take any comfort he could get. “Mom?” he said. His voice didn't come out.
“It's going to be okay,” she repeated with a sad smile.
His father sat next to her, cross-legged as if he was meditating. Despite not remembering his face, his gentle eyes were so painfully familiar. And beside him sat his two best friends, Gold and Ruby. They had been barely five years old during the massacre, just like him, only they hadn't had a chance to grow up. Just looking at how small they were made Silver's heart wrench in his chest.
There was a mink on his mother's other side—that must have been Bronze, who had spent their afternoons playing with Silver and his friends despite being much older. Beside them knelt Opal, the physician who had tended many scraped knees and bruised five year-old egos. Chief Cobalt stood behind Silver's parents, his arms crossed and a proud smile on his face. And there were so many more, completely surrounding Silver and Blaze. So many faces he didn't recognize. So many people he never got a chance to know.
“I'm sorry,” Silver said through his tears. “I let you all down.”
“No.” The chief shook his head. “It wasn't your fault.”
“We're so proud of you, Silver,” his father said. “You've made it so far.”
“And now I'm gonna die.” He pushed closer to Blaze, who tightened her arms around him, though she loosened them again when another coughing fit struck him. He coughed hard enough to trigger his gag reflex, and barely managed to turn away and vomit blood onto the ground instead of all over her. His markings glowed a blinding blue through the wraps around his hands and pulsed with his heartbeat.
“No matter what happens,” his mother said, “it’s going to be okay.”
“Silver?” Blaze said, her voice trembling.
The power continued building in his body—he almost hadn’t noticed it before beneath all the other pain, but now it was hotter than ever, begging for a release. He’d heard a story like this before. A psychic had removed their inhibitors searching for ultimate power, and that ultimate power had killed them in the end. It was only a matter of minutes before Silver literally exploded.
“Go,” he choked out.
“I can’t leave you alone,” she whispered.
He lifted his head as much as possible to look around at the faces of his people. “m’not alone,” he said, trying his best to smile through the raw power tearing through his insides. “Please. L-live for me. Take…care of Edmund…for me.”
The way she looked at him broke his heart. Iblis laughed behind them, but she didn’t seem to hear it. Tears streamed down her face despite the heat of the monsters inching closer. She pulled him into her arms and kissed his forehead again, stroking his quills back and rocking him ever-so-slightly.
“Love you,” he breathed.
“I love you, Silver.” She smiled just a little. “I’m not going anywhere. If you go down, we’re going down together.”
He could feel the pulsing in his bones, and knew they didn’t have much time left. How ironic that after all this time, it would still be him who killed Blaze. After everything they’d been through, it would still be his fault. Even so, he just closed his eyes and leaned against her.
“No!” Iblis shrieked, and then suddenly Blaze’s head was yanked back. The psychic ghosts gasped in unison, and Silver’s eyes snapped open as best they could.
A flier’s talons dug into her forehead and she let out a blood-curdling scream as it dug the gem out of her skin and crushed it into dust.