Sonic Chaos & Knuckles (Season Two)

by sleepfiction

With the threat of Perfect Chaos on the horizon, Sonic and his friends race to retrieve the seven chaos emeralds, and the shards of the Master Emerald, to imprison the god once more. Teaming up with shady organization G.U.N., and an echidna who is way too into his job, Team Sonic will face enemies new and old in order to save the world from a very watery death. (Read Season One!)

8. Scalding Silver, Burning Blaze

THREE YEARS AGO, IN THE SOL ZONE...

Soleanna was burning.

The flames that were destroying the peaceful island country reflected off of sixteen-year-old Blaze Agni's eyes, the princess watching in semi-horror from the balcony of her room, placed only on the second story of the large palace.

With the feeling that something bad was going to happen since she woke up, Blaze had felt the presence of the otherworldly figure in their home grow stronger as the day had progressed, leading to the opening of the world below.

The ground had cracked open, signifying the end of days. Iblis, the Flames of Destruction, was here.

Her head turned slightly as she sensed her father rushing into her room. Blaze had been waiting for his arrival since the first crevice had opened up in the middle of the island, not just for an update, but for final permission to leave.

There was a soft clunk on the ground as someone was using something metallic as a walking stick. Blaze turned from her balcony, walking back in her room to meet her father.

King Agni was not alone. Standing alongside her was a young woman Blaze's age, wearing a red dress that reached down to her feet. Her fur was tan, with a deep brown puft of hair coming up from between her ears.

Blaze knew exactly who she was- this was Tiara, her lady-in-waiting for a few years now. Tiara's mother was the late queen's own court lady, so Blaze grew up alongside her. In one of Tiara's hands was the Jeweled Scepter, the Agni bloodline's prized heirloom. Tiara was one of the few people outside the Agni family trusted to carry the scepter.

"Elise… Blaze." The king said. "You're aware of what's happening out there."

The princess nodded solemnly, hearing another crack form in the island.

"Your mother's protection charm could only last so long," Tiara said. "Elise, you know what you must do."

"I know, Tiara." Blaze replied simply. "Iblis must be sealed away. The Power of the Stars should be enough to store it into another dimension."

"And you're sure it will work?" The king asked his daughter.

After a moment, Blaze nodded in silence again.

"...your mother knew this day would come." King Cyrus continued. "I never knew it would be on the day… the anniversary of her passing. Elise, you must be careful. If you aren't, the incantation could trap you within an alternate dimension while you seal away Iblis."

"I'm well aware of the dangers, father."

"Either way, I've instructed Tiara to accompany you."

The lady-in-waiting handed Blaze the Jeweled Scepter. As it was taken from her, Tiara winked at Blaze, making the princess' face heat up slightly, Blaze having to keep herself from smiling.

"Keep her safe, Tiara."

"You know I will, your majesty." Tiara did a small bow to him.

"I'm aware. I just wanted to say it."

The king gave Blaze one last glance, nodding at her quietly, before turning and walking from the room. He closed the door firmly behind him, letting it echo through the bedroom before the room quickly filled with sounds of the world cracking again.

Blaze walked out to her balcony, looking over the scepter again. Tiara joined her side soon after.

"You don't have to come with me, Tiara."

"Of course I do."

"No, you don't. This is going to be dangerous."

"No less dangerous than the other things you've gotten yourself into, Ellie. Besides…" Tiara smiled at Blaze. "I am your bodyguard."

"I have a hedgehog who would say otherwise."

"He can be knighted all he wants. I'm the one who trained to protect you from day one."

The world heated up near them. Lava poured into the world, causing a bit of yelling from the city nearby. King Agni had already instructed the citizens to evacuate the island, but the royal guard was still present to defend against the threat that was Iblis.

Blaze handed Tiara back the scepter, letting her hold onto it for the moment.

"Let's go." The princess said.

With a shockwave of fire from her feet, Blaze leapt off the balcony and onto the roof of the stables, swiftly followed by the acrobatic Tiara right behind her.

Rushing off the stables and past the walls blocking the courtyard from the rest of the world, Blaze soared out onto the grassy plains, the sides of the hills that led downwards into town.

Lava was seeping through the streets of Soleanna. Guards were trying their best to keep businesses safe from the seeping magma, using their enchanted spears to push back the lava into the crevice.

Iblis was last stored inside of the body of Blaze's mother, the queen. She had used her powers to keep Iblis trapped inside of herself even post-death. Being a divine entity, it was only a matter of time before Iblis broke free.

Nobody quite knew what Iblis was. It had been in the Agni bloodline, much like the scepter, for centuries. It always haunted the firstborns of the royal blood, and as her father married into the royal family, the king was only so much help to Blaze when the queen passed. Blaze was all alone, trapped with a curse she didn't understand.

Hence her plan. With the Power of the Stars, she would rid the world of Iblis… permanently.

Hopping off the roof of one of the town's buildings, Blaze finally made it to town, with Tiara landing right beside her.

Tiara ripped her dress at the knee, tossing the ripped off fabric into the nearby lava. Blaze kept her eyes averted, her face heating up once more.

There was a single crack in the ground that extended almost all the way down to the beach. Magma seeped out and spilled over to the streets, most of it handled well by the guards and their energized spears.

With Tiara close behind, Blaze trailed through the dirt street of the village.

"Why do we need to be here, exactly?"

"Iblis' awakening is said to destroy most of Soleanna in search of its vessel." Blaze replied to her close friend. "We're here to make sure the damage is kept to a minimum. Then, when Iblis awakened, we lead it away from our island with the vessel."

"Who's the vessel then?"

Blaze stayed silent.

"...right, right." Tiara nodded.

From the giant crack formed down the street, between where Blaze and Tiara were standing. The lady-in-waiting hopped across the sliver of lava to the princess, Blaze holding onto Tiara's arm to keep her there.

The crack had caused the side Tiara was standing on to start crumbling, the building of the business there starting to sink down to the lava.

"The cobbler! Blaze—"

Blaze didn't need to be told what to do. Using her powers of fire, she commanded the lava to stop. It was much, much harder for her to command magma as it was, technically, half-fire and half-stone. The princess' hands shook as she kept the cobbler's building above lava.

From the broken ground, the lava started seeping upwards on its own. Tendrils of magma flopped outwards, as if some kind of animal trying to crawl up out of the dirt.

Tiara noticed. She twirled the Jeweled Scepter in her hand before aiming it directly at one of the tendrils, firing a white blast of energy that obliterated it in one shot- the Power of the Stars. She fired another at a larger tendril, making it break into two.

Though the manx cat managed to destroy one of the pair, the other whipped around and attached to Blaze's arm, yanking it downwards and breaking her concentration. The spirit of Iblis lived in this lava, and started pulling the princess towards the break in the soil.

The connection was interrupted with a slice, Tiara swinging the scepter upwards and cutting the lava with the stoned crescent on the end of the heirloom. She grabbed Blaze afterwards by the back of her collar, pulling her away from the crack.

"Ellie, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine… Thank you, Tiara."

There was a rumbling from the cobbler's building. The crack got wider, and it was clear their work was in vain- the business was sinking into the ground again.

The princess put out a hand, willing to exert herself and control the lava again. Luckily for her, the building stopped sinking entirely, frozen in place as Blaze pushed her hand out to control the heat.

Blinking in surprise, Blaze looked at her hand.

From the center of the building, a cyan colored energy seeped out from inside out, covering the building and the ground it was on, before it slowly started lifting up from the burning magma. Though tendrils tried keeping it down, it was pulled from the grasp of Iblis and moved from that spot.

Blaze and Tiara watched the floating building move aside, set to another area on the street with no lava around it. Floating in the air above that area was the person of interest that had moved the building, wearing a white shirt and khaki pants over boots of teal, black and white.

The gray hedgehog turned to grin at Blaze and Tiara, also covered in the cyan energy. He floated down to the ground to meet the women.

"Hey, El." He said.

"You're late, Silver."

"Had to evacuate the entire island! They needed help from a telekinetic, I can't be your royal knight and only your royal knight."

"Says the guy with a telepathic link." Tiara grumbled to Blaze.

"I heard that, Tiara."

The manx cat rolled her eyes with a grin. The smile didn't leave Silver's face.

Suddenly, from below, the ground began to rumble again. The lava pool left over from Silver lifting the cobbler's building out of the ground started to boil quickly, a few tendrils flopping out onto the dirt and pressing downwards.

A giant lump in the pool of lava started forming, as if something was pushing itself upwards from inside the magma. The tendrils suddenly started fusing into one another, forming four hands and arms that pulled something out of the lava.

With a body made out of pitch black obsidian, and a head made of three flaps made of the same material, Iblis arrived in the village of Soleanna. Though it was visually imposing, the being was only about three stories high. The head opened up and roared at the group, directly towards Blaze.

When the creature attempted to direct all four of its hands towards the princess, Tiara twirled the scepter, blasting a constant white laser of energy that cut off all four arms made of lava, causing them to land behind the trio.

Silver used his psychokinesis to launch a piece of the earth (er, Sol) directly into Iblis, knocking it back slightly. The lava from the creature being knocked back rained down directly towards the nearby buildings.

Blaze saw the lava hitting the buildings. She looked towards Tiara, before reaching out and grabbing the scepter.

"Tiara. You need to go."

"What? Blaze…"

"Go help the guards. Make sure my father gets to safety. Silver and I can take care of sealing Iblis away."

"Blaze!"

"I'm the princess of Soleanna, and what I say goes, Tiara... Please."

After a moment, the lady-in-waiting let go of the Jeweled Scepter, letting Blaze take it from her.

"Please be careful, Ellie."

"I will be."

"I know. I just… wanted to say it."

Tiara looked at Blaze one last time, before running to a building and climbing up the side of it, intent on heading back to Blaze's home and retrieving the king for safekeeping.

"She only wants to help."

"I know. But this is serious." Blaze said, looking over the scepter. "If you weren't required for the sealing, I'd send you away too."

"Right… so what now, El?"

"We have to lead it to the ocean. Get it away from the village."

Iblis was reforming slowly, making one arm at a time.

"It'll surely destroy something if it steps onto the street. We could keep it in the lava if we make a path in the ground to the sea."

"Can you do that?"

"If you lure it down to the beach, I'll make the cracks in the ground wider for Iblis to walk through." Silver said, his spikes floating as telekinetic energy coated his body again.

"Be careful, Sil."

"When am I not?"

Iblis completely reformed. It roared again towards Blaze, but the princess was ready this time. Unleashing a burst of fire from her feet, the princess leapt over Iblis, twirling to evade the grabbing hands of the beast.

Aiming the scepter, Blaze fired a blast of white energy into the creature's obsidian-covered back, forcing Iblis to stumble forwards and move along the crack in the ground.

Floating above the village, Silver held his hands out towards the crack. The edges of the ground glowed the same color as the hedgehog as he started using his telekinesis to widen the crack created in the ground. His hands shook as he used as much power as he could, splitting open the earth and letting lava flow through it.

With another blast of fire propelling her through the air, Blaze launched ahead of Iblis and ran towards the beach, the scepter still in hand. With the creature having been shuffled forwards through the crack, Iblis started trudging through the crevice and the magma, following its vessel down the streets without a second thought- if it even could think beyond latching onto the princess.

Silver followed along with the divine being through the fiery streets of Soleanna, traveling down towards the rushing waves of the ocean.

As he continued to split the ground, the hedgehog floated through the air to follow the trudging creature, leading Iblis down the path with Blaze being its main target.

The crack ended at the beach. Silver knew he couldn't make it too wide, or risk filling the crevice with water and blocking the plan Blaze clearly had in mind.

Looking at Silver for a moment, Blaze gripped the scepter tightly in her hands. The end of the path was coming up soon- they had to make sure they got this just right.

As the telekinetic hedgehog hung back, Blaze ran onto the beach. Iblis finally stepped out of the crack, each footstep it made turning the sand below into molten glass.

Blaze skidded to a stop right in front of where the tide ended. Pushing off with the scepter, she unleashed a burst of fire from her feet that launched her high into the air, managing to clear Iblis in a single bound.

Further back, Silver telekinetically sent a boulder from the ground into Iblis' back, narrowly missing Blaze on her backflip down. As she fell past the back of the creature, Blaze aimed the scepter.

With a concentrated blast of the Power of the Stars, Iblis was sent flying forwards, directly into the water on the beach, landing on its hands and knees.

All of its limbs immediately turned to obsidian as it was forcibly cooled, trapping the divine creature in the water with petrified limbs. It roared in anger, struggling to get up.

Silver floated down next to Blaze, joining her.

"You ready for this?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Blaze didn't sound sure.

The pair held their hands up to the crescent of the staff. The flickering flames of Blaze's palm touched the stone as Silver's cyan colored psychokinetic energy touched the other side. The stone shined brightly, the gems in the crescent stone turning a bright white.

Blaze stepped forwards, holding up the Jeweled Scepter. White energy drifted down and wrapped around her arms as she held the crescent to the sky.

"The Power of the Stars… lend me your strength!" She said. "I am Elise Agni the Third, princess of Soleanna, guardian of the emeralds of power!"

Her hands trembled slightly.

"My soul is ablaze with flames! Fall into slumber with my soul, Iblis! You cursed Flames of Disaster!" She yelled.

Her hair flickered like flames. From her body, the seven Sol Emeralds (though not called that at the time) appeared, orbiting around her slowly.

The creature of lava roared from its watery prison. From its back, streams of fire came out and directly hit the crescent on the scepter, before a concentrated beam of white hit Blaze's chest directly.

Though she focused as much as she could, the energy made her body feel like it was on fire- a new sensation for the princess. The force from the laser pushed her back slightly, her feet digging in the sand.

Blaze fell to one knee from the force of the scepter's energy. Transferring a divine creature to another dimension was much more difficult than it seemed- she had to capture the creature in the ring of the emeralds and transfer it to the void, all in the process of trying to keep herself from being sent to another dimension.

The princess struggled to get back up again, her grip tightening on the scepter. Silver watched in silence, looking over her once again.

This was Blaze. His first friend, his closest friend. His duty as a royal knight was dedicated directly to her, and only her, as her royal guard. Sure, it sounded prestigious, but Silver loved being Blaze's little sidekick on her adventures.

He watched as speckles of her sleeves burnt off and turned into bits of light, curling in the air and disappearing as the Power of the Stars was affecting her.

She couldn't control it. Her body was being sent to another dimension.

Silver looked at Iblis, who was slowly being sucked into the ring of emeralds, then back at the determined face of Blaze.

He held his hand out, freezing her in place with his psychokinesis. With a flick of his hand, Blaze was flung back and out of the ring of emeralds. It was no use, she couldn't stop herself.

The scepter nearly fell but was grabbed by Silver, who instead took her place.

"Silver!" Blaze said, picking herself up. She ran forwards, but was stopped by a shield of telekinetic energy made by Silver.

"I'll take Iblis. Soleanna needs its protector."

"No, you can't! Iblis won't accept you as a vessel, it'll either destroy you, or you'll be sent to another dimension!"

"You'll be safe."

"No… no! You can't do this!" Blaze yelled. "I am your leader! Put down that scepter and get out here! You've been fighting alongside me to save the world! You… you're my friend… aren't you?"

Silver felt a smile tug at his face. He slowly turned to Blaze as the remains of Iblis filled the ring of emeralds, surrounding him.

"You're so selfless, Elise. I… I've always liked that about you." He said softly.

Fire rushed around him. He waved slowly at Blaze as the spirit of Iblis overtook him, making his body turn to flicks of light.

The fire turned into a vortex, before a pulse of white energy was released, knocking Blaze onto her back again.

She looked up in time to see the emeralds all drop to the ground, the scepter dropping in the center of that circle, the gems on the crescent slowly dimming from their white light.

Iblis was gone. So was Silver.

The princess of Soleanna was left weeping on the sand.

---

PRESENT DAY, THE SOL ZONE…

Cream had never seen Soleanna before. At least, the one in their dimension.

After a straight week of begging, Amy managed to convince Vanilla to let her daughter go to the foreign country at the end of her two-week punishment (Cream was so well behaved she managed to get out early for good behavior)

Vanilla was so generous as to let them use the HEXAeco private jet. As well as let a large, fisherman cat join them.

While they sat at a lovely little cafe together, Big the cat fed a piece of his scone to Froggy, who rested between the cat's ears.

Though Vanilla was unable to attend due to her doing press for Carnival Island, she requested the next best thing- Cream's uncle Big- chaperone the trip.

Amy didn't mind. She liked Big, actually. Her, Cream and Big usually go bowling together on fridays. They rocked the lanes as the iconic "Team Rose," even if they all suck at bowling.

Cream broke her scone in half, giving one half to Cheese, who was sitting on the table. The chao happily ate the pastry.

They were positioned right next to a lovely canal, a few boats floating along past the cafe as the group sat outside. Cream watched the people float by, sipping the tea she ordered.

Big tilted his head and stirred his tea, enraptured by the sight of the sugar swirling in the liquid.

"It's really nice here, Amy!" The rabbit girl spoke. "Thank you for bringing me out here! It's been really crowded in my room during my grounding."

"I'm sure. I can barely be stuck inside my fortune shop for eight hours a day." Amy nodded. "I'm sure Big likes being away from that shack anyway."

"That's a really big river. I wonder what kinds of fish I could get from there." The large purple cat said as he watched the canal, sipping the tea he had.

"You can't fish in that canal, Uncle Big! You might get arrested!"

"Ohhh… Thanks, Cream. You're always the smartest girl I know."

Cream smiled brightly at her godfather's compliment.

Froggy hopped around the table, not bothering to try and leave it as he was comfortable being in sight of his owner, Big. Cheese, sitting on the table, cooed happily as the amphibian came across him. He reached over and lifted the frog up as if to play with it.

Though Froggy wriggled out of the chao's grasp, the texture of the frog's skin was left on Cheese's nubs, as if absorbed off of it by Cream's pet chao. With a shake of his arms, it disappeared.

Nobody at the table noticed.

"I'm glad they had palm fruit pastries here! Palm fruit is Cheese's favorite fruit!" Cream said, finishing her tea. "Though I do wanna know… why exactly are we here?"

"I can't take my friend on a vacation?"

"Everyday is a vacation! Especially the days that involve adventures that you bring me on." The rabbit replied. "You're acting suspicious… what's going on here, Amy?"

"Whaaaat? Come on, Cream, you can't possibly think that I… that anyone here would… Ugh, I thought she'd be here by now. Let's just wait in silence until the surprise happens."

"...she?"

"Silence, Cream."

The only thing heard between all of them was Froggy ribbiting idly. Big grabbed his pet, placing the happy amphibian between his ears again for safekeeping.

All four tea cups on the table rumbled slightly as something started coming their way. There was a thunderous boom in the distance, causing the four cups and the tea inside to rattle slightly. The sounds of footsteps above got ever closer.

Cream looked over the back of her chair, an ear lifting to try and detect where the sound came from. There was another burst- a purple and pink shockwave of energy happening somewhere above that was obscured by the buildings around them.

From her spot at the table, Amy smirked as she sipped her drink.

The footsteps were above them now. With another burst that rocked the table slightly, someone leapt off the roof of the building above, performing a flip for flare in the sky.

Blaze landed on both feet on the walkway by the table, letting out a small ripple of purple flames from her body that even made the water in the canal beside them bristle slightly. The table and the things on it stayed completely intact, however, as everyone turned their attention to the princess from another dimension.

Though she tried to dust off the sleeve of her royal purple clothing (ironically, or intentionally, a long princess coat over her usual outfit) Blaze was quickly interrupted by Cream.

"BLAAAAAAZE!" Cream yelled, hugging the princess immediately. Blaze was flustered, but smiled and pat Cream's back.

"Hello, Cream. It's been a while."

"Yeah! Long time no see! What are you doing here?!"

"Well…" Blaze put Cream down, the two of them returning to the table, the fourth teacup finding its owner as the princess instinctively took it in her hands. "I was contacted by Amy here to assist in finding one of your Chaos Emeralds, here in your version of Soleanna."

"Hello, Blaze."

"Hi, Amy." The princess started putting sugar in her tea.

"Are you my sister?"

Blaze tensed and jumped, looking over to Big. The larger purple feline had his head tilted slightly in curiosity, Froggy still staying in his exact spot.

"...I don't have any siblings… Sweet Solaris, you're a very big cat."

"Thank you. Cream says it makes me better at hugs. Would you like a hug?"

"I'll pass. But thank you…"

"My name's Big."

"Big... Big A. Mas?"

"That's me."

"Then that means you have a pet frog…"

The frog croaked. Blaze smiled and nodded at the amphibian as her statement was proven.

"Speaking of…" Blaze looked over at Cream again, specifically the chao who was munching on his palm fruit pastry. "Cheese. I trust he's doing well since what happened with Dr. Quack?"

"I actually need to talk to you about that. Something weird's been happening with him…"

Amy cleared her throat. Blaze looked at her, then at Cream, before perking up.

"Oh! Right! Sorry, it's just been a while. I had to catch up first."

"Did you get the Chaos Emerald?"

"Amy, there wasn't any Chaos Emerald there to begin with." Blaze replied. "The 'lucky charm' described by locals is merely a meteorite that landed here in your medieval period. By the way, the 'Princess Elise' that lives here is absolutely nothing like me. Your human princess is very bizarre…"

"Shoot. Figures, I felt that nothing was here…" Amy grumbled. "Oh, well. I still wanted to bring Cream along to visit you again!"

"I'm happy for any reason to see her." Blaze smiled, stirring her tea.

"You seem perky! That's out of character!" Cream said to her. "And your powers look purple and pink now! Like the energy from the Sol Emeralds! I'm sure there's a reason for that!"

"Oh, yes. I've had a very busy week. It's like I told Silver, I'd kill for nothing to happen for the rest of my life after this week's events."

"Silver?" Big tilted his head.

"The… hedgehog?" Amy also inquired.

"Yes! The one you have here, I remember I saw him last time I visited." Blaze nodded. "Cream, you remember how I talked about the hedgehog friend I had a long time ago? It was Silver! The one you had here, too. How ironic!"

"Silver quit working at FrogMart a week ago." The large purple cat commented.

"I'm sure those two things are connected! As well as the purple power thing!" Cream said. "I know because I'm using my telempathy on Blaze. Tell us what happened, Blaze!"

"I guess I could…"

"Hey, the mission was a dud. Might as well have a bit of fun." Amy shrugged. "Talk away, Blaze. We're all ears. Except Froggy and Cheese, who both have no ears."

"Amy!" Cream scolded her nanny, holding her hands over where Cheese's ears would be.

"Alright! Let's get on with it then." Blaze sipped her tea before setting it down again. "I would say it started in the Sol Zone, but to be honest, it simultaneously started in both my zone and yours…"

---

A WEEK AGO...

"D'arr har har- ACK!"

A robot pirate captain was kicked across the face by Blaze. The pirates that started attacking the shores of Soleanna, though small, were in a ship that was very physically imposing. It was partially on shore, using the cannons on the side to fire upon the village on the island.

Blaze was able to use the ship's beak to climb up onto the deck of the ship with ease only a few minutes after they came ashore.

The captain of the ship was Captain Whisker- an old adversary of Blaze's and a creation of Bernadette Quark gone rogue. Instead of following the orders of the sinister scientist of the Sol Zone, Whisker and his comrades decided to just lean into the pirate theme they were created with and became the scourge of the planet's seas.

They had a vendetta against Blaze (and her late best friend, Silver) due to the two of them successfully destroying the first pirate ship that Whisker had. Hence why it had taken a while for a resurgence- Whisker and his pirates had to remake their ship from scratch.

The princess ducked under a swipe from the pirate captain, punching directly into his robotic gut, making the pirate release a mechanical gurgle from his throat. The gurgle wasn't from pain though- he was unleashing something from inside his cybernetic maw.

A blast of fire came down upon Blaze. The princess was unsurprisingly unharmed from the fire breath, but the force of the attack was enough to make her strafe backwards,

"You'd best be giving up soon, lass, lest you fancy windin' up in Davy Jones' Locker!" Captain Whisker spoke to the princess, pointing his fists out.

The fists shot out off of his arms, rocketing through the air and twisting around as if both of them were attracted to Blaze. The princess grunted as she flipped out of the way of both fists, evading being hit by the flying projectiles.

"Your ship will end up at the bottom of the sea again before you even lay a hand on me, Whisker."

"D'arr, maybe I'll join ye little friend there as well." The captain taunted.

Blaze's eyes squinted slightly as she glared at the robot pirate. Her ear flicked as she sensed the fists returning to their owner, and she rolled forwards to get out of the way.

As she finished her roll, however, she was suddenly knocked off her feet from a green blur crashing into her side, making her tumble across the wooden deck of the ship.

The princess got up to a knee, looking up at her attacker. It was another robot, taller and lankier than Whisker, green in color. His head was clearly designed similarly to a torpedo, hiding a red colored face underneath.

"Ugh… I hate speedsters…" Blaze grumbled.

"What's the matter? Moving too fast for you?" Johnny said.

Johnny was Whisker's right hand man, his first mate, and was a serious nuisance that was obsessed with speed. The only way they could stop him was Silver using psychokinesis to freeze Johnny in place when he least expected it.

Silver wasn't here now.

The robot rushed towards Blaze. The princess used her stance to flip backwards, sending a fiery foot into the speedster and launching him back again. Though Johnny was a speedster, his brain couldn't keep up with what he was doing, meaning he could easily be interrupted when he was speeding up.

Racing to meet Johnny where he lay, Blaze aimed a punch at him, which was quickly dodged with the robot turning his body. The princess swung the same arm back, but Johnny leaned backwards so his body was at a ninety degree angle.

Johnny stood straight up again, the top half of his body slamming into Blaze and knocking the princess back. Blaze barely caught her footing as she centered herself.

"Awww, I'm sorry. You need me to call your butlers?" The green robot said.

Blaze cracked her neck, putting up her hands and gesturing for him to come at her again.

The speedster zipped over to Blaze, swinging his arm to hit her, which was dodged quickly. The princess sent a kick into his back, making him stumble forwards. Blaze punched down into his leg, knocking him down to a kneel.

Waving her hands around, Blaze created a fireball that she launched directly into Johnny's back, sending him flying forwards.

However, using the thrusters on his back, Johnny stabilized himself in the air, floating towards the starboard end of the boat, partially over the rushing waters on the shore.

"You can send those fireballs at me all you want, your majesty." Johnny said. "I'll always get back up. You're always so predictable! Nothing can get the upper hand against me now!"

Slowly, behind him, the physical representation of how wrong he was rose up from the ocean. It was a large tendril made of seawater, dripping down back into the shore as it lifted itself up to the side of the boat.

The water tendril whipped around Johnny's midsection, making the robot yell in surprise. Ripped from his spot in the air, the tendril threw Johnny away from the boat and out into the distance, a distant splash heard a moment later.

Another tendril of water lifted someone up from the shore and onto the deck before quickly retracting. Marine took off her goggles, letting them hang around her neck again before quickly shaking her head to get the dripping water off of her.

Immediately after, she dropped to her knees, bending down to press her cheek against the deck.

"Ahhh… strewth, this is the most beautiful ship I've ever seen… what a beaut…" She murmured, clearly in awe of the giant pirate ship below her.

A hand came down, grabbing the collar of her shirt and lifting Marine to her feet. Blaze scowled at the young woman, crossing her arms after.

"Marine! You can't be here!"

"You're facing against pirates, Blazey! I'm a pirate, you need my expertise."

"What you're doing is getting in the way of a dangerous mission!"

"D'arr har har!"

Blaze and Marine turned to look at the robotic captain laughing at them. Marine put her hands up in defense, clearly ready to face off against the pirate captain at any time.

"Ye landlubbers are scramblin' around to work together! A good pirate captain knows when to summon the right crew for the right occasion!"

With two claps of his robotic hands, Captain Whisker summoned someone behind him. From a hatch on the deck, two more robots floated up on either side of the pirate captain. They had no legs, both flying in the air using some unknown technology. One was blue with one spike on its head, the other was green with two of them on his head.

"Aye, Mini and Mum, take care of these intrusive lasses!"

The two smaller robots flew over towards Blaze and Marine, intent on taking them on one at a time. Blaze swung her leg around, sending an arc of fire towards the blue one (Mum, presumably) which was quickly dodged as the robot floated out of the way.

When the princess threw a punch, the two long arms of Mum reached out and grabbed onto her, yanking her upwards by her wrist. They didn't go up that far, but being lifted off the ground sent a surge of fear through the princess' body. She lifted her legs up, kicking as hard as she could against the robot.

Mum swung Blaze around to stop her from attacking them. Using that momentum, Blaze swung her body upwards, flipping around so her feet were on top of Mum. A shockwave of fire blasted from her feet, bursting her upwards and Mum down onto the deck.

Blaze got a view of her spot, currently two stories or more above solid ground. She felt nausea hit her, and she writhed as an intense shiver went down her spine from fear. The princess didn't prepare herself for her landing, so instead she simply crashed down on top of the blue robot, the two of them tumbling after.

Nearby, Marine started to step in to try and help Blaze, but was interrupted by the green robot (Mini maybe?) floating in front of her. The raccoon hardened herself, and quickly punched forwards, the fist hitting directly onto the metal with a loud thwang.

The young woman snatched her hand back, shaking it around as the pain started to set in.

"Ugh! Son of a…!" Marine said, jumping a bit as well.

When Mini swung its arm at her, Marine quickly dropped down to crawl under the floating robot, trying to quickly evade any more attacks. However, it was in vain, as the floating robot spun around quickly and grabbed her by her collar.

As she was lifted into the air, Marine used her powers to raise a sprig of ocean water up from the shore below to try and grab her. While the water did grab her hand, she was still thrown over Mini's head and tossed back across the deck.

The water Marine was holding onto broke, completely covering Mini's body and getting part of the deck wet with a large puddle. As the raccoon girl landed, Mini twitched and jerked from all the inside wirings getting wet from the seawater.

Though she got up to her feet, Mini rushed her and grabbed her by the arms, holding her tightly and keeping her completely still as she thrashed.

"Get offa me, ya drongo!"

Adrenaline and fear crackled through Marine's body as the equally crackling robot had her in its robotic clutches. She had certainly signed up for an adventure like this, but now she was trapped with no help in sight.

As more adrenaline passed up her spine, she didn't notice the puddle she was standing in starting to get smaller and smaller, the water all pulled into one direct spot- Marine. With her feet still in the water, the puddle swirled under her feet like a whirlpool.

She felt fire flicker underneath her arms. Marine reached out and put her hands on Mini's chest, suddenly releasing a white blast of energy that knocked Mini clear across the deck, until he came to a crashing halt into one of the stairs leading up to the galver.

Marine got a look at her hands before they stopped glowing white, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion at what just happened.

"D'arr har har!"

Suddenly, Captain Whisker grabbed Marine by the back of her neck, pulling her back so she was standing right in front of him, his face right above the top of her head. Marine could see his moustache sticking out in her peripherals.

Blaze kicked Mum away, giving the pirate her full attention. Regardless of her annoyance towards the young woman, she was still an innocent girl in danger.

"Marine!" She exclaimed.

"Aye, keep back, your highness." Whisker said. "Nobody moves or the young girl gets it."

Mum floated past Blaze, returning to Captain Whisker at his side. Mini floated up to get on the opposite side of the captain, still twitching from the water damage.

"Let her go, Whisker."

"I don't take orders from a lass like you."

"What do you even want, Whisker?"

"To watch you suffer."

Marine looked up at the moustache that was right above her. She looked over at Blaze, then at the eponymous whiskers, then at Blaze again.

The princess didn't particularly respond, but got a good idea of what Marine wanted to do.

"You first." Blaze replied.

The raccoon quickly reached upwards, yanking down on one half of the captain's moustache, pulling down with all her might and making the robot tumble to the side. Marine rushed away before Mini and Mum could get to her, returning to Blaze's side.

"Gah! Curse ye, landlubber! No one is allowed to set a hand to me precious whiskers!" The captain said, clearly enraged. "You'll pay for your… your… what's that noise?"

There was a warping sound before a white laser shot down directly towards the deck, hitting the area right behind Captain Whisker. The energy split a tear in reality, creating a vortex that started sucking things into it.

Captain Whisker and his smaller robots were immediately pulled into the tear in reality. Blaze grabbed Marine and used her powers to burst a pulse of fire under her feet, leaping off of the side of the boat and onto the shore.

It took a moment or two, but the vortex fixed itself, leaving the ship empty.

"Blimey! What caused that thing, Blazey?" Marine asked.

"The Power of the Stars is strong enough to create a portal to other worlds. But… Only the Jeweled Scepter could create it. Unless…"

Blaze quickly turned to the castle she called home.

There was a masked figure in red on her bedroom balcony with the scepter. The figure turned quickly, rushing back inside.

"Fair suck of the sav, mate! We've been set up!"

The princess and her (unofficial) companion rushed through the streets and back up into the castle as fast as they could.

There were guards unconscious all over the courtyard. Whoever did this was good… really good. Blaze was certain her father went into his panic room- if he didn't, she knew the same would have probably happened to the king.

The pair trailed through the courtyard to the front doors.

"Who would do this?"

"The better question right now is why." Blaze murmured to Marine, still looking around.

With the distant sound of an explosion, the ground shook from the force. It came somewhere deep in the castle, reverberating off of the walls inside. Blaze felt fear hit her stomach at the sounds, accompanied by a sudden need to check on her father.

She turned to Marine.

"Go check on my father. He should be in the lower levels."

"Blazey, you need backup!"

"No, I don't. Go Marine."

"But…"

"I said go!"

The raccoon girl recoiled a bit at the yell, not used to Blaze so frantically loud. Marine quickly scurried off into the castle to look for the king, leaving Blaze to head over to where she could sense the heat of the explosion at.

It was down into the basement, to the dungeons that lived below. They hadn't used those cells in years, mostly because there was usually little to no criminals that needed to be put there.

Except… one of them. Blaze knew that's where she needed to be.

The cell of Dr. Bernadette Quark had a hole blasted in it, leading to the outside. Dr. Quark (or Dr. Quack if you like getting on her nerves) was gathering the things she had while in the cell. Standing in the hole was the red-clothed figure, holding the scepter still.

This figure had on some kind of cloak, a hood on her head and a balaclava obscuring the lower half of her face- all colored red. It was like her theme color or something.

"Stop!" Blaze yelled.

Dr. Quark quickly got her things and rushed out, leaving the figure behind in the hole she created, clearly intent on getting out before things got ugly.

Blaze punched the cell door, blasting it off its hinges with a burst of fire. She stepped in as the figure did as well, this mystery attacker twirling the scepter in her hand familiarly.

"Who are— Ugh!"

The princess let out an unceremonious grunt as the crescent on the staff was slammed directly into her stomach. Since the concave side was pressed into Blaze, it acted sort of like a hook that the figure used to slam and pin her into the wall, making the princess grunt in pain.

Blaze used her powers to burst back, spinning around rapidly in a fiery tornado to get this mystery attacker to move backwards. This didn't work out, as the attacker used the scepter to sweep the legs from under the princess' feet.

With a slam of her palms onto the ground, Blaze bursted upwards and landed a swift punch on the figure, swinging and missing the second punch. This attacker let Blaze spin herself around, putting the princess in a chokehold to keep her still.

Though Blaze struggled to get out, the grip was iron tight.

"Hurts, doesn't it? Feels like it's getting harder to breathe. I know how that feels. Much like you, I went through that experience… all alone."

"Who… are… you?" Blaze choked out. She knew that voice. But from where?

"Wouldn't you like to know… Elise."

The princess was done with the theatrics. She reached up to grab onto the figure's face, who leaned back to keep that from happening. Blaze's hand felt cloth, gripping onto it tightly before unleashing a burst of fire from her back, sending them in opposite directions.

Landing on the floor with a grunt or two, Blaze stirred slowly before finally getting to her feet. She looked at the cloth in her hand- it was the balaclava, yanked from the figure's face in the burst of flames.

Blaze turned to look at the attacker.

The figure was Tiara.

She was certainly three years older. The brown fur on top of the manx cat's head was longer, and underneath the cloak was a red racerback and equally red shorts. Man, she loved this color.

Has she been working out? No, not the time, Blaze.

"Tiara…?" The princess spoke softly.

After a second of stone faced staring, Tiara aimed the scepter at Blaze.

"Hi, Ellie." She said.

A blast of energy came from the scepter, hitting Blaze directly in the chest and knocking her clear out of the cell, and only stopping as she crashed into the iron bars of the cell across the way.

Shaking her head to regain her bearings, Blaze looked into the destroyed cell to find it empty. Tiara was gone, long gone, having made a sudden appearance after three straight years of not seeing her.

She was helping Quark escape. She hired Whisker to divert Blaze but then… sent them to another dimension? That doesn't make any sense…

Blaze looked at the balaclava in her hands, rubbing it as she thought of her ex-friend.

---

"ERAZOR AIRLINES FLIGHT 7342 TO SOLEANNA, FINAL CALL FOR ALL REMAINING PASSENGERS TO GO IMMEDIATELY TO GATE 06."

Silver the Hedgehog jerked awake as the loud announcement lady blared over the speakers above him. As he heard the announcement start to talk in other languages, the gray hedgehog quickly started gathering his stuff.

He had fallen asleep and nearly missed his plane. Figures. His body would do anything to make him dream about that weird purple cat again. At least it was getting interesting… Who was this mysterious Tiara person that popped up?

It was like watching one of those weird TV series but in his brain, when sleeping.

Rushing up to the gate, Silver handed the lady his ticket, which was scanned. He had already checked in his luggage, but he had a carry-on bag with a few things like his laptop and magazines.

After that, he was ready to come aboard the airline. He had a seat by the window (he loved seeing the world from high up) and though he was in coach, he had a really good feeling about the flight over.

In fact, he just had a really good feeling about Soleanna. Something about that place made him really… warm inside.

He slid into his seat, opening the window already to look at the tarmac. This window was going to be open the whole time. Unless the others in his row were uncomfortable with it.

After a moment of looking out, he got his phone from his pocket, checking to see if he had any calls or anything. He hesitantly unlocked his phone, deciding to give one last phone call before they hit the skies.

The other line rang for a few moments, before the answering machine came in.

"Thank you for calling FrogMart," Big's voice came on the line. "I'm not available right now, but please leave your information and I'll return your call eventually! Thank you!"

Beeeep.

"Uh, hey Big," Silver cleared his throat. "It's me, Silver. I just wanted to give you one last call before I… really leave. I don't know if you'll ever hear this, or if you'll even know that the answering machine has a message one it, really… I know deciding to quit my job and move to Soleanna was a real big impulsive decision, but..."

There was a tap. A woman beside him, in the middle seat, wanted his attention.

"You can't make a call on a flight."

"Yes, I know, I just need a moment."

"You need to hang up the phone."

"Just a second."

"If you don't hang up, I will call the attend—"

With a raise of his eyebrows, Silver used his powers to force the woman's jaw closed, keeping her quiet. The hedgehog returned to his phone call, ignoring the woman who was now clawing at her mouth.

"Anyway," He said. "I just… want to thank you for everything. The job, all of it. Thank you, Big, I mean it. I'll make it up to you someday…"

"You've reached the end of your allotted message time. If you'd like to make another one, please press—"

Silver hung up with a sigh. He put his phone away, and as he leaned back, the woman suddenly found herself able to move her mouth again.

As the hedgehog put on a sleep mask and got comfortable for a short nap, he heard the woman beside him quickly requesting to switch seats with the person who got an aisle spot.

Captain Whisker didn't know where he landed, but he was sure it was Soleanna.

It looked familiar to him- it was almost completely alike to his own Soleanna in terms of geography, from a few similar landmasses to the fact it was an island. However, it was populated by… humans.

These humans stared at him as he walked through the streets, headed towards the shore as he tried to find a way back to the ocean. He was fairly certain his ship wasn't there anymore, but he would find a way back on the water.

Mini and Mum floated along behind the robot captain as humans continued to openly stare at them. Whisker's metal feet clanged down on the sidewalk as he walked with purpose.

"That blasted princess… Whatever the lass did, she sent us to the wrong Soleanna!"

Nobody would stop them, perhaps out of fear or even out of pure shock of seeing the robots just out in the open like that. Captain Whisker stomped out, stopping cars as he walked through traffic without a care in the world.

The sand was just like it was in the other dimension. The beach was packed with human visitors, some of them looking directly at Whisker and a few quickly getting up and running away.

Looking out at the ocean, the captain could see motorboats and yachts out in the distance.

"D'arr… What in sam hill is this nonsense…" He spoke.

As his smaller companions kept looking out into the sea, the captain suddenly turned his head slightly, his lights flickering as his sensors went off rapidly.

He turned his entire body to look down one end of the beach, his trademark whiskers twitching as he began tracking something.

"Aye, can you two feel that?"

Mini and Mum looked at each other, then at Whisker, both of them shrugging. Mini twitched and writhed for a moment, still experiencing water damage.

"I got the scent of a hedgehog on me nose…"

Down the coast of Soleanna, maybe a mile or so away where the humans hadn't noticed Captain Whisker just yet, a single mobian broke from the crowd and started setting his things up to sit down on the beach.

Silver put out a chair, then laid his towel out on top of it for cushioning. Right after, he used his telekinesis to set up the beach umbrella, opening it up to give shade to his sitting spot.

He let out a long sigh as he laid back on the beach chair. Silver opened up his beach bag, retrieving his headset and a nice book to use. The headphones were noise cancelling- they weren't going to play any actual music, just block out the sound of everyone else.

It took a moment to get them over his ears properly, but once he did, the world went silent.

Laying back in his chair, he opened up his book. The Mysteries Of The Black Comet by Alexandria Pell. It was one of those big conspiracy books, talking about aliens or something. The crazier these people sounded, however, the more entertained Silver would be.

Flipping the cover to read the prologue, Silver's complete attention was on reading.

The sound-blocking headset kept him in his own little world. Slowly, but surely, the people around him noticed something coming their way, and quickly got up to run in the opposite direction. With his eyes on the book, Silver didn't notice people running in terror all around him.

Silver used his psychokinesis to turn the page.

This was so calming. Silver always had so much work to do at FrogMart, he never really got a moment to sit down and relax. Now he was in another country, without a care in the world, finally getting ready to find himself.

It felt a little hotter around him. Maybe he'd take a swim later, it was certainly weather for it. He had on those semi-aquatic clogs with tiny holes on top of them, so he could take them in the water.

Besides that, he was in khaki shorts and a blue aloha shirt with white buds on it. He was certainly dressed for a beach day.

He turned another page. Nothing from this world could ruin his day now.

A robotic hand grabbed onto Silver's wrist as he finished turning the page. The hedgehog's headphones fell off as he turned to look at the source of the hand, hearing the yells and screams of terror of the other, scattering beachgoers.

It was a giant robot… pirate?

"D'arr har har! Look who we have here! The hedgehog who's supposed to be dead!"

"What the?!" Silver yelled in terror of Captain Whisker.

Whisker brought in oxygen through his mouth cavity- sure it could technically be called breathing, but he was simply using it to create fire with the igniter in his metallic body. The flame was lit, and he started to produce the flames from his mouth.

Before the fire could even get close to the terrified hedgehog, Blaze the cat delivered a powerful punch to Whisker's chest, sending the pirate captain tumbling back through the sand. Silver, having been let go, fell backwards and onto the hot sand below.

The hedgehog propped himself up on his elbows. Blaze's figure blocked out the sun, but he could see the expression on her face- soft, almost shocked and… nervous. This woman just punched a robot pirate, but looked like talking to Silver was the worst part of her day.

"Silver…" She said softly, hesitantly reaching out to him.

Silver blinked in surprise at hearing his name.

"...do I know you?" He asked.

The princess' face dropped, practically draining of all emotion she had.

In the distance, there was the sizzle and crackle of electricity, Mini and Mum approaching to attack the pair, much like they did before on the ship. However, a telekinetic hedgehog was now one of their opponents.

Back on his feet again, Silver grabbed the book he had and chucked it at Mum, knocking him back and out of the sky. Catching the book with his powers, Silver sent it back and slammed it into Mini, knocking him over next.

"We have to go!"

"What's going on?! You can't just drop in on a guy and not tell him anything!" Silver said to Blaze.

"It's important. I need your help to save my world… I think I know you."

"...you do look a bit familiar to me. I've seen you in my dreams before."

"You have?" Blaze's voice got soft again.

"D'arr har har!"

Captain Whisker was back on his feet again. He fired both of his fists at the pair, which rocketed through the sky like missiles at them. Silver stepped forwards and swung his arms, making psychokinetic arcs that knocked the fists away from them.

The fists redirected though. One of them hit the hedgehog directly in the face, knocking him to his knees, while the other was kicked out of the air by Blaze.

Silver rubbed his face where the fist hit him. As he opened his eyes again, he saw Blaze's hand outstretched to his, offering him help to get to his feet.

Looking up at her, and hesitating for a moment, he put his hand in hers.

Electricity shot through his arm and directly to his head, creating the sensation of bubbles traveling up his head and out of his quills, making him grab the top of his head and gasp at the sudden feeling. He felt some part of him add memories he could barely see in his head… things he had done but couldn't quite recognize.

Police sirens filled the air as Soleanna Police pulled onto the beach. Blaze pulled Silver up to his feet.

"We have to leave. Are you alright, Silver?"

"I'm… fine. Let's just get out of here. Please tell me you have a car or something."

"Even better."

Blaze pulled a flute out of her pocket. It was a small one, maybe even a piccolo, completely made of wood with a gold circling the holes made to change the key of the played note.

"Oh boy, we're saved." Silver deadpanned.

Putting the instrument to her lips, Blaze played a quick, thirteen-note song, almost like a young elf boy playing a song to save the world or something. Fire flickered from her fingertips, the instrument glowing white with the mystic melody being performed.

With a crackle, from the small flute, a tear in reality was made. Silver stared at it, dumbfounded by the sight in front of him, before Blaze grabbed him by the collar and tossed him inside. She quickly followed.

Police got out of the car and pointed their weapons at Whisker as Mini and Mum got back up.

"Aye, ye landlubbers are no match for the dreaded scourge of the—"

A cop fired his taser, which hit Whisker and immediately electrocuted him, making him pass out. Seeing their boss go down like a sack of potatoes, Mini and Mum quickly put their hands up in surrender.

---

"Here's the remnants of the fight with the Ghost Pendulum we had at age fourteen. It was the first adventure we had that my father fully accepted. After that, he let us go out into the world to find the seven emeralds of power- the Sol Emeralds."

Blaze had placed the remnants of… something on the table that was placed between her and Silver. The hedgehog had looked it over, but was completely unfamiliar with what this strange object before him was supposed to be.

Looking it over in his hand didn't help. Silver kind of felt like he should know what this thing was, but couldn't place a memory on it.

He set the thing down.

"I don't remember this."

"That's okay! That's okay." Blaze said, smiling a little bit. She was sure that would work.

The princess picked up the piece of the Ghost Pendulum and set it to the side. She looked at Silver again, her eyes studying his face cautiously, as if remembering something in the back of her mind.

"...you're sure you don't remember anything? From this place?" She spoke.

"Just that my name is Silver. That's the one thing you share."

"What even happened to you? You used to be cheery, optimistic… now you just look tired."

"Being the assistant manager of a convenience store will do that to you. Well, ex-manager. I quit my job before I decided to go on an extended vacation. Then I was attacked by robot pirates, which I'm still trying to process."

"You had a job… at a store?"

"FrogMart. Owned and operated by one Big A. Mas. At least when he's not going fishing with his frog friend, which is all the time." Silver sighed. "He gave me a job when I was wandering through the streets with nothing to my name but… my name."

"You have amnesia." Blaze nodded sagely.

"It appears so." The hedgehog replied. "...I want to give you the answers you want to hear, but… I just… I can't remember them, Blaze. I'm sorry."

Blaze took in a sharp inhale as she heard her alias spoken, in place of the nickname Silver had for her real name. A sharpness pierced her stomach, the flames of doubt stoking in the back of her mind that she could never get her friend back.

She opened and closed her mouth for a moment before speaking again.

"I want to tell you about the first encounter we had with Bernadette Quark."

"Dr. Quack?"

Blaze snorted, still finding the nickname amusing.

"Yes, her. She's one of the only humans on the planet… which she's very scornful about. She hates that, and wants to destroy the world because of it. She had stolen three of my emeralds and almost eradicated Soleanna."

"What happened?"

"You and I stopped her together. We were thirteen at the time… At that moment, the only person I could trust was you. That's all I needed. After that… we became connected."

The hedgehog felt something bubbling in his brain again at that last statement. He blinked a few times, looking around as if he was trying to process his feelings.

"I… That… huh."

"Are you feeling something?"

"I think? I don't… know."

"Here, wait. Let me go get something… stay here."

Blaze quickly got up, feeling reignited from what Silver said, leaving the room with the piece of the Ghost Pendulum. Silver was left alone with his thoughts.

He sighed.

"Rough life?"

Silver's face shot up, finding the reflection of his own visage in front of him. The hedgehog scrambled back, pushing the chair until it hit the wall behind them, staring at this mysterious doppelganger that appeared from nowhere.

The clone of himself was transparent, with a cyan colored sheen over his body. He was wearing a white t-shirt and khaki pants. His boots were the same as the ones Silver had on now… the ones he wore all the time.

"Who are you?!" Silver asked.

"I'm you! I thought that would be obvious." The other Silver said.

"What are you?"

"Again. I'm you."

"What is even happening?!"

"Don't ask me, dude. I'm just a manifestation of your mind with the powers you have."

"This week just keeps getting weirder and weirder…" Silver rubbed his head. "Are you some kind of subconscious creation of my tainted memories, personifying yourself in the form of my alternate self from before to assist in manifesting the old memories inside me?"

"...that's just a guess?"

"I dunno. I'm starting to feel like I can remember everything, but… also not."

"Probably because you're a psychic." Ghost Silver popped up beside the normal Silver, making him jump a bit in surprise. "My guess is you've always had those memories, but touching Blaze helped rekindle them because of the psychic link you share."

"Psychic link? I have a psychic link with Blaze?"

"Ha! See, you do remember stuff! Even if just subconsciously." Ghost Silver said. "Your link with her must have filled in the blanks! Leave it to El to still have those memories in her head…"

"L? Like the letter?"

"What? No, dingus. El is your nickname for Blaze, her real name is Elise!"

"...Then why is she called Blaze?"

"Uh… hm. Not even I know that. Weird."

The door opened, and Ghost Silver disappeared almost instantly. Blaze was there again, stepping inside and putting a binder on the table. The binder itself looked old, some wear and tear on the edges of the front cover.

Sitting down at the table right after, the princess started going through the pages, which were plastic sleeves with multiple pictures inside of them. She turned them around to show them to Silver directly.

There was a photo of Blaze and Silver with what seemed to be the destroyed Ghost Pendulum.

"Look. Here's the aftermath of that adventure I talked about."

Ghost Silver appeared behind Blaze, looking over the photos.

"That was fun. Apparently there are more ghost monsters out there." He said.

Blaze turned the page to point to more photos.

"Here's you and I having a fun day at the beach."

"We didn't really get in the water, but it was still nice to get outside."

The princess turned the page. They were getting younger in the photos.

"This one. This is when you were assigned as my personal guard."

"Lovely ceremony. Especially since the knighthood had been our family up until that point. Them and El."

Silver looked at the photos in the picture album. His eyes trailed over to a much different picture, showing him, Blaze and another feline at a pretty young age. The three of them were together in what looked like Blaze's room, each of them dressed up in costumes.

The hedgehog took the photo out and held it up to look it over.

An old, folded piece of paper fell out from the sleeve as he pulled the picture out. Blaze quickly caught it, holding it tightly as if never wanting to let it go. After that, she cleared her throat.

"...ever since you were left on the steps of the guards' barracks, you were raised alongside me." Blaze said, watching Silver. "We've been friends for so long. You have to remember something."

"We do, El." Ghost Silver said. "It's just hard to get those memories back."

Looking over the photo, Silver looked at Blaze, himself, and the third person with them. It was a young girl with brown fur and blue eyes.

"Who's the other person here?"

"...Tiara Boebowski." Blaze said. "She was my lady-in-waiting, my court lady. Her mother was my mother's lady-in-waiting, so she was raised alongside you and I. You two didn't talk too much, but I spent many nights with her."

"You don't anymore? What happened?"

Blaze slowly looked at the folded up note in her hand before tucking it into her coat.

"...I decided it wasn't smart to have people stick around me. I have a record of having people I love dearly leaving me. My mother… you. It's funny, those two events happened on the same day, years apart. That anniversary is actually this week."

"Which is probably what Tiara intended."

Blaze and Silver both turned their heads quickly to the door. King Cyrus stood in the doorway, still in a royal purple robe, looking stoic as he looked between the two in the room.

"Father!"

"Father? Oh! You're a king! Let me just…"

As Silver tried to kneel out of his chair, Cyrus put a hand up.

"You don't need to, Silver. Especially considering that, if you are the one I know… you haven't had to do that for years." He said. "Blaze, I was meaning to discuss the problem with Tiara…"

"I have it under control, father."

"I'm certain. But… Tiara working with Bernadette Quark spells trouble. Especially with the implication that they could be attempting to release Iblis…"

"Iblis?" Silver mumbled.

"Personification of destruction. You sacrificed yourself to seal it away years ago." Ghost Silver said, popping up beside him. "It's Blaze's burden to keep Iblis sealed off. If Dr. Quack decides to release it, then… we might be screwed."

"Tiara wouldn't do that. She knows the destruction it would cause the kingdom." Blaze said.

"The coincidences are too great, Blaze." The king replied. "That's why I wanted to talk with you… you need to be able to keep Iblis sealed away no matter the cost. You cannot afford to let your feelings for Tiara keep you from doing your duty."

"I'm perfectly in control of my feelings."

"That's what your mother always said." Cyrus looked at Silver. "When her late mother first had to seal away Iblis, he arrived while she was angrily dealing with her vizier. I remember like it was yesterday- she yelled, then the ground shook."

Blaze tapped her fingers on the table, clearly upset from what was being said. That or she'd heard it all before. Silver took notice.

"Is that all you wanted, er… sir?" The hedgehog asked.

"Ah, yes. Since Tiara had taken the scepter… you're going to find a new artifact to access the Power of the Stars."

"That should be simple. We could use the Fire Temple below our castle."

"The Fire Temple has suffered a cave-in. Nobody can get inside." Cyrus said. "Tiara's attack on the castle had much more lasting consequences."

"Can't we use that fancy flute thingy?" Silver looked at the princess.

"It's incredibly difficult to get the flute to make a portal. I only got lucky because I was in a rush." Blaze replied. "I should just give that thing away… the Power of the Stars inside of it is only activated with music, there's no way to use our energies with it."

"Well… are there other temples?"

"There are." Cyrus nodded to Silver. "Four temples are known on this world, each representing the four elements of our planet. Fire, the now destroyed temple that was below us. Water, which has been missing for decades…"

"Air, which has now been transformed into Babylon, the headquarters of Quack." Blaze continued. "And finally, nature… that will have to be the one we go to. We'll have to get a navigator and ship to travel to it."

"Excellent! I've already asked Marine to join you."

"Marine? Father, you can't be serious."

Silver eyed Ghost Silver, who stood right at his side.

"Marine?"

"Hm… Don't remember. Either those memories are missing, or… Blaze had a secret bestie she never told us about! Huh!"

"Is Marine not your friend?"

"She's… hmph. This is a dangerous mission, I can't have someone as young as her getting put in danger!" The princess said, exasperated. "I can't risk it. Especially if Iblis is involved!"

"Elise Agni the Third." Cyrus said sternly. "Nobody else will even attempt to go out in the water with the looming threat of Iblis out there. Marine would do it in a heartbeat. Go out to the docks and let her help you!"

"But—"

"Elise."

Blaze huffed through her nose before nodding.

"Alright. I'll receive her help."

"Excellent! She's down at the docks whenever you're ready."

Cyrus left the room. Blaze quickly closed her photo album and curtly walked out of the room, fire flickering off her shoulders as she was visibly aggravated from the altercation.

"...Was I ever not afraid of Blaze?" Silver asked his past self.

"Oh, no. That never goes away. Fear of El isn't something to get rid of anyway… it's really just basic instinct."

---

Tiara hadn't been on Babylon in a long time. It was very different.

With Quark's help, she had escaped the guards and left the island, navigating through Point W's fogs and got to the floating island that the human resided at. The scepter was still in her hands, and she looked it over as she stayed inside of Quark's laboratory.

There was a slamming of a door, a rustling, and footsteps before a door leading out of the lab opened up. Quark stepped out, making sure her hair was styled correctly, wearing a flight suit of her trademark pink and turquoise color theme.

"Ah, that's much better." She said, her footsteps echoing off the wall as she got to her console. "I suppose I must thank you, Tiara, for your sudden decision to switch sides. Especially considering how long it's been since you've made a proper appearance in public."

"I had a lot to think about. A lot to learn." The manx replied. "Especially about Iblis."

"Yes, yes. I've heard the tales, been told stories about that… thing. Are you really going to try and free him?"

"As far as you know."

"Hm." Dr. Quark continued to use her console. "Luckily for us, it seems your lovely lady friend has decided to re-introduce someone familiar into the fray. He look familiar?"

Quark turned the console screen to Tiara, who got up to look it over. It was camera footage of Blaze and Silver walked through the streets of Soleanna's village, headed towards the docks.

"Silver… he's alive." Tiara spoke. "He's… he's alive."

"You don't sound too happy about that. Somebody jealous?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

Turning, Tiara trailed through the lab with the scepter in her hands.

"Since I have the Jeweled Scepter, they'll most likely need to access another artifact to prepare for Iblis having to be re-sealed. It requires the energy provided from Blaze and Silver to create a portal directly to the realm between worlds- the White Space."

"Yet it only takes Blaze's energy to create vortexes to other worlds."

"Hm. Looks like I don't have to worry about that doctorate being fake with how deductive you are."

Quark turned her head slightly, leering at the manx out of the corner of her eye.

"So how did you create that portal, then?"

It was quiet as the question was posed. Tiara's eyebrows furrowed.

"What do you mean?"

"You created a portal that sucked up those infernal robots I created. Yet you don't have Blaze's powers." Quark said. "In fact, funny enough, I heard that you were seen in her bedroom. Her private quarters. Somewhere she would keep the Sol Emeralds…"

Tiara took a long breath, rubbing her eyes.

"I don't have them."

"Oh don't worry dear, I know you don't. You don't have to pretend like you're doing all of this to free Iblis… we all want a little attention from those who have left us. Much like Blaze is doing with her beloved Silver."

With her hands trembling slightly, Tiara looked down at the Jeweled Scepter again, peering over the metal and catching her own reflection in the staff. She had learned a lot during her mysterious three-year disappearance, especially about Iblis.

This was a dangerous task, but the only way Blaze would truly listen was if she thought the world was at stake.

"If they're making an artifact, they're going to the nature temple."

"How do you…?"

"I've lived with her most of my life. I know Elise." Tiara replied. "We'll head there and intercept them. I'll get the answers I need there."

"I'm sure you will. And I'm sure I will, too…"

On her console, Quark finished up her notes on Iblis, exiting out of an old video of Iblis resurging in Soleanna. She used her mouse to circle the word "Blaze" on her screen before leaving it, wanting to get her aircraft ready.

---

"Oi, if you're supposed to be Blazey's best friend, what's her favorite color?"

"...purple?"

"...lucky guess…"

Silver was standing next to Marine, the young girl Blaze was friends with, as she steered her ship through the seas outside of Soleanna. The nature temple was comically close to the kingdom- the only issue was the growing shrubbery that blocked the temple itself.

All things considered, Marine wasn't that bad. Silver actually kinda liked her. The raccoon girl was a little suspicious of him, however, since she had heard everything about Silver and his disappearance, only for him to just re-appear.

Blaze was sitting up front, at the bow of the ship, watching the ocean in solitude. Silver decided to give her some alone time, especially considering all the weird stuff going on.

Watching her retrieve that mysterious note from her coat, Blaze unfolded it and looked it over, before putting it back in her coat.

"I don't think I've ever seen that note before. But something about it feels familiar." Ghost Silver said, appearing next to Silver on deck.

"I wouldn't know." The hedgehog said to his former self.

"What was that, mate?"

"I said I wouldn't know the first thing about sailing. You're really good at this, Marine."

Marine blinked in surprise at the compliment. After a second, she started chuckling a bit.

"I know! I'm the best sailor on the open seas, mate. Especially since that dreaded captain is gone, too." She replied. "I've been doing this since I could walk! I've always wanted to be a captain. Or at least a sailor."

"How'd you get this boat at such a young age?"

"Built it myself with the materials retrieved from Blazey's adventures over the years! Though I'd kill for a pirate ship like that thing Whisker built… An absolute beaut with technological advancements coming out the end of it."

"Speaking of Blaze and stuff… how did you meet her?"

"Well, I was a little ankle biter when she met me. I was working on the docks alone, as usual, because around that time I usually moved things around for other boats for a bob or two from the captain. I eventually met Blazey, helped her sneak aboard the ships so she could go out to look for those emeralds until I was about ten."

"Huh. I was never involved with it?"

"You were her guard, mate, she knew whatever you'd witness you'd just tell her ol' man. After she stopped sneaking out, I started setting up ship rides with her and a few other crews on the docks using my connections."

"That I do remember. I never knew Marine was behind that." Ghost Silver commented.

"After you, uh… disappeared, I built my own boat. I drove Blaze around for free, and she's been a loyal member of the crew ever since! At least I think she still is…"

Marine looked at the princess at the front of her boat, frowning a bit.

"Someone pointed out recently that she hasn't really been thankful towards the stuff I've done for her. Sometimes I doubt if we're even mates at all, y'know?"

"Blaze just has a lot on her mind. She's really stressed out, and she really takes her job very seriously, from what I've heard."

"Yeah, but she's been treatin' you like you two are friends in high school. What's so different about me that she couldn't get all giddy with me, mate?"

Silver didn't reply, thinking to himself. His past self didn't say anything either.

"I just want a little guidance, mate. I've been alone all my life. Now I got these weirdo powers and I don't know what I'm supposed to be doin' with them."

Marine balled and opened one of her hands, looking into her palm as she did so, thinking back to the energy blast she did earlier. She had no idea how she did it, and it's never happened before anyways.

"Weirdo powers?"

"Yeah, mate. I shot this energy blast of some kinda white energy while I was fighting against that drongo captain earlier."

"Huh. Maybe some kind of psychokinetic power?"

"I dunno what that means, but maybe."

"I'm sure we'll figure something out, Marine. I'll definitely help you figure something out."

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah. Friend of a friend is my friend."

Both her hands back on the wheel, Marine slowly smiled at the statement. She suddenly perked up as she saw something in the distance.

"Land ho!" She shouted.

The island with the nature temple was overcome with brush and vines. It was an absolute jungle in that place, absolutely covered in green as a luscious landscape stood tall before them. There weren't any buildings or villages seen there, and honestly with how it looks now, it was probably completely unlivable.

Silver walked to the front of the boat, joining Blaze's side. They reached the shores of the green island, the boat driving into the sand and slowly coming to a stop, anchored in the beach. Marine stopped the boat and shut it off.

"Stay up here, Marine." Blaze said.

"What? C'mon, I wanna be a part of this!"

"No, Marine."

The raccoon frowned and returned to the wheel, almost pouting from what was said. Silver looked back at her for a moment, but followed Blaze as she jumped from the boat and went to the shore.

They stepped through the sand together, leaving Marine in her boat as they traveled into the plant kingdom before them.

"You know she only wants to help." Silver spoke. Blaze looked at him, fairly surprised.

"...she's only fourteen. She can get herself hurt."

"I call bull. There's a thirteen year old fox on my world that fights bad guys all the time. You'd be surprised what a little support from someone they look up to could do."

"It doesn't matter how old they are, they can get hurt. They always get hurt. Especially around me." The princess replied.

They reached the edge of the forest, a ton of vines with thorns on them blocking any way inside. The vines curled, almost protectively, wanting to keep anybody out. Blaze's hands glowed with fire as they turned ablaze, forming fire in her palms.

Silver looked at Blaze, then at the vines. He held his own hand out, using psychokinesis to pull the vines aside, opening up a path to the inside of the forest and the darkness surrounding it.

Blaze's hands extinguished, turning into fists. She looked at Silver curiously.

"You want a wildfire? That's how you start a wildfire." The hedgehog said, before walking inside of the forest and into the darkness, followed by Blaze.

As darkness consumed them, Silver's quills glowed with the cyan energy of his psychokinesis, illuminating the area. Blaze's shoulders, and the end of her high ponytail, became ablaze to brighten up her surroundings as well.

"Questioned her authority and did her job for her. Someone's got some stones." Ghost Silver said, floating alongside Silver. "Better talk to her to break the tension."

Silver hummed.

"Just found out how you and Marine met. That leaves my question- how did we meet?" He asked the princess, looking over his shoulder slightly.

"...you were left on the barrack steps, like I said. My nanny raised you alongside Tiara and I. The three of us were close friends… very close."

"Doesn't seem like it now, from what you said. What happened to you and Tiara?"

Blaze was silent for a moment as they continued to walk.

"Like I told you… People get hurt around me." The princess replied simply.

The lights around them grew as luminescent mushrooms peppered the walkway they were headed down. They saw the stone walls of the temple before them, moss and vines woven into the rocks.

Blaze took the lead, walking quicker to reach the temple first. The front door of the temple, equally stone, had a circle with a handprint in the center of it. The fire on her shoulders dimmed as she got to the brightened area at the front of the door.

Holding her hand out, fire flickered in her palm before it pressed into the handprint on the door. Fire curled around the circle, burning the vegetation off of the door and making it sink slowly into the ground.

The inside of the temple was fairly simple- it was only one room, actually. The walls and floor were all basic stone, but the biggest point of interest was in the center. Positioned on a stone pedestal was a brilliant green crystal, with the roof opened up with a hole that let a beam of sunshine come down upon the gem, making it sparkle. White plasma-esque energy floated around the gem- the Power of the Stars.

Blaze and Silver walked up to look at the gem on either side, the energy reflecting off their eyes.

"We'll be able to use the Verdant Crystal to create another artifact to seal Iblis again when he's released." The princess said. "We'll have to find a way to fashion part of it, or all of it, into another object. Probably another staff. To keep myself from opening a vortex, I'm going to have to…"

With a glimmer from her head gem, Blaze summoned the seven Sol Emeralds around her, letting them drop to form a circle around her body. Silver looked at them, his eyebrows furrowing, but stepping away.

"Don't want to release any energy from the emeralds." He commented. "They're similar to emeralds I have back on my world… you know, it's weird, I just realized I used to be a cashier a few months ago."

"Because you were displaced."

"Yeah, well I'm here now, aren't I?"

Blaze didn't reply. She walked around the Verdant Crystal, looking it over.

"I wish you'd stop referring to it as 'your world' when your real home is here."

"I've lived there for three years, and memories of that place is all I have. Of course it's my home."

"But you've had longer memories here. Does that mean this isn't your home just because you can't remember it?"

"Does that mean the other world isn't my home because I can only remember that one?"

The princess tilted her head, looking curiously at the hedgehog.

"...you usually never talk like this. Not…"

"Before?" Silver finished the statement. "Why is it so important that I act the same as I did when you last saw me? Can't you just be happy that I'm here?"

"But you're not you, you're… different."

"People change, Blaze."

"They don't have to. It's always a choice to change how you treat others."

"Calling the kettle black, are we?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"From what Marine's said, and how you act when she's brought up, you don't really treat her that well. In fact, you kind of just shove her away at any chance you get."

"She's a child, I told you this."

"She wants to help. Weren't you fourteen once?" The hedgehog replied. "Didn't you prove to somebody that you can do anything at that age? Why is Marine different? What makes you dislike her?"

"I don't dislike her! I just… I can't accept her help. Not… not after…"

The temple rumbled, the earth shaking below them. In the distance, yells and screams could be heard from the voice of a young woman. Silver felt his quills stand on end.

"Marine." He said. Blaze's face dropped.

As they ran out, the princess grabbed one of her emeralds, knowing she could use the boost in power against whatever was attacking the shores outside, and the raccoon there.

Past the glowing mushrooms, running through utter darkness for a moment, they eventually broke out into daylight, getting back to the beach in time to see Marine thrashing in the mechanical grip of a tendril extending from Quark's quadrilateral hovercraft.

"Let me go, you… bloody drongo!"

"I'm not going to hurt you dear. I just need you for bait."

The doctor's eyes rested upon Blaze and Silver as the pair got onto the sand, a smile coming across the redhead's face.

"There you are."

"Let her go, Quack!" Silver said.

Blaze snorted as the hovering scientist visibly fumed in a fury.

"It's Quark! Quark! I am not saying quack!"

"I meant it more as a general insult. But you said it, not me."

Angrily, Quark commanded the tendril to throw Marine to the ground, the raccoon crashing onto the sand with a loud grunt of pain.

"Oh, you'll pay for that, doc!" She said, getting up.

"No, Marine! Stay—"

Blaze was interrupted by the crescent side of the Jeweled Scepter hitting her in the face. As she was knocked back, the emerald she had taken earlier- a classic green one- flew from her grasp and landed in the sand a few yards away.

Walking around her ex-friend, Tiara twirled the scepter between her fingers, gripping it tightly afterwards with a scowl on her face. The princess attacked next, attempting to deliver a fiery chop downwards that was met by the golden pole of the scepter, putting the pair in a lock.

Silver spotted the emerald just as Quark did. Using his psychokinesis, the hedgehog began to bring the emerald and sand around it towards him, making them all glow with his power. The tendrils shot out of the hovercraft again, slicing through the floating objects and knocking the emerald upwards.

His body glowing blue, Silver flew upwards to grab the emerald- the other tendril from the hovercraft hit him this time, making him spin around in midair before he caught himself. The hedgehog flew forwards again, managing to grab onto the emerald as the tendril caught it as well.

The metallic limb wrapped around him tightly, trapping his arms at his sides with the emerald being held with the other tendril.

"You're going to give me everything I need, you infernal hedgehog." Quark said, pulling the hedgehog to her hovercraft. Silver struggled against the grip.

"Do you even know how to fight?" Ghost Silver's head appeared in the air beside the real one.

"Ugh, shut up!"

"Ugh! Rude! You'd never say something like that before!" Dr. Quark replied, offended.

"Look her in the eyes! Use your ESP to induce vertigo!"

Following the directions of his former counterpart, Silver stared directly into the goggles of Dr. Quark, the woman keeping eye contact as they stared each other down. His spikes floated in the air with psychokinetic energy, eyes glowing with power.

Quark eventually faltered, sliding her hand beneath her goggles to rub her eyes with a groan.

"Telekinetic blast!"

Silver bowed his head, his body glowing brightly as he curled himself up slightly. His eyes squeezed shut, focusing all his psychokinetic energy into his body. The tendrils creaked and nearly snapped with the power he was focusing into himself, and rainbow electricity crackled between the five spikes on the front of his head.

With the release of the energy from his body, Silver let out an omnidirectional shockwave of power that destroyed the tendril around him, and blasted Quark away. Silver fell backwards, landing in the sand.

As he slowly picked himself up, he saw Ghost Silver standing in front of him.

"Overdid it a little there." He held his hand out.

Silver tried taking the hand, but passed through it, falling on his face in the sand again.

"Whoops! Forgot I was incorporeal. Sorry."

Marine went to Silver, helping him up to his feet. She spotted the emerald in the sand again nearby, but before either of them could move to go get it, the pyramid-shaped drones of Dr. Quark descended upon them, blocking their path.

Nearby, Blaze performed a grand jete, landing with a pirouette that assisted in dodging two blasts of energy from the end of the Jeweled Scepter.

Training in this form of dance assisted her in mastering the more delicate nature of her abilities. Plus, in secret, Blaze genuinely liked the dance style. It almost reminded her of how Tiara was always so acrobatic.

With a kick of her leg upwards, Blaze sent a wave of fire across the sand, leaving specks of glass in the path as it headed towards Tiara.

The manx flipped over the wave of fire, keeping her three-point landing as she stared Blaze down. She twirled the scepter in her fingers again.

"Of all the things you could have done… you align yourself with someone you know I hate." Blaze finally spoke to Tiara, finding the fire inside to do so.

"You're funny talking about alignment, seeing as you're latching onto Silver the moment you knew he was alive." Tiara replied. "Almost feels like the last three years were for nothing, weren't they?"

"Don't bring Silver into this. He's your friend."

"And was I not yours, too?"

"I'm beginning to rethink that seeing as you're trying to release Iblis."

Tiara stared at her before shaking her head, shoving the scepter into the soft sand to let it stand on its own.

"I don't want to release Iblis, Elise. I never did. Soleanna is my home."

"You destroyed part of it!"

"Because it was necessary to see you! This was the only way."

"No it isn't."

"Oh, really?" Tiara stepped closer. "Three years of letters, messages sent with no answer. I go to the castle and I'm turned away. You always leave to go on some adventure or just don't want to see me. You shut me out. I improvised."

The princess wasn't in a defensive stance anymore, the two felines in a standoff.

"I'm only here to help you with Iblis, not free it. I've studied the creature for years, I know all about it. I saw how it works." The manx said. "It's not a god, Elise, it's a personification. It's a piece of you, it was a piece of your mother. It feeds of your anger and sadness."

"Do you think I should believe you?"

"Your chances of keeping Iblis tied down are slim. The White Space may be endless, but one of these days Quark, or whoever else, will release that beast to wreak havoc on this world."

"Right now, that person is you."

Tiara shook her head slowly.

"The only reason I'm here is because you put me here." She said. "Silver disappearing didn't just affect you. We were all close. Yet after the incident with Iblis you pushed me away, and you removed me from my duties. My mother was gone, my father unknown. All I ever had was you… yet you denied me that. I thought… I thought the love we had was real, Elise."

She grabbed the scepter, holding it with both hands.

"But I guess you're more like your father than I thought. Collected, calm… emotionless. But the thing about emotions is that you can't store them away… you have to let them hurt."

The monologue was interrupted by the yell of fighting nearby, getting both of their attention.

Silver used his powers to crush a drone telekinetically, throwing it away. Another drone smashed into Silver's back, knocking him forwards and onto the beach. The front of the triangle shaped drone opened, a small barrel pointing out to shoot at the hedgehog.

Tiara rolled forwards and stuck out the scepter, firing a beam of energy at the drone and making it explode.

"What are you doing?!" Dr. Quark exclaimed.

"Blaze and Silver are off-limits."

Though the doctor glared down at Tiara, she was suddenly hit in the back of the head with a rock. Turning the hovercraft around, she looked down at the shore to see the culprit behind the random rock throwing.

Marine was down at the water, holding the Sol Emerald in her hand.

"Oi! Rack off and leave my mates alone!" She yelled.

"You. The annoying one." Quark turned the hovercraft around. "Blaze and Silver are off-limits, eh? Well, since I have the opportunity…"

A cannon flipped down from the hovercraft.

"Marine!" Blaze said. Before she could move forwards, Tiara hit her with the scepter, making the princess tumble backwards further towards the green forest.

With a press of a button, a beam of energy blasted from the cannon on the hovercraft, directly towards Marine. Though it got close, Silver managed to use his psychokinesis to pull the raccoon to him, grabbing her in a hug as they came together. The force of the pull caused the emerald to toss into the air.

The energy beam trailed past the area Marine was at, and hit her houseboat instead. As if the energy hit the engine directly, the entire boat exploded, completely obliterating it.

"NO!" Marine screamed.

When the emerald was still in the air, the metal tendril from Quark's hovercraft grabbed it, putting it in the doctor's hand.

Silver rushed forwards, firing a blast of psychokinetic energy towards the doctor. Quark reacted quickly, pressing a button that opened the front of the hovercraft, letting the energy hit it and seemingly absorbing it.

"Thank you." She said. "I have all I need now. I won't waste anymore of your time. Tata!"

The tendril whipped around and grabbed the scepter, dragging Tiara with it as Quark rocketed away as fast as she could. Carried off as she wouldn't let go of the scepter, Tiara looked back and stared at Blaze as she flew off in the distance.

Blaze joined Silver's side, the two of them watching the pair fly off.

"Why aren't you following them?!" Ghost Silver said.

"I'm… tired." Silver replied under his breath.

Marine was on her knees, looking at the only big piece of debris that was floating in the water- the remnants of the SS Super-Marine, her waterbike, which was missing its entire top half. She wasn't crying, but she was definitely visibly upset.

The other two walked up on either side of her.

"Marine… I'm so sorry." Silver said.

"I told you to stay behind."

"Blaze!"

"Am I wrong? I told her she needed to stay in the boat, but she got involved with this adventure, and this is what happens. What would've happened if you got hurt and not the boat, Marine? This is why I don't want you going on adventures with me."

"She's a fourteen year old who lost her boat, Blaze. Cut her some slack!"

"She's been doing this for years! Constantly getting involved with the missions of the royal family! Marine has been told multiple times to stay away, and now the consequences have come. She's been a reckless nuisance, and this is what happens when you do that. Do you understand Marine?"

It was quiet. Marine was still looking out into the ocean, seeing her waterbike sink.

"Marine?" The princess spoke.

Slowly standing up, Marine turned around to look at Blaze, tears in the young woman's eyes and running down her cheeks. With a flick of her hand, the water rushed forwards and surrounded her feet, pulling her out into the water.

Without another word, Marine was pulled away at superspeeds, traveling across the water and away from the island alone, with tears still on her face.

---

It had been an hour or two since the altercation with Marine, and it was still on Blaze's mind.

She was examining the Verdant Crystal in the temple of the island, mostly doing it to kill time as she didn't know what to do next. Silver didn't follow her into the island, through the forest and into the temple. She was alone there.

Surely, Marine understood where Blaze was coming from. It was dangerous for a teenager to work alongside someone so dangerous like the princess of Soleanna. Blaze didn't even understand why the girl wanted to be friends with her so badly, or even partners.

Silver was her partner, and he was back, but he wasn't the same. People change, he said.

Like she did.

Tiara's words also stuck in her mind as she stared into the crystal. How she pushed her ex-lady-in-waiting away after the disappearance of Silver. It was true, she did request Tiara leave her services… there wasn't an excuse for that. She was just… terrified. Like a coward, she did it behind her friend's back because she was afraid of letting the woman she loved down.

She was better off away from someone like Blaze.

The princess rubbed her eyes, trying to get rid of a headache that was forming. Today was a massive headache rolled in one, she was surprised she didn't get one earlier. She just wanted to be done with this little "adventure" and go home.

Footsteps echoed into the temple as Silver showed up, looking as tired as ever.

It was quiet for a moment as the two looked at the crystal.

"How are we going to get back home after we make this new artifact?" The hedgehog asked.

"You can float us back. It's not that far from Soleanna."

"We could probably have gotten a ride back with Marine, since she has those water powers."

"She needed to get out of the way of danger. If I wasn't harsh with her now, she would've stuck around and gotten harmed."

"You really hurt her." Silver said, walking around the crystal to face her. "She's going back to Soleanna feeling useless because you told her she was nothing but a nuisance. You know she doesn't have any friends? She sits at the docks and waits for you to ask for her help because nobody else takes her seriously. You ruined her life by cutting her out, and you don't even care."

Blaze was avoiding eye contact, staring at the verdant crystal. Her eyes flicked to the floor, feeling strife with what was said.

"I'll buy her a new houseboat."

"Nothing you buy her will make her feel any better because you can't take back what you said!" The hedgehog quickly replied. "That's all you've done for this entire little adventure. You act like we've all disserviced you, but you never think about how your actions affect everyone else."

The hedgehog walked away, leaving Blaze alone behind the crystal. She followed him, stopping in front of the pedestal, near the emeralds on the ground.

"Silver…"

"And you know what, Blaze? You talk so much about how we used to be such close friends. But I could never be friends with someone as selfish as you."

Blaze's face dropped.

"Take my stupid energy. I'm going back to Soleanna and finding a way back home. Good luck, Blaze."

Flicking his hand, an arc of energy came off, the projectile hitting the crystal on the pedestal. The cyan energy covered the gem, making the white energy around it disappear.

Silver stormed out. Blaze was alone. Again.

A deep sigh escaped her lips, the princess putting her hand out to lean against the pedestal as she was left reeling from the interaction.

She had done it again. Someone else was gone.

There was a rumbling under her hand. The princess looked up, seeing that she was leaning against the Verdant Crystal in the temple. In her despair, she didn't look where she was reaching, and touched the gem instead.

"Ow!" Blaze snatched her hand away as she felt a pinch. Fire flicked around the gem, turning purple after a moment and sucking into the crystal.

The gem shook in midair. A white crack came across the center of the crystal, before white energy shot out and hit Blaze directly in the chest. Within an instant, Blaze was gone.

The next moment she opened her eyes, all Blaze saw was white.

The White Space. An endless void of pure white, the realm between dimensions. The supposed home for the sealed Iblis.

Except… Iblis wasn't here.

"It's you."

Blaze heard the female voice behind her. Turning, the princess saw another figure standing in the White Space.

The woman's lavender fur flickered like fire. She was taller than Blaze, wore a crown, had a regal red gown and a red gem on the center of her head.

It was her. It was Blaze. But… older.

"It's you." The older Blaze spoke again.

---

Tiara was still recovering from her interaction with Blaze. It didn't really go as planned at all.

To be honest, though, Tiara didn't know what exactly the outcome of this entire scenario would be in the first place. She just knew she had to find a way to talk to Blaze about what she found on Iblis and that's it.

Sure, now she was an enemy to Soleanna. But that place stopped being her home when Blaze forced her out of her court lady position.

Gathering her things, her deed done, it was time to leave Babylon. Everyone knew that Quark resided here, especially Blaze, so it was only a matter of time until the doctor was imprisoned again.

She just needed the scepter again, but found that she misplaced it. It was imperative that she return the heirloom back to its proper place.

Trailing through the large laboratory in the Sky Babylon, Tiara got a sinking feeling. This place was abandoned, and has been for a long time, with the only inhabitant being Bernadette Quark. Not only did she restore the technology here, but made it specifically react to her… and only her.

Walking into the large workshop area of the facility, she spotted the Jeweled Scepter from afar. It was standing upright, with a light shining onto it.

Tiara tilted her head curiously. The manx walked towards the oddly placed scepter, slowly picking up speed and running towards where the scepter was at.

She leapt forwards and grabbed onto the staff, flying through the light-covered area and landing outside of it with the scepter. Clearly, that was some kind of trap. Getting past the area and getting what she wanted was the most obvious option.

It was in vain, however. A metallic tendril whipped around from the ceiling, wrapping around Tiara's waist and pulling her back into the light. A glass tube slammed down around her, trapping her inside with the scepter. The tendril grabbed the scepter and yanked it from Tiara's grasp, putting it back where it was before.

Tiara was dropped on the ground, the tendril retracting.

From outside the glass, Dr. Quark slowly sauntered up into the light, looking at the contained manx through her turquoise tinted goggles.

"Hello, Tiara."

"Let me out of here, Quack." She said in reply, slamming a fist into the glass.

"I'm afraid I cannot do that. I have use for you."

"Oh, let me guess, free Iblis?"

"Bingo!"

Quark pressed a button on a remote she had behind her back. From above, the metallic tendrils lowered down, revealing the green Sol Emerald from before, and a tube containing the cyan-colored energy belonging to Silver.

"I had been studying the artifact known as the Jeweled Scepter for years." Quark said. "I had noticed that, only with the power of the Sol Emeralds, did the Power of the Stars create a portal to another dimension- that pesky dimension with an annoying pink hedgehog and her desperate inventor adversary."

"I don't really care."

"Too bad! You called me Quack, you get the monologue punishment." The doctor composed herself. "Using the powers of both the Sol Emerald alongside the psychokinetic energy of that gray hedgehog… we could access the space between realms, where Iblis is resting."

"You can't free Iblis, it'll destroy Soleanna!"

"Which is exactly what I want. Watch the glass."

The tube with the blue energy inside smashed against the emerald, coating the emerald in said energy. A burst of purple, pink and blue energy exhumed from the emerald, hitting the Jeweled Scepter- the crescent on top seemingly sucked in all the energy into itself, making the gem shards sticking out of the crescent glow brightly.

A crack formed down the crescent, glowing white inside.

"This plan won't work. Iblis can only destroy so much without a vessel, and last I checked, Point W is surrounded with water." Tiara said. "Your vessel is miles away, at the nature temple."

"Who, Blaze? I don't need her to be the vessel, my dear." Quark replied. "You said it yourself- Iblis feeds off negative feelings… what better person to control Iblis than a heartbroken young girl like you? I'm sorry, Tiara, but this game was rigged from the start."

The crescent shaped stone on the scepter cracked in full, before shattering completely, the pieces of stone and gems hitting the ground around the golden pole of the scepter, which promptly fell over afterwards.

Forming in midair, a small ball of magma grew and filled up half of the tube of glass, forming the large form of Iblis, multiple arms and all, the flame-filled eyes staring down at Tiara as if studying the young woman.

It could smell how forlorn she was. The taste of betrayal and heartbreak was palpable.

Iblis took Tiara into itself, a smile coming across Dr. Quark's face as she watched it happen.

---

"You're just going to leave her in there, alone?"

"Shut it, other me."

Silver was sitting on the shore of the nature temple's island, staring up at the stars. He was still pretty tired from the fight that happened earlier, and was thinking about what he was going to do next.

His former self was grilling him about his decisions. It was very annoying.

"Blaze needs your help! You can't just abandon her like this!"

"She's abandoned Tiara and Marine." Silver replied, looking at the translucent version of himself. "You're just as bad as she is. Acting as if she's the same person she was three years ago. Did she ever act like this?"

"...not really, no."

"I didn't think so."

"You made an oath to her father, and the other guards in that castle, to always protect Elise."

"Ah, ah, ah! You made that. I don't remember it."

"That doesn't mean it didn't happen!"

"And that doesn't mean I should bend over backwards to become someone I'm not."

It was quiet again. Silver stared up at the familiar stars, making constellations in his mind as his eyes traveled from star to star in the pitch black sky. He couldn't put names to them, though.

"We've both become different people." Ghost Silver said softly. "Elise and I. She became a more hardheaded princess, and I became… you."

"That's not necessarily a bad thing."

"It is if we want to stop Iblis."

"Why do we have to replicate everything we did years ago?" The hedgehog spoke. "The moral here, clearly, is that things change. People, places, feelings. You can't just keep hoping things will go back to how they were. Sometimes you have to move on, accept new things."

"...that definitely sounds like something I would say."

"We're the same person. Our foundations are similar. Just because I worked three years in a convenience store, doesn't mean I'm not Silver. I'm just… a different Silver. That's okay."

"...yeah. I guess so. I guess I thought… you becoming more like me would make Blaze act like herself again. But it's like you said, yeah? People, places, feelings."

"Well, to be fair, I do like how Blaze is now. Besides the part where she's being a jerk. I was told something by a customer one time, 'your crummy day isn't my problem'. I feel she could learn from that. No innocent person deserves to bear the grunt of your anger because you feel upset."

"...I never thought of it like that. I really have changed."

"For the better, it seemed. I guess people really would benefit from working retail once in their lives."

Silver and his former self chuckled a bit at what was said.

Their merry moment was cut short by the ground shaking. It rumbled below them, making Silver have to lean against the sand for balance. He quickly got to his feet, feeling the ground vibrate below him.

Brightness came across the land. Silver covered his eyes, but pulled out a folded pair of sunglasses he was saving for his vacation and put them on to see what was making the rumbling and the light.

It was some kind of gigantic anthropomorphic feline, walking across the water, steam coming from its legs as it trudged through the ocean.

Their body was all black with obsidian, the ends of their arms being the deep red of lava, and the center of their chest being a large red crack. They had no mouth, only a pair of blank white eyes with lava pouring down its face. The creature's head curled up into black flames, flickering with blue ends into the air.

"Holy crap… What the heck is that?!" Silver said.

"Iblis…" Ghost Silver said, exasperated. "It found a host. Where's Blaze?"

Silver looked at his former self before running quickly, eventually soaring through the air with telekinesis to get down to the temple as fast as he could, still hearing the large footsteps of the Iblis creature in the distance.

Blaze was nowhere to be found. The emeralds still rested on the ground, and the Verdant Crystal was no longer emitting energy, just sitting there on the pedestal.

"Blaze? Blaze!" Silver yelled.

Instinctively, he reached to the sides of his head and closed his eyes. If he really did have a psychic link with Blaze, he would see her if he concentrated hard enough.

He got flashes of images in front of him. White, total white, Blaze's back, and then Blaze standing in the middle of the white room.

"I only see her in a white void…"

"The White Space. She must have placed herself there." Ghost Silver said.

"What are we gonna do?"

"You have to save her. We have to save her." The former Silver said. "Clearly I was wrong in trying to mold you into who I was. You were right- we should accept the past and move on with ourselves. But if you're going to get Blaze out of the White Space, you need all the skill and power I have."

"I have to remember?"

"Yes. Remember all of it. You know it's inside you. You would do it for Blaze, and you know Blaze would do whatever she could to help you in the same scenario."

"...yeah, she would. She's so selfless… I… I always liked that… about her."

Silver blinked as he said the words. He felt the influx of information come back to him, particularly how he last saw Blaze- he took the scepter, he sealed Iblis, then he woke up in an alleyway in Station Square.

He looked at his former self one last time before putting his hand out, as if for a handshake.

Ghost Silver nodded and grabbed the hedgehog's hand, before the entire room filled with psychokinetic energy, the two beings merging into one.

"Who are you? Are you my mother or something?"

"It's you."

Blaze was currently talking to what appeared to be her future self. Her statement, the only thing she had been saying since the princess got inside, gave her confirmation that this woman was really what she looked like as the ruler of Soleanna.

Queen Blaze stood tall, her hands clasped over her red gown as she stared down at her younger self blankly. Slowly, she reached into her dress, retrieving a folded up piece of paper that has seen better days.

Mirroring her, Blaze retrieved the folded up note she took from earlier. It really was future her.

---

"What is happening? Why are you here? Are you a hallucination or something?"

"It's you."

The princess huffed at the response.

"This is fantastic. I'm stuck here with someone who can't even help me."

"It's you."

"Yes I know that."

Blaze sat on the floor of the White Space, pulling her knees to her chest. Resting her head against her knees, she let out a solemn sigh.

"I lost Silver again."

It was quiet as Queen Blaze didn't respond this time, but merely watched herself on the ground.

"Not to mention Tiara, and Marine." The princess rested her chin on her hand. "Part of me makes me think Silver was right. All I had ever done was pushed them away."

"It's you."

"I was trying to keep them safe. I told Silver people get hurt around me. It's usually true."

"It's you."

"Iblis has done nothing but wreck my life. It took Silver away from me, then I keep Tiara away, then when I try to make sure it doesn't hurt Marine, I end up hurting her feelings. But it was necessary to do that."

"It's you."

"Can you not say anything else?"

"It's you."

"Yes, yes, I get it! I'm you, you're me. You got rid of Iblis, I'm pretty sure. What's the key to it?"

"It's you."

"Say something different! Tell me how to fix this! Tell me how to change this!"

"It's you, Blaze. It's always been you."

Blaze blinked in surprise.

"Iblis didn't destroy your relationships. You did. Tiara was left hurting and you made Marine upset." Queen Blaze said. "Silver was correct in pointing out your self-preserving attitudes. If you keep pushing people away, if you keep rejecting the help others want to give you… then you'll only end up alone. Iblis isn't to blame for your shortcomings. It's you."

The words left Blaze shell shocked, blinking and rubbing her head.

"What am I supposed to do now?" She asked, her voice small.

"Admit you were wrong." The queen replied. "Apologize for your actions and tell them why you felt them. Only you can control how you react in your life, not what others do or become. You have to accept that."

"And Iblis?"

"Tiara was always smart. Remember what she said… save her from what she's become."

Blaze quietly nodded. There was a rumble and a boom behind her, making the princess turn around. There was a tear in reality, leading back to the temple. Sliding his arm and head from the tear, Silver was there, and reached for Blaze. Psychokinetic energy expelled from his arm in all directions, keeping an invisible force from crushing him.

"Blaze!" He yelled.

"You have another chance to fix it all. Don't mess it up." Queen Blaze said to her past self. "Heavy is the head that wears the crown… alone."

The princess looked back at her future self one more time, before turning back to Silver. She reached her hand out slowly, feeling the warping reality affect her in real-time, making her go slower and slower as she reached for Silver's hand.

Forcing herself through the heavy warping of spacetime, she grabbed onto the hand of her friend, a thunderous clap heard from all around as they did.

Blaze looked back at her future self- but she was no longer there.

Using all the might in his body, Silver leaned and fell backwards, pulling Blaze through the sliver in space, getting her out of the White Space and back to the Sol Zone. The princess fell down on top of Silver with a grunt.

Though her head was spinning, Blaze managed to get to her feet, holding her head. Silver got up as well, holding her arms.

"Are you alright? Blaze? El, are you alright?"

The princess blinked a few times. She looked at Silver's shirt- blue with white flowers- before looking back at the psychic's face.

"You… you called me El." She said.

"...yeah. It's a long story, but, for the most part… I'm back. I remember everything."

Before Blaze could react to the monumental occasion, the ground continued to rumble in a rhythm, similarly to footsteps that affected the ground around them. Silver grabbed Blaze's hand and pulled her out of the temple, using his powers without looking to bring the emeralds along, too.

They got on the shores again. Blaze grabbed her emeralds, storing them as energy inside of her body. She looked out into the distance, seeing the hulking Iblis monster walking through the sea.

"Iblis… it found a vessel." She spoke.

"I know. It's not you, though. What's it going to do?"

"It's going to destroy Soleanna, then track down and destroy all other life on the planet, until this world becomes a rock of boiling lava." Blaze replied. "It's significantly weaker without a host though, so we'll have to remove whoever triggered the possession."

"Well, who's this 'Iblis trigger' then?" Silver asked.

Blaze studied the body of the feline creature storming towards her home. There had to be some kind of trait that was unique to this person being possessed by Iblis.

"No tail… no tail. Manx cats don't have tails." Blaze said. "It's Tiara!"

The Iblis-controlled Tiara, or maybe simply Iblis Tiara, continued to stomp through the water.

"We have to get to Soleanna, now."

Silver didn't wait another moment after Blaze's words. Using his psychokinesis, he carried the two of them through the air at superspeeds, zipping above the water with a streak of cyan as the sun began to set.

---

Soleanna was going through a crisis. Marine was focused on whittling a little spear.

Using a sharp rock, she was cutting a stick she found to create some kind of sharp tool that would allow her to catch fish. It wasn't perfect, and it was definitely going to break after a few tries, but it would help her for now. Her fishing supplies were in her houseboat, which was currently gone.

A frown was on her face. She had been unhappy since she came back, and all the beachgoers around her screaming, running and yelling definitely weren't helping.

She missed a hit with her sharp rock, hitting her finger instead.

"Ugh! Son of a…"

Marine put the finger in her mouth to heal it, looking out into the water from her spot on the shore. She saw the giant, sulking figure of… whatever that thing made of lava was in the distance, walking towards the beach and almost directly at her.

Whatever. She'd get away with her boat, but she didn't even have one.

"Need some help?"

The raccoon turned her head. Blaze was there, with Silver behind her, the two of them looking down at the girl sitting on the beach. Marine pulled her finger from her mouth, wiping it on her shirt, and continued to whittle.

"What do you bludgers want?" She grumbled. "Here to make me feel like bloody trash again?"

"No. We need help getting rid of that thing." Silver said, pointing to Iblis-Tiara.

"Why can't your precious little princess do it? She just loves doing everything by herself, don't ya, mate?" Marine looked at Blaze, still whittling.

The princess was silent for a moment.

"We really need your help, Marine."

"You had my help. Now my ship's blown up. I don't even have a home anymore, and all I got was you going agro on me for trying to help." Marine accidentally whittled too hard, breaking the stick in half. She tossed it into the ocean. "I don't even know why you came back here, mate."

There was silence again, Blaze clearly thinking out what she was going to say.

"I'm… sorry."

Marine slowly turned her head towards the princess.

"You are? For what?"

"'I'm sorry that I treated you so unfairly. You've been my friend for seven years, and you put up with so much during that time. You didn't deserve any way I had been treating you." Blaze said. "I was afraid… of feeling that emptiness… you feel when you lose someone you care about. So I attempted to make you hate me to save yourself the trouble, but now I see that you're more than capable of helping me. I was just hurting too much to see it… but that shouldn't have been put out on you."

She offered a hand to Marine, who took it to stand up again.

"Marine, Iblis has taken over Tiara's body. He's going to destroy Soleanna, then all life on this world. I can't do this alone, and Silver can only help so much. I'm sorry for what I've done to you… could you please help me?"

The raccoon kept her stoic face for a moment. She looked out at Iblis-Tiara, who was getting closer to the island with each giant step of her foot. Marine looked down at the sand, kicking it a bit with her foot as if thinking.

She looked up with a grin.

"Been waitin' for you to say that, Blazey." She said.

Blaze smiled in reply. The three turned to look at the creature stumbling through the water towards Soleanna. The citizens had gone inland, leaving the trio as the only remaining people on the island front willingly.

"Bonza! We're gonna destroy that thing?" Marine asked, smiling again.

"Not destroy it. Tiara's in there. Somewhere."

"We just have to find a way to separate Iblis and Tiara, then seal off Iblis again." Silver added.

"What do you two need me to do then?"

Blaze reached into her coat pocket and tossed something into the air at Marine. The girl caught it, looking it over in her hands- it was a set of keys. One of the tags on the chain said "WHSKR"

"...no. No way." She looked at Blaze, smiling ear to ear.

"Click the button on the key."

Marine pressed the said button. Across the shore, at the abandoned boat lot they kept near the castle, Captain Whisker's boat roared up to life, zooming out of the lot and crashing through the gates before heading towards the shore towards where the trio was.

"Oh man… that boat really is a ripper." Marine was giddy.

Suddenly, from the sky above, the pole of the Jeweled Scepter landed in the sand, sticking upwards. Pieces of the old crescent stone that was on top landed around it as well.

Hovering down, Dr. Quark was still in her hovercraft, looking down at the trio as she did.

"The scepter is finally destroyed," She said. "Now there's no way for you to save your precious little kingdom anymore!"

Her hand audibly slammed down on the console. The cannon in her hovercraft flipped downwards, blasting energy onto the shores that knocked the trio back some.

As Silver landed, he heard Iblis' roar. The Iblis Tiara creature was headed towards the docks along the shore, only a mile or two away from it.

"Iblis…"

"Silver, keep Iblis at bay! Marine, stay close to me until your boat gets here." Blaze said as she was getting up to her feet.

The hedgehog flew upwards into the air and past the hovercraft. Though Quark tried re-aiming the cannon, she was interrupted by Blaze blasting a fireball into the underside of the hovercraft, making it rock violently.

"Ugh! I'm so glad this is the last time I have to deal with the likes of you!"

Dropping down further, the green emerald that Quark had collected was connected to the cannon. It charged up the weapon, sending a pulse of purple and pink energy down onto the shores. Blaze grabbed Marine and swung her around so the girl could hold onto her back as she got out of the way.

Blaze dodged multiple shots of the cannon, zigzagging out of the way. Marine kept holding on, looking over her shoulder to see the pirate ship still sailing in their direction.

Quark managed to aim up a good shot, hitting Blaze in the back of the head, separating the pair as Blaze flew forwards and faceplanted directly onto the beach. Marine fell back, landing in wet sand as she felt a wave come in, sending water directly into her side.

Getting back up to her feet, Blaze threw another fireball directly at Quark. The front of Quark's hovercraft opened, absorbing the blast like it did to Silver's powers earlier.

"Thank you." The scientist said. A smaller cannon opened up at the side, firing a blast of Blaze's fire back at the princess. Blaze ducked it, continuing to shoot fire towards Quark, trying to knock the scientist off, but only getting more absorbed.

Marine got up to her feet, feeling her wetsuit get soppy from the wave that had rushed over her. She rubbed her head, but noticed the palm was glowing white.

She looked into her hands, seeing that they were growing in intensity as the power seemingly growed. Moving her hands, she saw that her wetsuit was getting drier and drier, the water disappearing from her body and… being absorbed.

Her hands glowed white as the water left her body, making her grin.

"Bonza."

Nearby, Quark hummed with satisfaction as she kept absorbing the fire.

"You're getting slow, princess. You need not worry, you won't have to worry about that anymore. Or anything really. I know you're upset, but you shouldn't fret. I'll look after Soleanna while your gone. Isn't that great?" The scientist said, sickly sweet.

"Oi, Doctor Quack!"

Quark got tense. She turned to look at Marine.

"It's Doctor Bernadette Quark, you little brat!"

"This is for my ship, you bloody wombat!"

Using both hands, Marine stuck her fists out, sending a double blast of white energy from her body. Both directly hit the hovercraft, which seemingly got absorbed at first, but caused the entire thing to shake and beep loudly.

The front of the hovercraft exploded, rocking violently and nearly knocking Quark out of it. Falling down, the hovercraft crashed into the ocean, submerging for a moment but floating along with Quark in it.

"Ugh! No!"

Though the green emerald floated along, it zipped out of the water and into Blaze's hand, returning to its rightful owner.

"This isn't over! I'll get you, my kitty! And your little friends too!" Quark hissed.

Putting a wire or two together hurriedly, she slammed on the console again, releasing a pulse of fire that let her soar through the water and away from the shore, clearly using the leftover energy she had absorbed.

"Strewth, that stuff is powerful." Marine looked over her hands again.

Their view of the ocean was blocked by Whisker's ship, which came to a stop. Marine used her water powers to launch herself up and onto the deck of the ship, rushing over to the controls and properly starting the engine. She pushed on the accelerator, making the pirate ship zip through the water with a yell of glee from the raccoon.

Blaze ran from the shore and got to the docks, running to the end to watch what was happening unfold before her.

Silver flew around Iblis Tiara, the three-story creature swatting at him like he was a fly. The psychic hedgehog fired arcs of psychokinetic energy at the creature, knocking it around and keeping it from stepping towards Soleanna.

Iblis Tiara roared angrily at the flying hedgehog.

"You think you scare me?! I WORKED IN THE CUSTOMER SERVICE INDUSTRY!" Silver yelled back.

The hedgehog charged up before sending a shockwave of energy Iblis Tiara's way, making it stumble backwards and away from the island kingdom. The creature managed to collect itself rather quickly, swinging its obsidian arm and landing a hit on Silver.

Though the hedgehog was sent flying back towards the shore, Iblis Tiara was still kept away from the island with a barrage of cannonballs hitting its body. Marine directed the pirate ship around the beast, using the automatic cannons to fire upon the creature of magma.

After getting up from the sand, Silver sensed Blaze nearby, seeing her at the docks. He floated over, landing next to her.

"What's the next part of the plan?"

"I… I'm not sure. After we get Tiara out, we still need to find a way to seal Iblis away."

"The scepter is destroyed. The Verdant Crystal is at least a fifteen minute fly away," Silver said. "Fifteen minutes we may not have."

Blaze thought to herself, remembering what her future self told her. Listen to what Tiara said.

"Iblis isn't a god, it's… a personification. It feeds of negativity." Blaze spoke, mostly to herself.

She remembered what she was told. This god, connected to her family, arose the first time in her life on the anniversary of her mother's death- a horrible day for Blaze. Previously, it first arose for her mother when she was extremely angry.

"It's a personification… of my feelings. It's an emotion. It's… Iblis is my emotion." The princess continued. "You can't store emotions away… you have to let them hurt."

Marine continued to fire cannonballs into Iblis Tiara.

"Silver?"

"Yes, El?"

"I need you to get me close to Iblis and Tiara. I… I should talk to her."

Silver nodded, grabbing onto Blaze by the arm and pulling her across the water with his powers. They soared past the pirate ship, Blaze calling out to Marine as they did.

"Marine, use your powers to restrain Iblis!"

"Uh… alright, sure!"

Marine concentrated with everything she had. The water below Iblis Tiara curled around is body, pulling it downwards as much as it could, creating a powerful whirlpool that sucked in Iblis further downwards.

The creature was brought down to one knee, only out of the water from the waist up now.

Silver floated in front of it with Blaze beside him. She grabbed on tightly to the hedgehog, realizing the mistake she made of asking him to bring her up into the air. It was much too high for her already.

She took a few deep breaths though, still holding onto Silver.

"Tiara… I know you're in there." Blaze yelled. "Somewhere, you're inside of there. I need you to listen to me! I'm sorry that I hurt you! I—"

Iblis Tiara swung its arm at them, making Silver lower them in the air to evade the attack. He kept his grip on Blaze, keeping them flying through the air as they dodged more attacks.

"As long as Iblis is in control, I don't think we'll be able to reach Tiara!" Silver said.

"Ugh! Figures! We need to get her out!"

Silver's flight was stopped by Iblis Tiara managing to grab onto them. The hedgehog created a sphere of energy around himself and the princess, protecting them from the magma monster as it stared down towards them.

Iblis Tiara put its other hand on top of the sphere, pressing downwards with all of its might. Silver held his hands out to hold the sphere and keep it intact, Blaze holding onto him tightly to keep them together.

"Blaze, I don't know if I can hold it!"

"Yes you can! Just focus!"

"You need to get out of here and get Tiara!"

"I'm not leaving you!"

"Blaze!"

"No! Either we both go, or we both go!"

After a moment, Silver chuckled, shaking his head.

"So selfless." He commented again.

The sphere got smaller, even though Silver was still trying to concentrate. Blaze looked up, seeing the blank expression in the eyes of the beast, only being met with raging fire inside.

There was the roar of an engine, and the roar of a fourteen-year-old girl, as the beak of Captain Whisker's pirate ship was suddenly rammed into the back of Iblis Tiara, impaling the beast and coming out through the front of its chest. Its grip immediately loosened on Silver and Blaze, the creature actually dropping them.

As the beak of the ship passed through Iblis' chest, it actually pushed out something else- the body of Tiara. Tiara had physically been in the center of the beast, Iblis only becoming an outer layer to the vessel it had taken.

With the force of the impalement, Tiara was tossed into the air, seemingly unconscious and very limp as she soared towards the beach.

"Tiara!" Blaze yelled. "Silver, throw me and catch her!"

"But Blaze—"

"Throw me!" She yelled at Silver this time.

Using his telekinesis, Silver flung Blaze through the air, headed directly onto a course to intercept Tiara's path as they both fell.

Looking downwards, Blaze saw she was a good five stories up in the air from being flung, making her gag and cover her mouth as she felt nausea hit her. Her head started spinning, feeling woozy from being so high up.

She shook her head, clearing her mind as much as she could as she turned her attention back to the falling Tiara. Taking a deep breath, she fired a burst of flame from her feet, rocketing downwards and directly to the manx.

Blaze grabbed Tiara in midair, flipping around to land on her feet with Tiara in her arms, sliding as she landed properly in the sand. Taking an extra step to make sure she had footing, Blaze took a few more deep breaths.

She lay Tiara gently in the sand, the manx still unresponsive.

The sound of Iblis' roar got her attention next. Silver used his powers to pull the pirate ship away from Iblis and get Marine away from the beast. Iblis was back in his natural form now, multiple arms and all, and seemingly angry to the point of being feral that it lost its vessel.

Running on all its limbs, it headed directly towards Soleanna. Blaze turned towards the beast completely, unfazed.

"I should've done this a long time ago." She said. "Iblis, I am Princess Blaze, Elise Agni the Third of Soleanna. My soul is alight with flames, as is yours, and I refuse to allow you to dictate my world any longer! Cursed flames of disaster, I give you your vessel… but you will never harm another one of my friends anymore!"

Holding her arms out, she accepted Iblis into herself as the creature became close. Magma and fire were pulled in a steady stream off of the creature as it got closer, becoming spaghettified as Blaze used all the power in her body to direct the being into her head gem, accepting Iblis as a part of her.

The creature's roars died down, the last one almost seeming to be a sigh of content as it finally felt accepted by the bloodline it haunted for so long. The last bit of fire, magma and obsidian was sucked into Blaze's gem, which twinkled in the moonlight after it became enchanted with the soul of a divine spirit.

After it was done, Blaze fell down to one knee, composing herself and feeling the sudden rush of energy. She held her palm upwards, summoning flames- it was orange like normal, at first, before it slowly turned purple at the edges.

She let out her own sigh of relief. Blaze moved away, though, going to Tiara and falling onto her knees to let the manx rest on her lap.

"Tiara? Tiara! Open your eyes!" The princess said.

After a moment, Tiara's eyes did open, fluttering as she came to. She groaned and held her hand up, blocking out the moonlight.

"Ten more minutes…" She grumbled.

Blaze couldn't help a small chuckle. She pet Tiara's head with a hand, the woman finally opening her eyes completely to look up at the princess.

"Tiara, I'm so sorry." The purple feline said softly. "I was hurting. I lost my mother, and I thought I lost my best friend… turns out, I lost both of them. Just because I lost someone important, doesn't mean I couldn't let people stay. It was wrong of me to do that to you."

Taking one of Tiara's hands, Blaze held it in both of hers, pressing her face against it.

"It was real to me too. The love I have for you. It's real to me. It always was."

Though the manx tried to stayed composed for a moment, she opened and closed her mouth, her lips quivering and eyes getting misty as she tried to speak, hearing the words she'd been dying to hear for three years.

"Ellie, I tried to stop, but I just felt so angry… I-I couldn't stop myself!"

"It's okay. It's okay. You're okay."

Silver and Marine dropped from the anchored boat onto the shore, witnessing the scene from a few yards away. Blaze and Tiara hugged, the pair holding onto each other tightly.

The princess of Soleanna and her closest friend both wept on the sand.

---

PRESENT DAY, AGAIN...

Blaze put down her cup as she was finished with her tea, and her story. It was the early afternoon now, the story having taken a few hours to get, start to finish.

As the story ended, Amy was also done with her tea, nodding as it ended. Big, next to her, was feeding Froggy some more pastries, having been listening but not looking directly at the princess for the tale.

Cream, however, was waving her face with both hands, trying to keep herself from crying.

"Ugh… my heart… ugh!" She said, trying to stop the sobs from leaving her mouth.

"What happened next, Blaze?" Big asked, looking at the princess now.

"Hm. Well, Quark is still at large. Silver decided to stay on Soleanna and became my royal guard again. Tiara was excused for her crimes, but couldn't return to her previous position, so she decided to take a… similar profession." The princess said. "Marine got to keep the ship! Also, we got to make another artifact with the Verdant Crystal."

"Glad everything's turning up Blaze." Amy commented. "That was a serious story. I can't believe all of that happened in just one day!"

"Well, a day or two. Some events were spaced out a bit longer, but I decided to polish it for convenience." Blaze shrugged. "Speaking of polish…"

Blaze reached into her coat and pulled something out. It was the flute she used before, during the story, that she had successfully made a portal with. She handed it to Cream, who was dabbing her eyes with a napkin.

"Huh? Wait, is this that one flute?"

"It is! I want you to have it, Cream."

"Whoa, really?" The rabbit was excited, taking the instrument.

"Whoa, really?" Amy was more exasperated. "Blaze, are you sure you want to give Cream an artifact that can create portals to other worlds?"

"Mostly to my world. Besides, it's incredibly difficult to create a portal to other dimensions. That flute mostly just brings things from other realms into mine. Er, well, yours now."

The princess pat Cream's head with a smile.

"But if anyone can figure out how to make portals with it and give me a visit, I know Cream can. I'm fairly certain of it."

Holding the flute to her chest, Cream smiled brightly at Blaze.

"Well, alright. But if you go to another dimension, you better let me come with you, Cream." Amy said. "Don't want to get on Vanilla's bad side."

Blaze stood up from the table, brushing off her coat.

"Well, thank you all for lunch. I better be off now."

"Wait, you're going?" Cream asked.

"I am! Duty calls as a princess. I have to maintain some level of seriousness after all." She pulled her sleeve back, looking at a watch on her wrist. "The person picking me up should be here in just a few seconds…"

After a second or two, a giant tear in reality was formed right above the canal, a mile or two back. From the tear came out a giant pirate ship, launching out into the water and slowly coming to a stop right beside the table. It lined up perfectly for the group to see the name of the ship, painted in lime green on the side of the bow: "SS HYPER-MARINE"

"Oi! It's Amy!"

Marine was hanging over the side of the ship, looking down at the group. She had one of those tricorn hats on now, grinning down at the people on land.

"Hey, Marine! It's nice to see you!" Amy waved. "Glad to see you got your pirate ship!"

"I did! Ain't she a beaut?"

"Gorgeous, Marine."

Before the princess could leave, Cream hugged her waist, making her stop. Cheese hugged Blaze's arm as well.

"You're going to come back, aren't you?" The rabbit asked.

"Of course I am. You can count on that." Blaze pat her head. "Besides, once you have that flute working, you'll be able to see me whenever you want."

"And have sleepovers?"

"I guess if Amy's alright with it…"

"I'll also probably be sleeping over." Amy said.

Blaze chuckled. She nodded her goodbyes to Amy, and turned to Big.

"It was nice meeting you Big, Froggy."

"It was nice meeting you!" Big said with a smile, waving.

Not wanting to upset them, the princess gently pried Cream and Cheese off of her, patting the rabbit's head again with a small smile. Blaze launched herself up with a burst of fire, landing on the deck beside Marine.

"Stay out of trouble, Cream!" The princess shouted.

"I won't!" Cream grinned at her, waving them off.

Walking back on the deck with Marine, Blaze got a suspicious look from the raccoon.

"Another teenage girl sidekick? Am I just not good enough for ya, mate?"

"Cream may be sweet, but nobody matches the energy you have, Marine. That's why I keep you around."

"Bloody oath, Blazey!"

With a grin, Marine went off to the controls at the stern of the pirate ship. She pressed on the accelerator, making the ship move down the canal. Blaze gave one last wave to her friends, seeing them wave back happily.

As she turned back around, she saw two more figures on the deck, standing around casually. It was Silver, now in a plain navy overshirt, and Tiara, still in her red attire, holding the silver staff with the Verdant Crystal on the end.

Blaze looked between them.

"...what are you two doing here?"

The pair looked at Blaze in unison.

"...we're your bodyguards." They said together.

The princess rolled her eyes and scoffed in amusement. She walked past Tiara, taking the new Verdant Scepter away from her and spinning it in her hand.

"I'll take that, Lady Boebowski."

"My pleasure, your highness."

Blaze kept smiling at the lady knight, walking away and leaving her behind with Silver. Walking to the bow of the boat, the princess summoned a Sol Emerald in her hand, tossing it upwards and firing at it with the Verdant Scepter.

The Power of the Stars reacted to the emerald's energy, creating a tear in reality that the beak of the ship (now blackened for impaling Iblis, but Marine liked how it looked that way) tore open, ripping it further to let the entire ship inside.

Though the world went white for a moment, the ship was soon back in Soleanna.

Tiara strolled up to Silver's side as he leaned against the side of the ship, overlooking the island kingdom together.

"So…" She said. "You're clearly not the old Silver, because the old Silver would probably be much more serious. But you're not completely like the tired, new Silver. So who are you?"

"Well… I think I'm a little of both, to be honest." Silver shrugged. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm still dumb as a doornail, though."

The two snorted and chuckled. The two of them both looked at Blaze, who kept standing at the bow of the ship to watch it come to the Soleanna docks, the wind making her fur shake as they sailed at higher speeds.

"...there's one thing I don't have from either side, though." Silver continued.

"What's that?"

"El's alias. Blaze." He looked at Tiara again. "If her name is Elise… why is she called Blaze?"

Tiara stared at him blankly for a moment before smiling softly.

"I'm sure you'll remember it eventually, Sil. Right now, let's just enjoy the day."

Up in front, Blaze looked upon her village with a smile, spotting the castle in the distance. The wind died down, allowing the princess to reach into her pocket and pull out the folded note she kept close to her at all times. She liked it close to her. Close to her heart.

She unfolded it and read it again. It had been years since she had gotten it… she had received it on her fourteenth birthday.

My dearest daughter,

The world may try to snuff you out, but I know your vigilance will carry you towards your destiny.

You're stronger than you know, you're braver than I could ever be, and you're more powerful than you can possibly imagine. Never forget that.

You're my reason for living. My reason to push myself to my limits. You're the fire that rests inside of my heart.

My burning blaze.

With love... your mother.

Blaze's smile widened slightly as she read it once more. After she was done, she folded up the note and put it in her coat again, patting it to make sure it stayed close to her heart. She stared out into the horizon and the kingdom the light shined down upon.

It was a beautiful evening in Soleanna.

UP NEXT: Amy v. Rouge: Dawn of Justice!