Chapter 35
Once we decided on the plan, our group along with Charmy went off to the Soleanna forest and waited patiently for Silver to strike a conversation with Mephiles, the dark mind of Solaris looking to be in his first form rather than his crystal form. "Mephiles. I did the deed. The Iblis Trigger is dead," Silver said, intentionally lying to his face. "Very good... very good. You have done a great thing for the future, young hedgehog," Mephiles smiled at this. He was completely unaware of what we were up to... I hoped. "Tell me, was anyone around when you did the deed?" Mephiles asked. "Actually, yes there were," Silver smiled as I gave the signal silently and we all jumped down and surprised Mephiles out of nowhere, him having nowhere to run to as Blaze held the Sol and Super Emeralds in her grasp. "And they're here to finish you," Silver said like a badass as Tikal and I used our combined powers to hold Mephiles in place with our psychic powers, Silver also joining in the event.
"GAH! Traitors!" Mephiles growled as he tried to escape our psychokinesis with no effect. Blaze then began to chant something that I didn't expect her to chant. Her version of the Master Emerald chant, except with the Sol Emeralds. "The Sol is one with the mind. The Sol is calmness, bound to the heart. I implore you, Sol Emeralds! Seal this abomination!" Blaze chanted as she focused the Sol and Super Emeralds to zap Mephiles with their powers and him to turn into a smoky shadow once again as the emeralds led him to Charmy's body, Mephiles cackling like a maniac before he went inside Charmy. "You will never get this poor child to laugh!" Mephiles exclaimed in laughter as the last of him entered Charmy and Charmy immediately felt the pain. And what happened when he felt it?
"OH YEAH! THAT FEELS SO GOOD! HAHAHAHHAHA! ! ! CRANK IT UP, BAD BOY! WOOOOOOOOHAHAHAHA!" Charmy exclaimed in pure, masochistic joy as Mephiles caused him to laugh uncontrollably, which weirded me out a bit, but then something cool happened. Charmy collapsed to the ground and a puff of white smoke left his body, which I could tell right away was a reformed Mephiles. "Mephiles... join with your other half and become the guardian of the Sol once again," Blaze said to the white smoke. It immediately joined Iblis on the pedestal she presented and a giant, bright flash of light happened.
When the light dissipated, the flame sat there, eternal, white, and very calm. "We did it... Solaris is finally back to her former self... I can't thank you all enough. First, you help me save our worlds from merging from Eggman Nega, and then you help me reunite with Solaris... but there's still something missing..." Blaze frowned. "Yeah? What's that?" Elise asked. "The Princess Emerald. Without it, Solaris will become unstable once again, and our efforts will have been for nothing. Do we know where the Princess Emerald is possibly kept?" Blaze asked. "I think I may know where it is... but it won't be an easy time getting it," said a voice from behind us, that being Shadow's voice. He, Rouge, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles all arrived at the same time, making me wonder what kept them. "Looks like we beat you to this adventure, ey, blue blur?" I smirked at Sonic. "It ain't over yet, so don't count us out," Sonic smirked as he wagged his finger at me.
"Do you know where the Princess Emerald is?" Blaze asked the five. "Leave it to me. I have a sixth sense when it comes to jewel hunting. Any idea what this Princess Emerald looks like?" Rouge asked. "It's a large, oval gem about the size of a small child, has the ability to float, and shines like the auroras. Does that give you any clues?" Blaze asked. "Sounds like quite the catch of a gem... hmm..." Rouge smiled as she closed her eyes and perked her ears in various places around her, probably to sense for the emerald like a bat would. With some kind of sixth sense sonar. "AH! I found it! It's... in a sandy desert area to the north. It's in a strange temple of sorts with lots of traps and puzzles in it. Quite dangerous, if I do say so myself," Rouge smiled. "My father must've put it there to hide it from grave robbers if that's the case. He always was a bit of a nutcase when it came to jewels," Elise frowned. "Okay then. We need to get there quickly. We only have one day to get there and retrieve the Princess Emerald before Solaris splits again," Blaze said with a foreboding gaze. "I can fly some of us there if you wish," Rouge smiled as she took to the skies with her wings. "Don't forget me," Tails smiled as he flew in the air with his tails. "And I can get the rest of you," Tikal smirked as she floated in the air and had myself, Chaos, and Elise grab onto her with Silver being the only one who didn't have a ride. "I can fly there with my psychic powers, so no issues here," Silver smirked as he focused his psychokinesis and hover-flew through the air along with us. We then zoomed off to the north and towards the level of Dusty Desert.
"Wow... this place looks so gorgeous in the moonlight," Elise smiled as we looked around. I had almost forgotten that we had done nearly all of our tasks in one single night and that it was still the opening day of the festival! But there was one little detail that we had forgotten about during this whole adventure that we ended up seeing enter the ruins of the desert. "Dammit! We completely forgot about Eggman!" I said, Charmy having returned to Espio and Vector since we had left his tired butt in the forested area. I knew this because I sensed he had reunited with the other two just by sensing their life forces. That's the only reason I swore was because he was no longer around.
"We'll deal with him when we deal with him, but for now, we need to focus on finding that Princess Emerald. Rouge, lead the way," I smiled at the bat girl. "Of course," the bat girl smirked as she went forward in the air while we all traveled on the ground or in the air on our own rights. After trekking through the sandy dunes and finding out that it wasn't quicksand like in the games, we eventually came upon the ruins and I smirked at the fact that Eggman was already sending out robots from within. "Time to take out the trash," I smirked as me and Sonic dealt with the robots along with the others using their own techniques. We then went inside of the ruins to see it wasn't at all like in the games with our first obstacle being none other than Eggman himself and that we were in the arena that held the Egg Cerberus. "Well, this is a big arena. Wonder what we'll face in here," I smiled as we approached Doc Egg to see that he was looking on a radar for something.
"Hey! Doctor butt! What'cha lookin' for on that radar?" I exclaimed at him to get his attention, Tails and Sonic chuckling when I called him that while Elise burst out in laughter. "So, you've finally arrived to give me the princess as well as the Super Emerald, have you?" Eggman asked, not catching onto the game at all. "You can have whatever you want from me, but sadly, I don't have the Flames of Disaster anymore," Elise smiled at Eggman with a bit of a cocky nature to her eyes. "Oh really? And how do you expect me to believe that?" Eggman smirked. "Because I have the Flames right here. Back where they are meant to be kept," Blaze smiled as she presented Solaris's flames from the pedestal on her person, the flame already starting to flicker and grow slightly.
"I see you are truthful.. then why did you follow me here?" Eggman asked. "It's not that reason that we came here, Doctor Eggman. We came to find an important artifact that corresponds to Solaris. If it isn't returned to Solaris within a day, she'll split into Mephiles and Iblis again, the explosion devastating in the process. So just stay out of our way while we find the Princess Emerald? We need to find it to prevent apocalypse for the world," Tikal said with seriousness. "Really? I was here trying to find an immense power source on my radar. You're saying that's the Princess Emerald from Blaze's world?... hmm... but your faces look serious, almost like it's that grim of a situation... tell you what, I'll be fair for a change and give you a fair bargain," Eggman smiled. "What do you have in mind, Ivo?" I asked him, using his first name on purpose, since he was actually being reasonable.
"If you can defeat my pet in a battle, I will retreat this place and simply start on a new plan. If my pet defeats you, I get the Princess Emerald for myself. Fair deal?" Eggman smiled. "Very well. Who do you have in mind for this pet of yours? We promise to go easy on the little guy," Knuckles smirked. Eggman then pushed a button and out from under his Egg Mobile came out a small cube which, after a large transformation, it turned into none other than Egg Cerberus, it being very big! "So, this is your pet, Eggman? Okay, I'll play with him," I smiled as I jumped into the air with my gravity powers and landed directly on the beast's antenna atop his head, the Cerberus rushing forward as I had him blinded. I then ran him directly into a statue and the beast roared a loud, metallic roar.
"You're doing great, Penny! Keep it up!" Tikal smiled at me as Eggman looked to be doing something else. He pushed a button on his cockpit and, out of nowhere, a large missile emerged from it, which aimed itself right at me! "CHEATER!" I exclaimed at him as I shot the missile with a blast of fire, causing it to explode before it could reach me, and for the Egg Cerberus to try and maul me in the process. I grabbed onto him with my mind powers to prevent him from biting down on me and lifting the dog robot directly in the air. "Twister time," I smiled as I twisted the beast's head in a rotational fashion, detaching it from the rest of its body quite easily. And once I did so, the rest of the monster fell to the ground in an instant.
"No!... Damn... well, I've got to go off to my next plan now. So long, pests," Eggman smiled as he zoomed out of the temple along with the rest of his robots. "Well, that's all said and done, but where is the jewel?" I asked... until I noticed the absence of a certain avian mammal. "And where did Rouge go off to?!" I complained afterwards. Tikal then smiled and pointed over towards a doorway to show the Rouge had already done the deed. "Looks like she got the gem for us while Eggman was occupied with you," Tikal smirked slyly.
And when I looked at the Princess Emerald that Rouge gave to Blaze... it was spectacular! It was shimmering with tons of aurora lights, it was about as huge as Rouge herself, and it was filled with unimaginable power. It entranced me into a zen-like state that Chaos had to snap me out of by covering my head with water. "Whadda?!" I exclaimed after that. "Wake up, sleeping beauty," Elise giggled at what I had done as Blaze reunited Solaris with the Princess Emerald, the flame flickering a tiny bit before doing something I didn't expect. It turned into a small, fiery apparition of a girl and bowed at us... and then she spoke. "I thank you, friends... I am finally at peace..." Solaris smiled at us with the most calming, serene voice I could've ever heard, Blaze smiling and crying a few tears of happiness herself when she heard the voice. "Oh how long it has been since I've heard your mesmerizing voice, Solaris! Let's go home," Blaze smiled at the flame girl. "Yes... let's," Solaris smiled at that as Blaze grabbed onto her Sol Emeralds and her Princess Emerald with a smile. "So long, friends," Blaze said to us. "So long," I smiled at her as everyone else did their own farewells before Blaze finally disappeared back to her dimension.
"Well, that wraps up this adventure... hey! I just got an amazing idea!" Elise smiled at us. "Yeah? What is it?" I asked her with a smile. "How about you come to stay at my castle tonight? Then I can have you all as my guests of honor during tomorrow's festivities!" Elise smiled at our group. Our entire group of people, Shadow included, all got huge smiles on our faces when she said that. "How can we ever pass up an offer like that?! YES!" I smiled at that... but then Rouge got some beeping sounds on her headset she wore. "Crud... Maria's calling me right now to return to base with Shadow... sadly, we can't be part of this festival," Rouge pouted at that. "Go on back to base then, Rouge. GUN work is more important, after all," Sonic smiled. "Yeah... about that... when did you decide to start working with GUN, Shadow?" I asked him. "After Maria convinced me to do so. She was willing to let bygones be bygones and so am I," Shadow said. "Understood. I'm sure we'll see each other again," I smiled as Silver looked to be confused about something.
"You alright, leaf head? You're looking to be troubled," I said to Silver. "My name is Silver, just to let you know," Silver frowned at me. "And yes... something is bothering me... I came from a future where Iblis runs rampant... so if I return, it'll just mean that Iblis will keep rampaging in my world... I'm trying to think of how I can still be around if my past is altered..." Silver frowned. "Maybe it's because of time travel? I mean, you came from a world we have never seen before... and how, exactly, did you get to this world from yours?" I asked him. "With Mephiles's powers," Silver said. "Then that may mean that your distant future is unable to be altered because of a time paradox involving it and Mephiles... I'd say that you should just stay in this world. What do you think?" Tails asked him. "Stay in this world?... Well, I guess that wouldn't be too bad. Considering that I only knew Blaze as a friend in the future, and that she can come to this world anytime she wants, I think I'll stay here with you guys," Silver said. "Then what are we sitting around gas bagging for? Let's go to the partay!" Chaos smiled happily. "Okay. Everyone, huddle around me so I can warp us away," I said with a smile. "Got it. Let's have ourselves a great festival!" Sonic smiled.