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A Golden Present

Chapter 3: Older Sister

Notes:

Thank you all for the support so far! I'm so glad you're enjoying this fic and here's the next chapter!

Chapter Text

Silver began frantically looking all around for Gold and Tails and Blaze joined right after once they saw what was happening. Now Silver was getting worried, his sister was in a completely alien world on her own, and judging from recent interactions she wasn’t in her happiest state so one could only guess the negatives as to what she could be doing.

 

Tails suggested that she could be back at his place, but she couldn’t have gone that far, right? And she didn’t have the time stone either. Not yet, at least, that item was left at Tails’ place… actually, it wasn’t out of the question that she had gone back there now that they thought about it. Because it wouldn’t be far-fetched to consider Gold wished to return to the future; the two of them naturally rushed back to the place to see if they could catch her before their assumption became true.

 

Blaze was going to follow them too but due to the nature of a situation like this, she figured it was something Gold and Silver had to face on their own instead, not only that, but her attempts at scouting the area were also fruitless. For now, she just walked away from the town on her way to get ready, hoping she could meet the future siblings on the special day ahead. However, she was still pondering about it… back when she looked at Silver, she saw something in the hedgehog's eyes. Silver wasn't one who could easily hide his feelings, even when he didn't say them outright. And he was scared, and not just because Gold was missing, it was a different kind of fear.

 

She tried to brush it off instead, walking through the path nearby in the outskirts of the village, an area completely surrounded by a small forest with marked pathways all around, and there, she managed to spot someone, a beige color that her eyes caught coming out of a tree.

 

“Hello?” It wasn’t unexpected to see people around this area of the forest. Children loved to play within it sometimes but that wasn’t the safest activity anyway and highly discouraged by worried parents. She called once again and that’s when she saw her. “Gold?”

 

The tenrec was sitting against a tree, surprised to see someone else reach her. She quickly stood up.

 

“Princess,” she bowed.

 

“Just Blaze,” she really didn’t like the formalities.

 

“Blaze.”

 

“What are you doing out here?”

 

“Oh, just finding a place to wind down and explore the town, you know? I still can’t believe I actually time-traveled even though Silver treats it like just going around the corner…”

 

“He's worried about you.”

 

Gold looked away.

 

“Right.”

 

Blaze noticed the discomfort. It wasn’t difficult to assume why of course, but Blaze found amusing how similar she was to Silver.

 

“He is. It can be hard for him to say that sometimes.”

 

“Well, you’ve known him for much longer than I do, that's for sure. I could see you mean a lot to him,” she was referring to the hug causing Blaze to go red for a brief glimpse.

 

“I doubt he feels less of you.”

 

“It’s not that simple, Ms. Blaze– Silver rarely had friends where we came from. In fact, it was always someone mocking his quills or something like that, and I was the one who was around for him, or having to take him when going out with friends because there was no one else. Except now that isn’t the case, I’m the stranger here and this is the first time I’ve seen him interact with so many people at once like this… and he doesn’t know any of that, he had an entire different life outside the future with you guys and–” she looked at Blaze realizing that she was just venting to a random person she had barely met.

 

She needed that.

 

“Sorry, I didn't mean to–.”

 

“It’s okay,” Blaze smiled.

 

“I guess I wanted some time for myself,” it was certain that it wasn’t simple sightseeing.

 

“I figured. Silver usually does that when he’s upset too, and he’s currently wondering where you are.”

 

“I’m sure he is, after all, I’m probably something to look for so nothing happens to the timeline or something,” There was some obvious sarcasm, but at the same time, it sounded that she was making fun of something rather than someone and didn’t mean it at all. “I’ll call him.” That was her way of saying sorry.

 

Gold walked a couple of meters away from Blaze and decided to activate the hologram, waiting for the response back. She had to wait for a few seconds, but the hologram of Silver eventually appeared in front of her.

 

Gold!” Silver was excited to see her. “Where did you go?

 

“I’m here in the village. Sorry if I scared you, I just needed some time alone.”

 

You’re still upset?

 

“No, I’m… I’m not upset, I just want to go home.”

 

Oh,” Silver paused for a bit, “Okay, we’re back at Tails’ house, if you want to, I can come back–.

 

“It’s okay, I’ll head over.”

 

Alright! Do you know the way?

 

“Don’t worry, Silver, I'm with your cat friend,” she cut off the transmission. There should have been a proper closing line but this time there wasn’t, and the truth was that Gold didn’t know how to get back to the fox-shaped-house. It was also getting kinda late and dark, so it was going to be tough. The first step was leaving the forest and back to the village itself to avoid getting lost and for the second step…

 

“Ms. Blaze?” Gold asked.

 

“Yes?” Blaze approached after listening attentively to the call from her distance.

 

“Do you know how to go back?” The whole world was unknown to her; she needed a guide. That guide was Silver, but Blaze could see she wasn't in the mood.

 

Blaze knew how to go back, of course, but the walk was kinda long and she didn’t have any vehicle for it. The best she could do was carry Gold instead and continuously hover to the place, except that Blaze wasn’t really too keen on that type of action, carrying someone simply wasn’t her thing –at high altitudes even– however, she was willing to make a quick exception for this type of situation, a situation where a brother and sister were confused.

 

She agreed to it, picking up the tenrec in a bridal carry, much to Gold’s surprise. She soared through the air propelled by her fiery heels, maintaining the height with short bursts of fire, a sight that left the tenrec breathless; she wasn’t expecting anyone from the past to start basically flying, let alone with what felt like a literal explosion. Gold held on tightly at the beginning, breathing desperately and avoiding looking down, but the calmness and smile from Blaze eventually eased her through the experience, staring at the nightly landscape below that became scaringly close until Blaze performed another jump through the air.

 

The journey was captivating, watching a panoramic view of the town below only amplified the coziness of the place, along with the forest, a nature that slowly transitioned into the most urban city she encountered so far that was already being illuminated by the night lights. Gold’s attention shifted from the city below and the purple cat who was carrying her, it went from a terrifying into a soothing experience that came to an end once they reached Emerald Town. Blaze landed gracefully for someone with a pair of heels and placed the tenrec safely on the ground.

 

Gold stepped away, still taking in the flight.

 

“Who are you?” she turned to Blaze. “I mean, you are from another world, I can see it, but for Silver, who are you to him?”

 

Blaze took her time to answer that question, it was quite a difficult one, she and Silver had a special relationship that was for sure but it was complicated to summarized.

 

“We’ve fought together in the past, closer than others,” she said and Gold nodded and bowed down slightly as a thanks for the ride. “Gold. Silver is not that different from the one you know, he can get easily lost and might need someone to be around; just show him who you are when he is.”

 

Gold smiled once more.

 

“A pleasure to meet you, Gold,” said Blaze before blasting away, not in a stream of fire but through a series of hyper-jumps that covered large distances hoping everything could be sorted out accordingly.

 


 

As soon as Blaze left, Gold stayed amazed even further, letting out a ‘woah’ under her breath.

 

Shaking her head, she returned to the topic at hand which was the discussion with Silver. She wasn't sure what she was looking for. She wanted to go home, that was true and she wished she could just say to go back to how things were and pretend none of this ever happened, but that wasn't going to happen, not by a long shot.

 

Gold was beginning to understand, and she wanted to understand so badly because not doing so only made it more painful. It wasn't the fact of the timeline being rewritten that bothered her, not at all. It was confusing, surprising, yes, and thinking about it too much was definitely a mental rabbit hole, but the fact that the gravity of the situation only kept growing was what worried her.

 

The more she asked, the more she was aware of why he was going to the past, why he had done it several times now, or why he acted the way he did.

 

The realization was becoming scary.

 

Silver had friends, he saved the world and fought battles, apparently, and her being his sister was a surprise for everyone, including Silver himself. And people like Blaze showed that he had quite important figures in his life. Silver was more knowledgeable of the past than the future and there wasn’t much she could do to alter that.

 

She stood in front of the door for a second before she remembered there wasn't a scanner here. Silver had to knock instead so she did too but very light, it didn't have any effect. She tried it again and it felt too hard so she decided not to do it again, the customs of the past were weird. Thankfully she didn’t need to do it any further, the door was opened and it was Silver who came out to receive.

 

“Gold! You're alright!” Silver was about to hug her, but refrained at the last moment.

 

“Of course I am, I told you I could take care of myself,” she crossed her arms.

 

“Well, I was just worried that…” he stopped mid-sentence, Gold knew that it was normal for him to worry like that, this wasn't the first time something like this happened. One afternoon when they were quite young their family was at a park and Silver got a bit upset because she disappeared for a while as she was getting ice cream, an event that unfortunately he wasn't aware of.

 

“Do you have the stone?” she asked.

 

“Um, yeah, I think Tails is finishing up some things.”

 

He let her in, but this time she wasn’t too interested in coming; she was too tired for more socializing of this kind, and Silver could see that she wasn’t feeling too comfortable. He explained that Tails had provided mattresses for them to sleep the night for the big event, and while Gold appreciated the generosity, it wasn’t her thing right now.

 

They could have gone for a walk, or maybe take a seat in the plaza that was in front of the house, however they remained exactly where they were. Silver stood in the frame of the door while Gold remained directly in front of him in silence, so right now they were both expecting the other to say something first.

 

It was Gold who did.

 

“Silver… Do you want to go back?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Back to our future?” she waited but the hesitation in Silver’s reply was telling, “It’s okay, I get it, they’re your friends. It wouldn’t be fair for you to abandon them like that and I’m sorry if I’m just bothering or worrying you,” there was a silence for a few seconds before she spoke up again “I–...I’ll just be heading back then.”

 

“Wait!” Silver spiked up, “But… so soon?” he struggled to find the right words.

 

“Yes, Silv, soon, I’m not like you– I’m not from here, you have amazing people and great friends. I wouldn’t want to take that away from you but it’s not where I should be. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” Gold tried desperately to not blink, blinking would water the eyes “Can I have the stone?”

 

“But… I’m not ready.”

 

“Ready for what?”

 

“Well, I‘ve just met you and– I don’t know, maybe we could stay a bit longer.”

 

“Silver, that stone moved you three years further than you expected. What if it does something worse, and we get stuck?”

 

“Silver?” the hedgehog got called by Tails from the inside, he had something to tell him and despite the apology for the interruption, Silver complied to listen what the fox had to say while Gold waited at the door. It was a nice pause from what she was fearing could lead to yelling, Silver could be extremely frustrating at times and this was certainly one of those moments but it was for entirely different reasons and she was trying, she was really trying.

 

Although Silver showing some hesitance was curious regardless of whatever frustration she was feeling.

 

Gold took a deep breath and eventually, Silver returned to the doorframe but this time his face was much more terrified, more silent. Whatever Tails said definitely got to him, this time he truly had no words to explain this easily, but he had thoughts. Silver tapped his bracelet and Gold understood what he meant, gladly opening the link between them.

 

I am scared,’ Silver thought and Gold could hear it loud and clear ‘I don’t know what’s of the past anymore– I don’t know the future– I’ve been on my own for so long– I don’t know what’s right anymore, and I’m tired, Tails said that the stone could stop working at anytime– what if I wake up and you’re not there or our mothers are gone, what if everything goes wrong and I can’t go back– ever since I walked into our home I just don’t know what to think anymore but I don’t want to lose my friends– now the time stone may not work if I keep doing this, Gold, but I don't want to lose you either.

 

It was a lot at the same time, and he was kinda repeating himself too but Gold managed through it, and she could hear every single thing with ease and not only that but she could feel what was coming out of those thoughts. Silver was lost, just like Blaze had said and he was lost much more than she had ever known or seen him as, but she didn’t know how to help him, at least not in any way she had done in the past. Even if she wasn't technically her sister, the biggest action she could do was a hug because right now that was the best thing she knew to do. A surprise hug that was enough to silence Silver's thoughts, if only for a brief moment.

 

And she couldn’t gather it, letting the tears that she was holding back finally roll down her cheeks in silence. She didn't want this to be any longer than it should so what felt like a deep and long hug, was pretty much a short lived one that she quickly broke apart from, wiping the tears away in the process.

 

You think too fast, you know that?’ she said with a smile through the deep breaths. The truth was that she didn't have full control over the powers, and she had to be careful to not strain it too much by having Silver enter a distressing mental state.

 

I do?’ Gold nodded her head gently.

 

I don't want to leave you either,’ she then self-hugged. ‘I'll be here until you're finally ready, okay?

 

‘I liked that hug,’ Silver was still not exactly caught up on the conversation, causing another thought to slip by. Gold shut off the link altogether to avoid hearing something else.

 

“I can give you another one if you want,” she said.

 

“Um, yeah, that would be nice.”

 

Gold chuckled, Silver returned the soft smile before they returned to the embrace, and this time, Silver had the time to slowly but surely wrap his arms around her. It felt good, very good in fact… Maybe this was what Blaze referred to when talking about before she left.

 

“We can still sleep here for tonight,” he said once the hug was broken.

 

“Yeah, it's okay, we don't have too many options, right?” She tried to be playful.

 

They both finally entered the house, closing the door behind them. It was unsure how much Tails had witnessed, if at all but none of them lingered too much on it, the fox happily led the guests into their room which contained two quickly-arranged mattresses for both of them. Gold still had a lot of questions, especially after that flurry of thoughts where an elaboration was going to be necessary, however right now it was time for sleep and she needed it, it had been a long day.

 

“Good night, Silver.”

 

“Night, Gold.”