Chapter Text
Silver stepped through the warp in the Mystic Jungle ruins, landing firmly on his feet in the Apotos temple with (kind of) practiced ease.
It had been a few weeks since he's been at the temple, there's been too much to do elsewhere. Another strike on an Eggman base, liberating another city or village, it felt like it was non stop action.
Which might be the direct result (and consequence in Eggman's case) of Sonic being locked up for so long.
Sonic wasn't about to rest now, he'd been doing too much of that. It was odd seeing him… as stationary, as he was the last little while. This might have actually been the longest he's been in one place (to Silver's knowledge at least) the two months in "space jail" as he calls it, doesn't count, because that was completely involuntarily (recovery was… almost voluntary?).
Either way, he had bigger things to worry about.
They were preparing for their final mission, liberating the planet by beating Eggman.
Simple in theory, but execution was looking more difficult every day.
The worst part, was that he probably wouldn't get to participate in the real final fight.
Rouge had gathered some intel from… a source? She wouldn't say who. That source said there were plans to try and wipe Apotos off the map, on top of an all out assault on his friends!
Was Eggman truly that petty to still attack the one place he never conquered?.. well, this is the same guy who kept his arch nemesis alive just to watch the world burn… whole lot of good that did him.
A drop of water fell on his nose, snapping him back to attention. Right, he hasn't really moved at all since he got here.
He needed to find Guardian, tell him what was going on, and make sure everyone was prepared for a last stand.
He started his way down the hall, the temple lighting up his path.
It was still amazing that a building could sense his intentions, and guide him exactly where he needed to go. If Guardian really was the temple's actual guardian, it made sense why it helps him. Maybe it was just rubbing off on him?
Silver felt… weird, remembering how the snake looked at him. He still had no idea what it could possibly mean. It was probably connected to whatever caused the temple to help him in the first place.
The crystal tree came into view, still sparkling. This spot felt unnaturally soothing, like it didn't matter what happens, this spot would be a refuge. Honestly he should probably try and find some time to just come and relax.
Silver shook his head, that would have to come later, the mission was top priority right now.
He flew to the temple entrance, making sure to land louder than he normally would. Nothing so far.
"Guardian? Are you here?"
He checked the bedrooms, no Guardian. Maybe in the Chao garden?
Silver stepped into the garden, to then be swarmed by very excitable Chao.
Silver tried to pet as many Chao as he could, a monumental task with seven of them coming at you at once.
"Hey everyone, do any of you know where Guardian is?"
The Chao murmured between themselves, and they looked sadly up at him, shaking their heads.
"It's alright, I'm sure I'll find him eventually."
Silver noticed the dark blue Chao off on its own, leaning against a tree with its arms behind its head. It reminded him of Sonic doing the same. That Chao was always following Guardian around, so there was a chance it would know where he was.
Silver carefully slipped out of the swarm of curious Chao, and made his way over to the dark Chao.
On his approach, it lazily glanced at him, yawning and covering its mouth with a clawed hand. Wait, claws? Silver had no idea that Chao could even have claws.
The Chao went back to reclining, one eye open, barely looking at him.
"Hi, do you know where Guardian is? You're the one who seems to know him best."
The Chao fully looked away now, it totally knew, but it doesn't look like it was going to tell him.
"Is he at the temple at least? I don't want to spend forever searching the temple if he's in town or something."
The Chao debated for a while, before slowly nodding. So he was here, that narrowed his search area… to the entirety of the temple interior.
Would the temple guide him there? It might prioritize Guardian, and not lead him anywhere…
Well, he had to start somewhere.
He made it back to the central courtyard, and something caught his eye as a cloud shaded the land. There was a light coming through the gaps in the vines on the north wall. The plants looked like they had been brushed aside, and recently too.
His powers swirled around the vines, carefully moving them out of his way like a curtain.
There was a short tunnel, carrying a quiet voice. The end of the tunnel had a small, circular grotto, and there, just off centre, was Guardian.
He was quietly, but very animatedly retelling the stories of their recent adventures, to what looked like a memorial.
Offerings of many kinds were carefully arranged at the bottom of a stone carved waterfall, the round stone beneath it looking like water too, calmly rippling, keeping it mostly flat.
The spread of objects painted a… sad picture. This couldn't be for just one person. If Silver had to guess, each offering was for a different person, possibly with a small amount of overlap with some things, like the candy.
The thing that hurt the most to think about were the toys and trinkets that were very likely for kids…
Guardian spoke to the memorial like an old friend… well, he probably was.
Silver stood there in silence, hanging onto every word. Guardian's voice was gravelly, with a soft undertone, more like river rocks than gravel? It was a little familiar, Silver just couldn't place why.
In all honesty, Silver wasn't paying much attention to the story. He was content with simply standing and listening.
The story picked up, Guardian made a slashing motion with one hand. Silver couldn't help but smile, sighing softly as the tension in his shoulders vanished for the first time in weeks.
Guardian's voice wavered, the last sentence trailing off into silence. He sat there, almost as if he was frozen in place.
There was no use in standing around, pretending like he wasn't there. So he went and sat cross legged beside Guardian.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt your story…"
Guardian wouldn't even look at him, hunched in on himself. Silver had no idea why.
Guardian had been silent the whole time he's known him… well, silent might not be the best descriptor, he hasn't said a word, that was better.
The only time he's heard him talk, was after that fight with Infinite and the fire monsters. It was only a few words, but Guardian thought it was important enough to say.
He wasn't the most social, but that never bothered Silver, he didn't have to say anything to speak his mind. Just like the cloak, this felt like an important choice Guardian made, to stay quiet. He was curious why that decision was made, but Guardian would have to be comfortable enough to tell him himself, not everyone wants to go around sharing every intimate detail of their lives.
And Silver felt like he accidentally intruded on one of those. This memorial was deeply personal, and it had been hidden away…
"You've lost a lot, haven't you…"
Guardian shifted around, and then, in the quietest voice, spoke.
"Friends… family… couldn't… couldn't protect them…"
Silver's eyes scanned over the memorial again, the plush Chao those kids made for him sat over some chocolate bar wrappers. The tools and old parts were arranged in such a specific way, that it must have been how that person would set it up themselves. The sun catcher was hooked onto a protruding piece of metal from what looked to be a crushed Egg Pawn. Even the seemingly random placement of other objects, maybe those people were close with each other. Everything was purposeful, right down to details and quirks that most would think of as insignificant.
"You know, I think they would be proud of you,"
Guardian's posture changed.
"That you keep fighting, and protecting others,"
Guardian's breath hitched.
"That you carry their memory, and use it to help anyone who needs it,"
Silent tears rolled down Guardian's muzzle.
"They would be proud that you kept going."
The Werehog found it strange, to be reassured his friends would be proud of him… from an alternate version of one of those friends.
It…
It was nice.
He tried to keep his breathing steady, as more tears flowed down his face. He wasn't being very successful.
And he came in here originally to kill some time. He didn't have a cry session on the schedule for today…
Silv put a hand on his shoulder, but other than that, didn't do much else.
He got a moment to sit with his thoughts. Silv hadn't seemed to realize it was him, if he had talked any louder, would he have? Regardless, he appreciated Silv not pushing about anything. Never asked to take the cloak off, or why he didn't speak… naive maybe, but he was earnest and called it like he saw it. Which made his reassurance all the more comforting, because Sonic knew he meant it.
And speaking of Silver, if he was here, and probably looking for him, something was about to go down. Everything had been too calm for too long for this to just be a friendly visit.
He rubbed his eyes with the backs of his hands, carefully avoiding scratching himself with his claws (he'd only done that a few times when he first transformed). Sonic stood up, shook off whatever tension was still hanging on to him, and reached a hand out to Silver.
He helped Silv up, and tilted his head curiously.
"Right, you're probably wondering why I'm here?"
He nodded.
"Well, we have to be ready for our biggest fight yet."
Sonic paced around the metal halls of the Resistance HQ, he was giddy with how close all the action felt. Not long and they would do their (hopefully) final push against Egghead and that edgy jackal, and take back the world.
They'd gone over the plan way too many times, in all honesty, he thought everyone was overthinking this. It's not like this wasn't routine at this point. He'd rush in, this time with the help of his past self and surprisingly the Rookie that came to break him out of space jail, they'd bash some bots, scrap whatever big bot Eggman brought this time, and kick Infinite's tail. Easy as that.
Everyone was worrying too much! They'd taken out bigger and badder, Chaos, Neo Metal, Dark Gaia, Time Eater, if it was just Eggman and Mr. Party tricks, this would be a piece of cake!
Even that secondary attack in Apotos was no big whoop, Silv and Guardian had this in the bag, their track record has been flawless so far.
Sonic was way more excited than he should be, going to the frontlines, dashing through Egghead's first line of defence.
This was going to be fun.