A bolt of black lightning shot towards the sun.
Sonic paused in midair, assessing the situation. His opponent hovered over South Island, waves of heat rolling off it in every direction, yet never touching the hedgehog hovering above. Below it, green hills had been turned ashy grey. Trees jabbed out of the ground like burnt matchsticks. Grass yet grew outside of Light Gaia's radius and the skies burned clear and merry above, but all the colors were faded to sharp, crisp greys by the white film over his eyes. Everything was cool and clear and dark, the opposite of how he had felt for so long. The world was distant, seen through a screen; he was distant, hidden and protected by dark energy and cold rage. Out of Light Gaia's reach.
Speaking of which, Light Gaia was, interestingly, a bird. A bird almost 50 ft tall and crackling with light energy, granted, but still unmistakably avian. It was a massive eagle fourteen times Sonic's height, with a sharp golden beak and keen bronze eyes. Gold-tipped white feathers rose like a crown on its head, joined by wide, pointed ears. More feathers lined its underbelly and made up its tails. On its chest was a cracked mint green gem, and from the gem sprouted crystalline lime wings, flapping rapidly as it hovered above the island. Its talons alone were four times longer than he was tall.
It hadn't noticed him yet. After all, there was no need to be alert when you had the sun itself on your side, and all its attention was focused on the figure held in its claws: a lilac cat, slumped forward and seemingly unconscious, but with a pained scowl fixed on her face and her hands clenched into fists. White energy surrounded her, prodding at the resistant violet aura. Black burns patched her face.
Sonic's mouth curled.
Bronze eyes snapped to him then, and the eagle shrieked in fury to see its favorite so corrupted. Sonic didn't give it time to return to its latest project. He shot into the sky and then down, slamming into Light Gaia at full speed. The creature shrieked, stumbling briefly, and dropped its prey as its white energy turned on its attacker. For a split second there was the choice of catching the falling figure or attacking Light Gaia while it was off guard. Not much of a choice.
Sonic set Blaze in the grass and took off again, not giving himself time to check her injuries. No time for hope. The black blur shot into Light Gaia again, but this time it was ready. It flung out its wings, and a pale green shield sent Sonic tumbling backwards. He regained his balance, calculated, and moved. He flew into Light Gaia before it could see him, and it jerked its head around a heartbeat too slow. The creature shrieked as blade sharp quills sliced its ear. Sonic darted away again, watching as it shook its head wildly, screaming again as it flattened its ears protectively. Interesting.
Switching tactics, Sonic darted past it, dodging a claw swipe and twirling around to swipe his arm through the air in his opponent's direction. A wave of dark violet energy shot from his hand and cut through Light Gaia's other ear. Its scream shook the island.
Sonic floated impassively in the air, Light Gaia snarling below him. Its white energy continued to reach for him like desperate hands. Its snarling quieted. It cocked its head, studying him with narrowed eyes.
Sonic tensed.
The great bird shot towards him, and he darted away. It turned like a hummingbird despite its size, and they danced across the sky, black lightning and white comet. A hiss of fire was all the warning Sonic got before he was hit from behind with a bolt of light. A cauterized gash on his side and his cheek were his reward for carelessness.
Spinning in the air, he swept his hand again, and Light Gaia shrieked as dark energy cut its wing. It flapped erratically for a moment more before landing on the ground. It crouched, tucking its wings against itself. Sonic hovered above it, weighing the chances of a trap. Light Gaia's eyes went pure white.
The sky shook.
Some weakened and buried yet still deeply ingrained part of Sonic, a part he'd thought he'd lost, cried out in fury and pain and wrongness, and instinctively he looked for familiar lights. Why, he did not know. But something… something was terribly wrong. Something was… coming.
Sonic darted up just as a chunk of stone shot past him, twisting through the air as more followed it. Pieces of earth rained down on his head. He shot away from Light Gaia, turning to see the new threat in full.
The Gaia Temples. They were here, in all their ancient immovability, floating around Light Gaia. And those lights… Realization shot through his heart. The Chaos Emeralds. They were tied to the temple, and through the temples, Light Gaia was using them. That same jolt of wrongness stabbed through him again.
Stone that hadn't moved in centuries shifted and broke apart and came together again, forming jagged armor around Light Gaia, golden light shining through the seams. Energy crackled from the Chaos Emeralds, feeding the flames. For only a moment it was encased in stone like an ancient cocoon, but then the temples burst into dust with a blast of fire, turning what was left of the island to ash. Sonic cried out at the heat breaking through his protection and the light burning through his screen, futilely trying to shield his face.
Slowly, he lowered his arm and blinked his eyes. The air rippled with heat as Light Gaia uncurled its new form. A new pair of taloned arms had sprouted from it shoulders, joined by a second pair of wings, these feathered and flaming, eclipsing the now paltry looking original pair. Two new pairs of ears had sprouted as well, and its tail was now more whip than fan. Glowing orange had wiped out the whites of its eyes. Its feathers had brightened to a fierce scarlet, edged with shining gold and white. The gem on its chest was no longer cracked, and the green had been clouded with white. Unbearable heat crackled the air around it.
It looked up, and he could have sworn it grinned.
Sonic shuddered in the air. He could feel the dragging in his limbs and the burning in his skin that warned him his transformation was going to wear off soon. He hissed at his waning energy. No. He was going to keep fighting. He had to.
The dark form wavered.
Light Gaia roared.
One would think that someone who was, by all accounts, the living incarnation of all things evil and dark would be just fine with manipulating the emotions of some guy she met a few days ago. One would think this being of pure malevolence would feel she was actually being rather nice, considering she did it to save the world and not just for kicks like a proper monster would.
One would be wrong.
Perhaps Dark Gaia would have thought it was pretty great, driving Sonic to the brink of despair so he'd be freed from Light Gaia's brainwashing. And he even got a cool transformation out of it! Everyone wins!
But though Pretzel was Dark Gaia, Dark Gaia was also now Pretzel. And Pretzel, unfortunately, had developed morals somewhere along the way. Forcing someone already miserable to face their worst fears in the worst way possible just so they would go fight the sun? That felt undeniably wrong. And her newfound conscience was very upset about it. She was upset about a lot of things, actually. And she wasn't the only one.
"Where were you!?" Blaze shouted, shoving Rouge with barely restrained anger. "Light Gaia is about to destroy your world, and you left to put your makeup on!?" Pretzel cringed, watching Blaze's still white-tinged aura warily. This wasn't the time to go stoking flames.
Rouge was clearly trying to keep up her calm, uncaring demeanor, but Pretzel could tell that beneath the plastic smile, she was as tired and stressed as the rest of them. "I was making some calls, alright, princess?"
Hesitantly, Pretzel slipped up behind Blaze and butted her head against her leg, surreptitiously sweeping her tail through Blaze's shadow. The white edge to her fire faded, and the cat sighed, rubbing her forehead wearily before pulling her hand away with a grimace upon touching her burns. Pretzel huffed a relieved breath as the flames cooled. Using her powers to get everyone to focus, now that was something she could get behind.
"I'm just glad you are both alright," Shadow said with rare sincerity. "I am… surprised you lasted so long against Light Gaia, Blaze."
Blaze grimaced. "'Lasted' is a strong word. Light Gaia attempted to consume my mind. The Sol Emerald helped me resist, but if it hadn't dropped me when it did, I fear I would have fallen as Sonic did." She glanced at Rouge and chewed her lip before extending her hand. "I apologize for being harsh, Rouge. Thank you for pulling me to safety."
Rouge folded her arms for a moment, then sighed and shook Blaze's hand with a tired smile. "And I'm sorry I didn't explain to you. It was important, I promise." She looked at Shadow. "Now that's out of the way, mind explaining what's going on up there?"
They all cringed as Light Gaia shrieked again. Their hiding place at the bottom of a former waterfall may have protected them from its waves of fire for now, but it was only a matter of time.
"After you were captured, we went to Tails so he could make fake Chaos Emeralds," Shadow explained rapidly. "Sonic and I came here to stall Light Gaia, and it took control of him." He glanced at Pretzel, who focused very intently on her claws. "Pretzel… freed him, somehow, and he transformed into a… Dark Super Form."
Pretzel snorted, remembering how the moment a transformed Sonic had left, Shadow had declared him to be "Dark Super Sonic", as if he hadn't just made that up on the spot.
"He seems to be fighting Light Gaia," Shadow concluded.
"Is he winning?" Rouge asked, raising an eyebrow.
Something big and possibly made of stone flew through the air over their heads. Blaze leapt up after it immediately, with Shadow close behind her. Rouge picked up Pretzel (she'd have to give her the memo about the whole "Dark Gaia" thing later) and flew after them, landing when she saw them crouched behind a smaller ledge. Pretzel dropped gratefully to the tiles that seemed to pave everywhere on this part of the island. Rouge knelt beside Blaze and Shadow. They were just in time, as another ring of fire rippled over the island, singeing the tops of their ears and earning a yelp from Rouge.
After a few minutes without any more fire, Pretzel risked peeking over the ledge. Something twinged in what she supposed was her heart as she took in the damage. The tiles were baked red and cracking from the heat. Burning tree stumps and ashen grass were broken up by evaporated water channels and ashen structures. She saw what appeared to be a giant loop-de-loop, fallen over and coated in black cinders. She felt sick. This… this wasn't right.
Pretzel forced her gaze away from the destruction and up to the battle. Her eyes focused on a bright, burning figure, and her heart stopped. She dropped to the ground, shivering, and squeezed her eyes shut. Like that would help. Like closing her eyes would stop Light Gaia—
That was Light Gaia.
That was Light Gaia, right up there. It could see her, probably already saw her. She was so, so much smaller than it. There would be no choking, no prolonged battle. It could step on her and she'd be gone.
"Something's wrong," Shadow shifted beside her, sounding tense.
Many, many things were wrong, but Pretzel forced herself to look up anyway. She focused on the black speck facing down Light Gaia, and understood what Shadow meant immediately. She could see him. When Sonic had left, he had hardly been a blur. He'd blasted out of the shelter before Pretzel could even register the transformation. But now he was staying still, almost shaking in the air. Even when he moved to dodge Light Gaia's attacks (did it have lasers she couldn't fight lasers that was just unfair!), they could all clearly see him. And so could Light Gaia, catching him in its claws and throwing him away again. Pretzel was sickeningly reminded of her fight (if you could even call it that) with the Hedgecat, and she tried to press herself even lower into the ground.
"The transformation is wearing off," Shadow realized.
"I need to help him," Blaze growled, vaulting over the ledge.
"Wait!" Shadow jumped after her and grabbed her arm. She hissed, trying to jerk away from him, but he didn't let go, fixing her with a hard stare until she met his gaze, burning yellow against steely red. "You won't fare any better against it then you did before."
"At least I can try!" Blaze shot back. "I'm not leaving him alone up there!"
"You won't be able to help him!"
"He's going to die!"
"You're going to die!"
"We're all going to die, so we might as well go out doing something that matters!"
They stared each other down, Shadow's quills bristling and Blaze's tail lashing.
Rouge propped her chin on her hand, watching the argument with an exhausted expression. "What a way to go out."
Pretzel swallowed. She glanced from Rouge to Blaze to Shadow and then down at her claws. Her shadow wavered on the blistered tiles, all the blacker for Light Gaia's presence.
She couldn't fight Light Gaia.
She couldn't let them die.
She didn't want to face him.
She didn't want to die.
Slowly, slowly, she crept over the ledge and down the path. Ashy stems crumbled under her feet. She crawled, trembling, past Blaze and Shadow as they tried to come up with a plan. She inched past the strange loop-de-loop. She slithered forward, stopped, swallowed hard, made herself keep going.
She could feel the claws on her chest. She could feel the fire searing her heart. She didn't want to die.
She knew, somehow, that she thrived on negative emotions, like fear and anger and sorrow and hate, that they gave her strength in someway, as twisted as that was. She'd felt it when Sonic went Dark, and even before that, during long nights spent in fear and helpless anger, and in the reverse, weak days surrounded by burning, blistering, brainwashed positivity. But it was one thing to absorb the fear of the masses who hated her; it was another to feel that terror rattling in her chest.
Her claws dug into the dirt. Light Gaia would kill Sonic, or its light would consume his. She wasn't sure which was worse. And when it was done with him, it would turn on her.
Maybe she could run.
She tried to remove her claws from the dirt, to flee, but they wouldn't budge. She couldn't move, paralyzed, choking so far underground the depth couldn't even be measured, the entire Earth pressing her down.
A sunflower drooped before her, blackened by Light Gaia's flames.
Blackened.
Dead.
Her claws unhooked from the dirt. The flower was dead. Light Gaia had… killed it.
That strange something twinged in her chest again, a dark rage lapping into her like ocean waves. Something truly ancient, older even than their petty rivalry.
Killed it. Killed it.
That wasn't right.
That wasn't right.
That wasn't RIGHT.
That… couldn't stand. She couldn't let that stand. Light Gaia was killing. Light Gaia was destroying. That was not right.
She was strengthened by fear. She was strengthened by anger. And she was strengthened by hate.
She drew on it, on buried bitterness and fresh hurt. She thought of a laughing smile and an insistence that she was a friend like it was a fact of the universe, and then the same smile turned into something alien and cruel. She thought of ordinary people turned against ordinary people. She thought of the smell of burning and Rouge's scream echoing down the hall. She thought of Blaze, small in Light Gaia's claws, howling in fury as Light Gaia, cold and careless, stripped away everything that was her.
The tide was coming in.
She… hated Light Gaia. She hated how it was all beautiful light and angel wings, warmth and purity, coaxing good people in like a chocolate-scented flower. She hated how it swallowed up the good and the kind and consumed everything that made them them, twisted their caring into hate and their innocence into self-righteousness. She hated how it left anyone who didn't meet its standards and fit the quota to rot; no, worse, how it did everything to hurt them and wound them and make them feel like pieces of trash, sicking brainwashed fathers and mothers and sons and daughters on their own family, and then it killed them without remorse, laughing at how it has purged the world of "evil". She hated how it played the good guy, pretended like it was saving the world, worshipped by people it would just as soon destroy because Light Gaia answers to no one.
She hated how it always won.
The universe was meant to be balanced. Nothing was so powerful it could not be taken down. The earth to the air, the air to the fire, the fire to the water, the water to the earth. Everything has its opposite, has something greater and something lesser.
Everything answers to something.
And Light Gaia would answer to her.
The tide was coming, and it filled her and froze, ice so cold it burned. It escaped her mouth with a crackling hiss, the only sound she made. She held deathly still, silent and unseen, watching Light Gaia dance and play with Sonic, always moving and laughing and burning. Opposite.
She knew there was goodness and truth and love because she had seen Sonic and his friends, had seen their laughter and their kindness and their caring. And she knew Light Gaia left no room for these things because as it scoured away the darkness, it scoured away the reasons these things mattered.
She moved, smooth and slow and silent. She drew on the shadows, drew on all the darkness around her. She drew on Sonic's darting despair, on Shadow's helpless rage, on Rouge's shattered hopes, on Blaze's quiet guilt, and on her own black, cold hate. She drew on the screeching fear felt all around the world, the impotent anger and grief and a million other things too tangled up and murky to name as friends turned on friends and family was left wondering why they weren't good enough to be taken. She took it all, the darkness like a tidal wave, and let it fill her. And she grew.
She drew on the shadows, except this time they were not hiding her, they were her, as solid and real or as flickering and impotent as the mind believed. Her points grew long and her wings wide and her eyes remained sharp points of ice, green as the world Light Gaia was destroying.
Dark Gaia spread her wings, and the world froze.