Belong

Chapter 2 - Frozen

In another place

On a cliffside overlooking the ruins of fallen skyscrapers and crumbling roads, a swirling blue portal opened. The backpacked figure that came out, gracefully flying a few feet above the stone below him, glanced around enthusiastically for a few seconds until his face dropped and disappointment settled in his golden eyes. Silver the Hedgehog, having just returned from another time-travel adventure in the past, had hoped that this time he had succeeded in his mission of saving his era... but the frozen world filled with destruction that stretched out in front of him clearly told another tale. After checking the stone for any oddities and deeming it safe, he landed on his feet, sighing sadly to himself.

"I really thought we'd done it this time, guys..." Silver mumbled, kicking a rock with his boot and watching it tumble over the edge of the rock he was standing upon. He felt his heart growing more heavy with grief by the second. Why is it never enough? How long until I finally get it right? He crossly wiped away any wetness that he felt building up at the corners of his eyes. For a moment he allowed his painful thoughts to rush around in his head, before vigorously suppressing them.

"This isn't the first time this has happened. I will find the cause once more and go back in time to bring a stop to this. Next time it will be better," Silver spoke firmly as to encourage himself, gripping the handles of the heavy backpack he was carrying and hoisting it up a little. He noticed that behind him, the portal had already closed. It sent a stab of loneliness through him, which he tried to subdue immediately. He glanced around once more instead, taking in the view a bit better. He did not like what he saw one bit.

Silver was no stranger to ruined futures, growing up in the burning ruins of a world destroyed by the Ifrit, then finding a planet ruled with an iron fist by the evil Dr. Eggman where pollution and fear battled for dominance in the heavy air. In his last visit to his time, the world had been turned entirely to metal; he had been lucky to not touch the ground or any of the plant life, or else he would have been turned into a Zombot, shambling around with metal coating his fur and his mind while being unable to prevent the tragedy from ever happening. He shuddered from just thinking about the possibility.

While this world also had the ruined structures of buildings and roads that often littered the landscape in the now-undone futures he had seen, and also featured the same cloudy atmosphere with no sunlight, snow and ice fluttered through the air instead of sparks and ashes. It made Silver wish he hadn't declined Amy's increasingly pushy attempts to put a coat on him before he left the past. Despite how miserable he felt still, a small smile managed to creep on his lips from the silly memory.

"Alright Silv, no more crying. You can do this!" Trying to cheer himself up more, the shivering hedgehog energetically pumped his fist before his chest and grinned, before glancing around shyly. He worried that anyone would see him act so childish, but then he realised that the place he was in seemed to be entirely void of any creatures other than a few small, withering plants. He couldn't help but feel that that was among the worst signs he could have come across.

With no-one around as far as he could see Silver figured he might as well talk to himself, having learned long ago that it helped keep him sane. "Maybe if I go into the city, there's a library or something that contains records of what happened here... Or maybe I can find some survivors who can tell me what took place here!" His enthusiasm at the idea increased quickly. Now that he had a plan, Silver felt himself grow hopeful once more. This isn't the first time I have dealt with situations like these, everything will be fine. At worst, I can just grab a Chaos Emerald, go back to Sonic's era, and find out more about the situation there with the help from my friends. At the thought of them, Silver found himself grow warmer still, despite the freezing cold he had found himself in.

Silver checked his backpack to ensure it was strapped tightly to him. When telling his friends that he was going back to his own era, Sonic, Tails, Amy had quickly started a manhunt in the Restoration HQ for any supplies they figured he could use. By the size and weight of the thing Silver could have sworn that they had managed to put in a dozen times more items than the backpack was designed for, but its creator Tails had assured him that it would not tear. In the back of his mind Silver wondered if the genius fox had somehow managed to make it bigger on the inside than it appeared to be on the outside, before pushing the thought back and focusing once more on the mission at hand.

Effortlessly picking himself up once more with his telekinetic powers, Silver rose from the cliff and flew off towards the ruins in front of the cliff. Waving through the air around disintegrating structures of buildings and skyscrapers and looking down at the ruins far below him, he eventually found a spot that had been spared the more intense destruction, which he deemed safe enough to land on and walk around for a bit. But still, there was no sign of any people.

As he was walking around in the streets, dodging wobbly roads and precariously-stacked piles of rocks, Silver could feel the doubts return to his mind once more, no matter how much he tried to suppress them. Why do I keep doing this... he wondered, his ears lowering on his head. His friends had told him one night that he was welcome to stay with them forever, solving the problems the past suffered from without needing to go back to the future each time, but he had declined instantly. I can't stay in the past, I don't belong there. If I don't go back to my era, we might not be able to find out what takes place at all until it is too late, and then we can't save anyone. And when everything finally turns out alright... Silver had never told his friends, but he knew that once the future was saved he had to live there, without ever travelling back to the past again as to not accidentally change the timeline more. The thought made his lips tremble, and he desperately tried to switch back to the task at hand.

Mulling over the possibilities of what could have caused this particular disaster and fretting about finding a person who had the knowledge of what had taken place here, the negative thoughts in his head making everything so much harder to focus on, Silver almost missed a small rustling sound he heard behind him. His ear turned towards the area where it came from, but figuring it probably just came from some stones he disturbed by walking around, he decided to pay it no heed. A louder crash however fully grabbed his attention, and he twisted around instantly, grabbing some rubble with his telekinesis as he turned to have a weapon ready.

Silver eyed the patch of stones and debris that the noise came from warily, experience having taught him that it was very well possible that some wayward monster or robot was lying in an ambush there. Raising his voice, he yelled out: "Who's there?!" A few seconds passed, wherein Silver found himself growing simultaneously more anxious and angry. He raised the rubble he was holding threateningly and tried yelling once more: "If you try to fight me, I'll win for sure!" Silence prevailed.

Cautiously, Silver moved closer to the debris, making sure to keep his rubble at the ready in case he needed to protect himself with it. It appeared that some pieces of wreckage had slid out of the pile, resulting in the loud crash. However, Silver knew for sure that it had not been caused by him walking past it. He crept closer still and crouched down, defences high, trying to glance into the pile to see if he could find the culprit. From underneath the debris, two blue irises stared back at him.

"Gah!"