It took Sonic half an hour to get out of the ocean and find his way back to the Holoskan village, only for him to remember Pretzel's existence and sprint back to look for her. It took another fifteen minutes of running up and down the coastline searching for where he'd left the temple before he finally ran into her, sitting in the snow with icicles hanging off her wings.
"Pretzel?" Sonic asked when she didn't look up.
"Portals in the temple," she muttered, and slipped into the sea without another word.
He stood for a moment in the gathering wind. The ocean laughed at him. He could feel it, gathering just outside his skull, held back only by the bits of light left. Of course it was when he actually needed Light Gaia's energy that it ditched him. Forcing himself to take a breath, Sonic gathered the scraps of fire the Moray hadn't stolen, shuddered, and stepped off the cliff. The wind screamed in his ears. He couldn't tell what it was saying anymore.
Ice water smacked his muzzle. Salt stung in his cuts. He forced his eyes open, chased the flicking of Pretzel's tail and the glow of the temple. It was still floating halfway between the floor and the surface, though now it was starting to drift slowly downwards. It lit up again when Sonic entered it. The light felt strangely cold.
Silently, Pretzel led him to an inner room matching the one in Mazuri and somehow slipped under the door. It swung open, inviting, hungry. He glanced briefly at the carvings on the walls, but the ocean was pressing and he didn't want to be here a moment longer. Pretzel waited by the door with the stilt hut, still not looking anywhere but the ground. He mentally flicked through things he could say, fell short, and focused his energy on shoving the portal open. The cut on his shoulder twinged, but he got the door open. Humid night brushed his fur.
Immediately, the white light surged back to life, warning. He felt the incoming pain but forced himself to step through the door regardless. The light seized him, burning and roaring defiance, shouting its ownership as it tore at his chest and dug jagged gashes into the inside of his skull. The night dragged it away, kicking and screaming, leaving Sonic to collapse emptily on the wood.
He memorized the patterns on the planks, searching for the energy to stand. One moment. Two. He clenched his fists, then forced them to relax, forced himself to breathe. The cold receded.
Sonic sat up. Water lapped at the boards under him, and waves rushed softly somewhere nearby. He shuddered, closing his eyes. Boots tapped on creaking wood, drawing closer.
"You look like a mess." Rouge stood over him with a smirk. Something like concern shaded her eyes.
"I feel like a mess," Sonic muttered, grimacing at the scratchiness of his throat and the residual taste of salt. Rouge chuckled and offered her hand. He gratefully took it, stumbling to his feet.
"Did you lose—" She cut herself off as Pretzel coiled around their feet, green eyes glowing faintly in the dark. "Ah. Was your trip successful?"
"We lost Blaze," Sonic rasped. He glanced at Pretzel, who had her back to him. "I lost Blaze. The Light Moray took her."
Rouge's eyes widened, then narrowed. "Let's get something to eat. Then you can tell me everything."
The telling was surprisingly short. Hot food helped, even if the salt water he'd swallowed and the constant murmur of the ocean nearby made it hard to have an appetite. Rouge nodded at his description of the Light Moray, gesturing to her device lying on the table.
"I've been researching the legends about Light Gaia. They say it can transform ordinary animals into brilliant warriors. They way they described it, it's almost like what you do with the Chaos Emeralds, only longer lasting." She showed him aged drawings of bright, fierce creatures: a bird with wings of fire, a lizard with the sun on its head… and the moray, long and serpentine, adorned with flame like a dragon of the east.
"It's funny," Rouge mused. "It was people, ancient humans, who built these temples and made these images. They worshipped Light Gaia as a hero."
Pretzel snorted, the first sound she'd made since they arrived. "It's a force of nature. How can it be a hero?"
Sonic poked thoughtfully at his food. He glanced outside at the dark night. What had the Holoskan man said? "It's… it's making the world warmer and the days longer, right?" Rouge nodded. "And the people under its control seem… happy. At least, they do until they run into something…" He shot a sideways glance at Pretzel. "Dark."
Pretzel dug her claws into the table, curling her tail around herself.
"It's not good," Sonic added quickly, remembering the pain and the tearing and the burning. "But… it could be mistaken for it."
"Night is when you aren't under its control… " Rouge mused, looking out the window. "It seems the darkness weakens it." She suddenly smiled. "Perhaps we should start operating at night."
Sonic sighed and laid his head on the table. "Does that mean I'm not getting any sleep tonight?"
Rouge laughed. "If we leave for Empire City soon, it'll be day there and you can sleep." Her expression grew serious. "Which reminds me. You didn't tell me what happened to Blaze."
Sonic nodded wearily, drew himself up. "We—I was fighting the Moray. It had this device on its head, like it was being controlled by Eggman. I tried to get it off and— I'm not sure exactly what happened, but it grabbed her and swam off."
"If it was being controlled by Eggman, he most likely took her hostage." She pulled up a map on her screen. "We know where several of his bases—"
"It wasn't being controlled by Eggman," Sonic interrupted. "I pulled the device off."
"I see." Rouge was quiet for a moment, then coughed. "Well. Even if the Moray wasn't under his direct command, Eggman does still control Light Gaia itself, or is trying to control it. Perhaps…" She trailed off.
Sonic nodded again. Perhaps. He rested his head on his arms. It was quiet for a moment.
"Enough moping. We need to regroup." Sonic jerked awake—had he fallen asleep?—as Rouge stood. She grabbed his arm, prompting a twinge of pain from his shoulder, and pulled him after her out of the shop. Pretzel brushed past his leg as she darted out the door behind them.
Rouge walked briskly between buildings lifted on stilts, Sonic stumbling after her. He grimaced as what was very clearly a temple loomed over them. He was really sick of these things.
This temple was evidently frequented more than the others, complete with helpful explanatory plaques and sectioned off areas to keep tourists on track. Rouge led them under a warning rope and into the inner room. Thankfully, it was open. No need for a Chaos spear or…. Whatever Pretzel had done.
"Here." Rouge opened one of the doors without ceremony, and when Sonic didn't move, she grabbed his arm and dragged him towards it. He hissed as pain shot through his shoulder, the warning fiercer and more demanding this time. Rouge glanced at him with concern. "That thing really did a number on you, huh?"
Sonic looked at his shoulder and the chunk the Moray had taken out of it. At least it wasn't bleeding. "Eh."
Rouge sighed, muttered something under her breath about hedgehogs in general, and pushed through the door. Without thinking, Sonic followed her.
That was a mistake.
A fresh pain hit him, and white light flooded everything. Rouge shouted something as he fell, and there was a loud noise, metallic and artificial. The light roared in his ears, blazing gleefully and wracking him with energy. Savage. Burning. It came up against the odd dark thing in his head and threw a tantrum at being resisted, raking claws through his skin and boiling his blood, making him feel every unnatural twist of his muscles and stretch of his skin as punishment. White fire filled everything.
Something cool and dark touched him, and he gasped. Air pushed the light back, enough for him to take the reins. He blinked rapidly. Rouge was watching with concern, while Pretzel skittered away from his feet to crouch warily in the shadows. Evidently Rouge had dragged him into some kind of tunnel.
Sonic checked his hands. Unnatural yellow once more.
Time zones sucked.
"You with us?" Rouge asked, and he belatedly noticed the scratches on her uniform. He looked at his hands again with fresh dread. Time zones really sucked.
"Yeah." He made himself look up at her again. At least his throat wasn't so rough anymore, and the pain in his shoulder was gone. Funny how that had stayed when he detransformed, and disappeared when he… retransformed? Maybe Light Gaia was trying to get on his good side. Nice try, but he wasn't sure he had a good side anymore.
"...alright." Rouge looked at him sideways as she stepped away, pulling out her ever-present device thing. He really needed to ask what it was. A handheld computer? A GPS? For all he knew, it could be a glorified DS.
A piercing, familiar sound had his ears swiveling toward the entrance to the tunnel. He took a few steps forward, squinting. Was that… screaming? He glanced back at Rouge. She shrugged. Sonic darted out of the tunnel and into the open, scanning for the source of the scream.
Oh.
The city was on fire.