Silver the Hedgehog

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The soft brush collected some more of the yellow paint from the palette and traced a long, uncertain line on the canvas as it followed a gentle curve. It filled a small blank patch and at the same time retouched a particular that felt wrong in the artist's eyes.

Silver wasn't exactly good in painting, and his rough and undetailed works showed how inexperienced he was. At first he had been uncertain in undertaking that activity as he had never seen a brush in his entire life, but as a school project he had been forced to do it. And found out that it helped him relax. The subject chosen by the teacher was to 'paint your worst fear and your hope' in one single canvas, making the white hedgehog believe that the aged rabbit's choice wasn't as random as he wanted everyone to believe.

Yellow eyes briefly looked up from his work and observed the teacher give an advice to a kid in the front row. In the two months he had known him, the smart and kind rabbit could never refuse helping one of his students.

"That's a pretty weird thing you're painting, Silver..."

The white hedgehog blinked and turned around to look at the female chameleon that had appeared at his left. Sarah was her name and her scales were of a light lilac. It was a color that reminded Silver of his good friend Blaze and made him wonder where she was and if she was alright after time was set back onto its natural course.

"Weird?" Silver turned his eyes to look at his work and frowned. He could see nothing weird in Solaris's final form. Sure, although his representation of Soleanna's Sun God was not accurate, it was still recognizable and every time he looked at it, he was reminded of the harsh battle that nearly killed him, Sonic, Shadow and erased the whole time-space continuum. Speaking of which, he should add three specks of yellow lights on the canvas to represent hope...

"I don't think it's weird," the hedgehog replied after a while, adding some more red to the ball in the middle of what could be described as Solaris's chest. "I find it... scary."

During the battle he hadn't been scared as there was no time for that. He and his friends had been too busy fighting to be anything but determined to see another day. Now, however, he had the time to process his own feeling and he eventually realized how close to oblivion they had been. Shadow had been right in saying that without Sonic they couldn't have done it.

The blue hedgehog had the power to make the impossible become possible. When everyone had thought that Solaris would have the upper hand no matter how much the three hedgehogs damaged it, Sonic had managed to fly past all of the defenses and deliver one massive blow to the red core of the transcendental creature.

No one, not even Solaris, had expected that swift attack.

After that, as the timeless being started to dissolve, things faded away into nothingness. For a moment he had thought that they had been too late and time and space were starting to collapse, until the dark void suddenly filled and he woke up in a room he did not recognize. He had been in a cold sweat then, panting and generally making a ruckus as he tried to wrestle his legs out of the tangled mess that the blankets had become.

He had been so loud that two adult hedgehogs and a younger female one rushed into his room, angry for being woken up from their sleep. When he had started to ask who they were and say that nothing he saw was familiar to him, the three hedgehogs' anger transformed into worry and confusion.

And that was why everyone believed he had amnesia.

He didn't dare to tell anyone of what had really happened for fear of being considered crazy, so he kept the truth to himself and tried to get used to a life that was not really his. He did love the world he was in, though. It was what he had always dreamed to see. He just felt... that a sedentary life was not for him. After years spent wandering and fighting a giant beast of fire and molten rock, sitting in a room for good part of the day to listen to lectures made him restless.

"You'd be scared too if you saw it," Silver continued after a while, washing the brush from the red paint and collecting some yellow once again and painting three small dots. One at the center, one on the left side of the canvas and one on the right. It had been the formation they had used during the battle. "Good thing it's just a nightmare now."

And that was how he wanted to leave it. As just one of the many nightmares that disturbed him in his sleep. It would have been great if the rearrangement of time had erased his memories too, but the immense quantity of Chaos Energy needed to fight had protected him from the changes. He was sure that Sonic and Shadow, living in the past, were in his same predicament.

"Perhaps I should go ask them..."

His mutterings made the lilac chameleon raise an eyebrow. "Ask who of what?"

Feeling that his painting could not be improved anymore, Silver placed the brush and palette on the nearby table and grabbed the canvas. "Oh, nothing," he said trying to sound perfectly normal despite feeling like the entire planet had its attention turned to him. "Just... you know... I have a couple of friends that could help me with my current problem, but at the moment I can't travel to where they live."

He didn't like lying, and even half truths kind of bothered him. Still, it would be worse if he said he could travel back and forth in time and was friend with two famous heroes of the past.

His classmate opened her mouth to inquiry more, but the white hedgehog was saved by the ring of the bell. "Well, time to go home," he hastily said, carrying the canvas to the front of the room and placing it against the wall to let it dry. His teacher would wonder over it, but he would never know the truth. "See you all tomorrow!"

And with that, he was gone out of the door, running down the corridor and disappearing around the corner. The lilac chameleon stared at the door for a few seconds then shook her head. "His amnesia made him so strange..."

As she started to put her things away, the teacher turned his eyes onto Silver's painting and observed it with a critical eye. The monster, which obviously represented the young hedgehog's deepest fear, took the center of the canvas. Its arms and wings were stretched to the sides and it was hurling spiked projectiles and laser beams everywhere while the three dots surrounding it - the hope - evaded the attacks and seemed to press forwards in their own attacking pattern. The background was a blanket of purple and black.

The old rabbit gave a deep sigh and turned away from the painting to watch his students leave the room one by one. "Be careful when walking outside," he said before everyone disappeared as only kids fleeing from school could do. "There have been reports of robots lurking in the nearby forest and the police thinks that Doctor Eggman Nega is preparing an attack."

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A/N: Weird, ain't it? I wrote this because it was getting to my head and I had troubles focusing on my other main fic. I have no idea if this will go on, or WHERE it will go with the plot, but the story center around Silver and his life after dealing with Solaris. Not easy when Chaos Energy protected him from the modification of the time-line. And no, even if it start with him in school, this is not a school fic.

It's just the beginning, and IF I go on (remember, my priority is my Rockman fic), expect a lot of things blowing up, epic battles, people getting hurt and Nega trying to succeed where his predecessor failed.

Anyway, disclaimers...

Sonic and related stuff (c) Sega

Writing by Az The Dragon. Refrain from stealing, please.

PS: Forgive me for any kind of error. I did reread this two times, but not having a beta, some errors might have escaped my notice.