Of course, a major flaw in Tails' plan was that Pretzel was slow. She flew with all her might, but even the fastest bird couldn't cross the ocean in anything under half a day. And in half a day they would all be dead. Or brainwashed. She'd be dead, certainly, with this blasted heat. She was tempted to try swimming, but when she dipped down, heat rolled off the waves and she quickly pulled up again. Stupid Light Gaia. Well… smart, really, to keep her out of her element. The stupid one here was her, thinking she'd get there in time. Thinking she'd be able to stop it.
Something like lightning brushed against her mind, and she jerked violently in the air. What— oh. She waved her hands around for a solid minute until she finally found the emeralds in hammerspace. Her claws jerked back instinctively before she steadied them. Tentatively, she picked one up; the real one, crackling with life and far too dangerous to be near her for long. It glowed calm, sure purple. She took a breath and carefully put it back.
Right. She did have the emeralds, three-fourths fake or not, on her side. And why give up now? Whether she was boiled alive by the ocean or died at Light Gaia's claws, she was doomed either way. Might as well take the chance she'd somehow help Sonic. But that brought her back to the original problem. She'd never get there in time.
She scowled at the ocean below, then blinked. Her shadow flickered black over the waves, made giant by the sun. She remembered the hotel room and the lasers. Maybe… maybe there was something she could do without being there physically?
She tried to will her shadow to stretch, to spread all the way to Christmas Island. For a moment it seemed to grow, seemed to reach, but the further it stretched the more her wings faltered. She barely made it reach a mile before she nearly fell into the ocean from the strain. Hissing, she shook her head and rose into the sky again. Stretching her own shadow wasn't going to work.
What else could she do? Could she use someone else's shadow? She remembered how she had calmed Sonic's aura, how something bright in a way completely different from Light Gaia had brushed against her mind. Colors and feelings she'd never known. Like a window into another life. His life? Hot wind ruffled her fur where her crest had once been.
Forget her own shadow. She focused on his, the jagged silhouette of his quills and the weird pointy thing that was presumably his nose. She focused on the image of her crest on his fur, looking small and odd and dark. An eye an entirely different green than his. Same green as hers. She pretended the eye was hers, was alive, peering out and seeing.
She gasped as the world blurred, and a second view came into focus. With effort she kept flapping even as she looked around with interest. She knew immediately the eye was not with Sonic. No, this person was the dark and cool to Sonic's bright and warm. This was Shadow.
The eye was in his hand, which provided a rather disorienting view of some kind of beach. She was nauseous enough as it was. Fortunately, it was a simple matter to slip from her crest's shadow to, well, Shadow's. The mind and the aura, she noted, were closely connected, and she wove through the dark red warning spines with familiarity until she saw through his eyes.
It was strange, not seeing the world in shades of light and dark. There were no auras here, only solid shapes and colors. She wondered, briefly, how Light Gaia saw the world, then tucked the thought away for later.
It took her a moment to realize Shadow's eyes were only partly open, and closing fast. She was trying to figure out how to wake him up when something hissed nearby, and Shadow shot upright. She became intimately acquainted with the agony of a split head. How Shadow managed to stand, she had no idea.
"Good, you're awake."
Shadow's mind recognized the voice and labeled it Dr. Eggman, along with other, less kind names. Pretzel avoided poking at the memories scattered about—she got the feeling he was already going to kill her painfully for being in his mind at all without her snooping around—and focused on this Egg-person who was talking to Shadow.
He was a human. Shaped like an egg. Yeah, that made sense.
"What have you done now, Doctor?" Shadow demanded, eyeing the very big robots behind the human warily as his skull continued to pound threats.
Eggman waved his hand. "Never mind that now! Light Gaia has gotten out of control!"
"And this surprises you?" Shadow crossed his arms.
Eggman somehow managed to visibly roll his eyes while wearing dark glasses. "Never mind that now. The main issue here is that we have a common enemy."
"No." Shadow said instantly.
Eggman lowered his eyebrows dangerously. Pretzel made a mental note to get herself some dark glasses, they really seemed to add a whole 'nother level of intimidation. And that sneer of pure, concentrated contempt was a thing of beauty.
"Given that you are working with the heroes now, I would have thought you would be less content with letting the world burn. Guess not much has changed." Shadow shifted uncomfortably, but before he could respond, Eggman continued with a smirk that was at once the mirror and the opposite of Sonic's. "Either way, it doesn't matter. If you don't do as I say… well, you're suffering from a concussion, so you're in no position to fight even if I don't tell you all of Burnbot's capabilities."
Shadow grimaced. He seemed to be preparing to attack anyway, though Pretzel could tell from the pounding all around her presence in his skull that it was a very bad idea. Fortunately for both of them, Shadow spotted something behind Eggman and smirked. "Burnbot, Doctor? How… ironic."
Burnbot whirled around, raising its arms to prepare for attack, but it didn't count on the target being its creator. To his credit, Eggman looked less surprised than annoyed by the attack in the moment before he dropped unconscious into the sand. Meanwhile, Burnbot doused the surrounding area in flames (which Shadow hurriedly scrambled away from), but there couldn't be a worse weapon to use on this adversary, as the flames eagerly turned back on the robot that created them. Pretzel marveled as the intricate piece of complex machinery and expert craftsmanship was quickly reduced to a pile of goopy stuff that was once metal but now looked more like ugly grey mud, smoldering in the sand.
Blaze straightened from her attack, smoothing out her overcoat as she watched Eggman for signs of movement. When there were none, she turned to Shadow. "Is Sonic with you?"
"He was," Shadow gestured behind him at the dented form but still recognizable form of a biplane, half buried in the sand. "But Light Gaia took control."
Blaze's eyes narrowed. "Complete control?"
Shadow hesitated, then lifted his hand, showing her Pretzel's eyeball crest. "He attacked me and crashed our plane… but then he dragged me into hiding and gave me…" He squinted at the object. "Pretzel's third eye."
Blaze nodded solemnly, as if that made perfect sense (Pretzel was the one who the eye belonged to and she thought it was weird, why were these people so calm?). "Perhaps we can still get him back yet." She looked down at Eggman. "What do we do with the old man?"
Shadow knelt down and studied the heel-shaped (or perhaps high heel shaped, his brain noted amusedly, much to Pretzel's surprise) imprint on the Doctor's forehead that was fast darkening into a bruise. "Perhaps we can find a use for him. Do you have anything we could bind him with?"
Blaze hesitated, then reached up and pulled off the red band around her hair, letting it fall in a feathery violet spray down her back. "This should do." She helped Shadow get Eggman in a sitting position, then bound his wrists together with the red band. They also placed a rock on his legs (Pretzel was pretty sure that was just them being petty.) Shadow made some adjustments, and then stepped back to let Blaze wake Eggman up.
Pretzel would have to ask Shadow later what burning moustache smelled like. Shame this perspective was limited to sight, sound, and thoughts. It was certainly effective at waking Eggman up.
"Wha—!" Eggman struggled for a moment, then realized he was bound and sneered at his captors. "Oh. It's you."
Shadow and Blaze exchanged glances in a wordless conversation. After a moment, Blaze stepped aside, leaving Shadow to interrogate the human.
"Doctor." Shadow greeted him coldly. "What do you know about Light Gaia?"
"It's a creature that has existed almost as long as our world. It's also a massive energy source, comparable to the Chaos Emeralds, so you can see why I wanted it." Eggman shrugged casually.
Pretzel could sense Shadow's surprise at the readiness of the answer, surprise quickly followed by wariness. "Does it have any weaknesses?"
"Obviously," Eggman sneered. He seemed almost to be looking at Pretzel when he spoke. "It's opposite, Dark Gaia."
"Tell us something we don't know," Shadow growled while Blaze stepped closer, fire flickering around her hands.
Eggman grunted, leaning away slightly from the heat of the flames. "And how could I know what you know?"
Shadow considered him for a moment, then abruptly turned on his heel. He gestured to Blaze, and she followed him out of earshot.
"Even if he knows something we don't, he won't tell us," Shadow murmured.
"Are you sure?" Blaze asked, and they both glanced back at their captive, who was grumbling to himself while attempting to cut his bonds with a rock.
Shadow shook his head. "Neither of us are willing to go to the lengths we'd have to to get him to talk."
After a moment, Blaze sighed. "So what then? We leave him to Light Gaia's mercy?"
Pretzel sensed memories flowing thick and dark through Shadow's mind, memories tainted with the bitter smell of betrayal, manipulation, and guilt. But then another memory, brighter and fresher, abruptly cleared the rest away.
"No. That would be as good as murder." Shadow took something from his hammerspace, which appeared to be… a set of keys?
Blaze looked as confused as Pretzel felt, but evidently she trusted Shadow's judgement, as she simply nodded and motioned for him to lead the way. Shadow smiled slightly, gratefully. It was gone a heartbeat later, but Pretzel noticed the memory being stored away in a small, bright corner of his mind. Seemed it wasn't often he was given that kind of trust.
"Doctor," Shadow announced, striding up to the human with the keys jangling in his hand. "Give us access to your base and I will let you go." When Eggman squinted at him, Shadow added. "The biplane's right there. These are the keys. I'm sure you can figure it out."
"And be quick," Blaze added, glancing behind her. "Light Gaia will be coming for you soon."
After a moment, Eggman grinned. "I'm glad we could reach an agreement," he said, like he'd come up with the deal. "Unbind me, and I'll give you access."
Blaze started to argue, but Shadow cut her off by removing the red band from Eggman's wrists. Eggman backed away from them warily, but when Shadow didn't attack, he nodded.
"You already know the password, Shadow. The keys, if you please."
Shadow grimaced and tossed Eggman the keys. He and Blaze watched as the Doctor pulled the plane out of the sand (unfair, Pretzel had just discovered she had super strength and already this human was showing her up), wiped away the sand in one sweeping motion, and checked the engine. He shrugged, squeezed into the cockpit, and took off without a backwards glance (and without giving them time to change their minds. Smart human.)
"If you know the password, why did you give him the plane?" Blaze demanded.
"There are more important issues at hand." Shadow said, then added after a beat, "And I placed a tracker on his coat."
"And who will follow the tracker?"
"…I also placed a timed stun device on him."
"You must be fun at hostage negotiations."
They stared at each other blankly for a moment, apparently unable to handle a joke without Sonic around for them to roll their eyes at.
"…how did you get here?" Shadow asked at last.
"The Moray delivered me to Eggman, and I was imprisoned at Chun-nan. After your attack on his base, Eggman transferred me and Rouge to his base here, presumably to be used as hostages. However," Blaze smirked. "he made the mistake of using a Phoenix to guard us. I used my pyrokinesis to free us, and I found this." She showed him what appeared, in the second Pretzel got to see it before Blaze put it away again, to be a purple brick. But sparkly. "Evidently, Eggman had given it a Sol Emerald to increase its strength."
"What happened to Rouge?"
Blaze wrinkled her nose in irritation. "She left. She wouldn't tell me what she was doing."
Shadow nodded. The stiflingly awkward silence returned. Blaze shifted on her feet and glanced behind her, then bent down to pick up her hairband. Shadow flicked some sand off his weird shoes. So this was why they kept Sonic around.
"I believe we are being watched," Shadow announced after what felt like an hour. Blaze nodded and started tying up her hair again, apparently content to leave Shadow to his paranoia.
Shadow took a deep breath. His mind seemed to contract, focusing on… energy? Slowly, painfully, auras came into focus. They weren't auras like the ones Pretzel saw, however; these were alien, less about light and dark as they were about colors and tints and shades and shapes. Chaos Energy, Shadow's mind provided.
He looked down at the crest he still held in his hand, then at his own shadow. "Pretzel?"
Pretzel spent a moment trying to figure out how to respond, then went with thinking really loudly.
Present, she thought in his head.
"Where are you currently?" Shadow asked the crest as he started walking. It reminded her of Rouge and how sometimes she paced back and forth, talking to the air. At one point, Rouge had explained that she was actually communicating with a small device attached to her ear, though Pretzel didn't understand how that was any different. At least the air answered sometimes.
Flying to Christmas Island, Pretzel told him. Gonna be a while.
Shadow mulled it over. "Perhaps… you should try Chaos Control?"
Pretzel's mind flashed to the Chaos Emeralds in her hammerspace. She remembered Shadow shouting the words, and how the world warped, folding together and then stretching out again.
Alright.
She pulled out of Shadow's head and back into her body, which was thankfully still in the air and still headed to Light Gaia. She clumsily reached into hammerspace. The Emerald thrummed in her grasp, casting a dark purple light over her face. Its energy darted over her, setting her fur on end with electricity. This was a bad idea. This was her only idea.
Shaking her head vigorously, Pretzel focused on the purple facets. She stopped flying and hovered, absorbing everything she could about where she was: the shape of the ocean, the way it spread around her, the way her shadow danced on the waves, the specific sea life lurking down below. Then she focused on what she had seen through Shadow, the cut of the palm leaves, the softness of the sand, and the constant rushing of the waves. She imagined those two places being, just for a moment, the same.
"Chaos Control," Pretzel whispered. For a moment, nothing happened. Disappointment sat heavy in her chest. Here she was, Dark Gaia, the living incarnation of all the darkness in the world, and what even a regular hedgehog could do she—
The world twisted, and Pretzel was left scrambling in the sand. She scrambled to tuck the dangerously sparking Emerald away while her eyes darted around her surroundings. No sign of Shadow and Blaze. Great. Alone on a strange island with no idea how to get anywhere. Could this day get any worse?
An odd, sing-song laugh greeted her ears, and she turned around slowly. Sonic was standing in a tree above her, grinning and bright eyed. He looked more poised than she'd ever seen him. Perfect balance and posture, no restless twitching or wandering gaze. Completely focused. It was unnatural.
Wait. His eyes didn't have pupils.
His aura was strange, pure white, and not so much his own as an extension of…
Oh, being alone would be so much better.