WOOO I'M NOT DEAD! I've just been really lazy. –hangs head in shame- PLEASE forgive me. Anywho, I have a Haru chapter since the last chapter before I squished both stories into one chapter was a Keiko chapter AND… let's just say putting a Haru chapter here will help the story flow better. Anyway, I LOVE Kingdom Valley, don't you? So serene, so peaceful… just GREAT for running into random crap during Sonic's speed stage, don't you think? Haha, JK. Basically, Kingdom Valley's my favorite level if you ignore having to use all the crap in Shadow's level and Sonic's speed stage in general. So… enjoy?

XX

I said hello to the ground with my feet and a certain purple cat was the first thing that caught my eye. I smiled and waved (yeah, I was totally over the Duke of Soleanna sealing an evil sun god in his own freaking daughter and Silver giving her our Chaos Emerald just like that). I heard Silver land behind me, and he walked up hesitantly to us. "Blaze…" he said quietly and uncertainly. She crossed her arms and frowned slightly.

"What did you see?" she asked impatiently. I sighed and glanced over at Silver, unsure of what to say. He slightly lowered his head so that he didn't have to see her face.

"The Iblis Trigger…" he began hesitantly, "wasn't Sonic the hedgehog." Blazed closed her eyes and nodded in an understanding manner. She then looked to me.

"What?" she asked. "Why are you so quiet? No 'ha ha' or 'I told you so'?" I shook my head.

"No," I replied shortly. I tore my attention away from Silver and Blaze and gazed over at the crowd standing in the middle of the square, trying to listen to the incomprehensible chatter. Silver seemed to have the same idea.

"They're quite noisy," he commented.

"Yes," Blaze confirmed. "I heard that the princess here left for Dr. Eggman's base in response to his earlier threat." I jumped back involuntarily.

"What?" I yelled. "He can't do that! Does he even know what she is?" I shook Blaze by the shoulders. "Why didn't you do anything?" Blaze put her hands over mine and pulled them off her shoulders calmly.

"Why should I?" she asked. "I don't see what the big deal is. Why are you getting so upset?"

"Long story short," I explained, "Elise is the Iblis Trigger, not Sonic." Blaze shrugged.

"Well if we have to eliminate the Iblis Trigger, it'll be a lot easier to have Dr. Eggman do it for us." I groaned in exasperation.

"You don't get it, do you? If we destroy the Iblis Trigger, then Iblis will be released!"

"Stop it, Haru," Silver said sharply. "Yelling at Blaze won't get us anywhere." I sighed. "But… I can't help but wonder… what if Dr. Eggman's ultimate objective was to release Iblis?"

"Then we have to stop him," Blaze said matter-of-factly.

"Way to go, captain obvious," I said through gritted teeth. Blaze sighed.

"Let's just ask around town to see where Dr. Eggman went," she suggested. I sighed and nodded. We split up after that as the three of us asked practically everyone in Soleanna about Dr. Eggman. All three of us got the same answer: he was headed towards the ruins in Old Soleanna." Why he was headed there of all places, I have no idea. Anywho, we ended up getting stranded in this hot jungle… well… I guess I wouldn't say stranded. So strength, random trials of puberty (whoops, did I say puberty? I meant purity), blah blah blah. We eventually gained access into the ruins' depths. Well it was pretty peaceful until a certain blue hedgehog caught our attention. He was just running innocently in the grass when about five robots landed in front of him. Silver sighed.

"We have to help him, don't we?" he asked. I nodded. Sonic skidded to a halt as the robots walked towards him. Silver held up his hand lazily, and the robots—now surrounded by a cyan aura—froze. Silver landed in front of Sonic and flicked his arms, sending the robots flying backwards. Well… let's just say they're scrap metal now. Silver turned back to Sonic and smirked. "You look like you're in a hurry," he commented.

"Way to point out the obvious, Silver," I said sarcastically, walking up to them. Silver ignored this commented.

"So…" Sonic started uncertainly. "What's going on?"

"Circumstances have changed," Silver said seriously. I'm sure he swallowed a dictionary. "I need to rescue the princess." Sonic shrugged.

"Ok," he replied. "Sure. The more the merrier." He pointed his thumb backwards as he broke into a jog. Silver followed him, and I sprinted to catch up to Sonic.

"Hey," I greeted casually.

"Hey," he replied. "You're… um… Haru! Yeah, that's it, Haru! You're Haru, right?" I chuckled and nodded.

"Yep. I guess I'm not all that hard to forget. I'm Keiko's brother, after all." Sonic skidded to a halt.

"What?" he yelled incredulously. "You're her brother?"

"What?" I asked. "Surprised? Actually, most people say we look like twins." Sonic frowned.

"You don't look that much alike, but I can tell you two are related, now that I think about it." I smirked, and Sonic sprinted ahead. Silver followed him expectantly, and I wasn't too far behind… ok, I lied. I mean, come on! Why don't you try to keep up with someone who can run faster than the speed of sound? Well… more generic level stuff as usual. At least I was entertained. Sonic and I made good conversation. "So what's with your sudden change of plans?" he asked me one time. "Why don't you want to kill me anymore?" I sighed.

"You know how we kept calling you the Iblis Trigger?" I asked. He nodded slowly, glaring. "Yeah, well, it isn't you. It's Elise."

"So now you're trying to kill her?" Sonic yelled. "Why don't you just let Eggman do it?"

"Let me finish!" I yelled. "We can't kill her, 'cause that's only going to release Iblis. That's why we have to save her." Sonic put his hand to his chin and nodded.

"Oh… I see…" Other than that, there was really nothing more to say. At long last, we found Eggman's ship flying towards the side of a cliff. Flames were coming out of spouts in its sides; it seemed like it lost control. It disappeared from view, and then a loud boom echoed throughout the ruins. Sonic's eyes widened in horror. "ELISE!" he yelled. I sighed and hung my head. It was over. Sonic slumped to his knees, then pounded the ground with his fist. Blaze walked up to him slowly.

"I'm sorry…" she whispered sympathetically. "I know how hard it can be to lose someone."

"No!" Sonic yelled. "I failed… I promised I'd protect her…"

"It isn't your fault," I told him.

"But I still could have saved her!" he said bitterly.

"Wait…" Silver interrupted us. "There's still a way to change this!"

"What do you mean?" Blaze asked.

"If we return to an earlier point in time," he explained, "we'll be able to save her." Sonic stood up slowly.

"I understand," he said. Silver pulled out a white Chaos Emerald, and Sonic pulled out a cyan one. They stepped towards each other and held the Emeralds in the air.

"Chaos Control!" they both yelled, and a blue portal appeared above their heads.

"I'm going alone," Sonic said. "I can't drag you three into this."

"It's our mission too," I protested.

"But we have to save our world, Haru," Blaze explained. "In our time." I sighed and nodded. Sonic dashed towards the portal.

"Silver!" he yelled as he flung the Chaos Emerald at him. "I'll make sure to change Elise's fate! And that in turn should change your future too!" Silver nodded. "Thanks!"

"Yeah…" Silver mumbled. "Just save her." I chuckled and ruffled the quills on top of his head. And with that, Sonic leapt into the portal. Blaze stepped towards the portal.

"I'm sure we can travel back to the future with this portal," she mused.

"And we won't be separated this time," I added. Silver nodded once.

"Ok… let's go!" Blaze leapt into the portal, and Silver and I followed. I had a feeling this adventure was coming to a close.

XX

Yes, one Haru chapter out of the way! I've had a major burst of inspiration, and I know exactly how I'm going to end this! But I can't tell you, so… sorry. All you can do is REVIEW and wait for another chapter, so REVIEW!