There she was... the whole reason behind his actions, his betrayal... and to think he was doing all of this for her.
"Sorry about this, Blaze," said Silver, "But this is the only way..."
"What are you talking about?" Blaze cried, "What's gotten into you??"
Silver slowly scowled, "Then again, you never really did understand me..."
Blaze was at loss for words and almost at the verge of tears. Argyle took the opportunity to step in, pointing a fierce finger towards the silver hedgehog. "Alright, listen here soldier!!" he shouted, "You'd best better give it up now while you're ahead! As we speak, you're already in for the biggest court martial in history!!"
Silver narrowed his eyes at his official. "Well, since I have nothing to lose..." he sneered, raising the Jeweled Scepter into the air, "I've been wanting to do this to you for a long time, General!!" He pointed the scepter at Argyle as his psychic power radiated from his body. Suddenly, a powerful psychic blast shot from the scepter and struck Argyle, knocking the giant dog-lion effortlessly off his feet and smashed into the wall. Gardon and the rest of the soldiers rushed to the general's side to check on him.
Silver was frozen in awe. Did he just emit that kind of power? He stared into the scepter. "I can see why they call the Jeweled Scepter 'the key'," he uttered, "It can unlock all kinds of potential!"
"Silver! Stop! Please!!"
Silver glanced back down to see Blaze at the bottom of the steps in a pleading manner. "I bet you never expected me to do something this drastic, did you Blaze?" he gave a small smirk, "I'm a lot stronger than you give me credit for! Who's the naive one now?!" As he shouted, he slammed the bottom of the scepter into the ground, which inadvertently sent out a massive shock wave energy towards Blaze below, too stunned to move. Luckily, Sonic was quick enough to zip in, scoop up Blaze, and jump away in time before the attack hit. Silver rushed over to the edge of the pedestal and looked down to check on Blaze. He certainly did not intend to bring any harm to her. But the only sight he was given was of Sonic bringing Blaze to safety in his arms... and his fury burned even harder.
"Are you okay?" Sonic asked as he placed Blaze back on her feet
The cat was still visibly shaken, staring straight ahead into nothingness, in heartache. "Why...? Why is he doing this?"
Sonic looked back up at the pedestal where Silver stood, glaring right back down at him. "Why don't I find out for you?" he responded as he took off up the steps of the pedestal. Silver saw him coming and aimed the scepter at him, ready for another shot, but lost the target as Sonic suddenly leaped into the air and went into a spin, shooting towards him with a homing attack. Silver quickly raised his palm up, mentally catching Sonic and throwing him backwards down the steps. Silver looked over to check; Sonic was laying face down on the steps, perfectly still. Apparently, he was out cold, but he'd better make sure. He made his way down the steps towards the blue hedgehog. As he leaned closer...
BAM!
Sonic, having played possum, suddenly went into a spin just as Silver got close, knocking the telekinesis into the air and landing back on the platform, flat on his back. He slowly sat back up, his back now aching, just as Sonic was climbing the steps. "What's the matter, Silver?" he snided, "Got tired of being the shy, quiet type? Wanted to try the bad-boy routine?"
"Shut up!!" Silver shouted, scrambling to his feet, "YOU'RE the cause of all this, you know!"
Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "What?? What did I do? We've barely even spoken to each other before."
"You just don't get it, do you?" Silver growled, "Ever since you came around, you changed everything! It's all messed up because of you!! Now I'm going to fix it!!" At that, he flung one psychic blast over another at the blue hedgehog. Sonic rushed around, nearly escaping each blast which struck the walls around him.
"Silver, knock it off!" he yelled over, "You're gonna cave in the whole vault!!
Too late. Silver had shot more rounds at Sonic, causing the walls to crumble down around the the blue hedgehog, no where to escape. Blaze gasped in horror at the sight of her beloved possibly crushed underneath the concrete rubble, as Silver merely smirked in satisfaction. That took care of one mess...
His eyes suddenly grew wide. Out of the cloud of dust and debris came a silhouette, which was replaced by Sonic as he walked through. His face was dark and grim, and he cracked his knuckles loudly. "All right, that does it," he growled, "You wanna play hard? Then let's go!!"
Like a bullet, Sonic lunged at Silver who didn't have a second to defend himself, and began throwing punch after punch at his face. Silver did what he could to block the punches, but the speedy hedgehog was apparently quick with his fists as he was with his feet. Tired of receiving blows to the face, Silver raised the scepter up and slammed it across Sonic's head, managing to knock him off.
"Cheap shot..." Sonic grumbled, rubbing his head as he got back to his feet. He looked up to see Silver right across from him, scepter in hand, ready for another attack. Before giving him that chance, Sonic was off, racing at a high-speed circle around the silver-colored hedgehog. The soldier of Sol could barely keep up with the blue blur. And he was not amused either.
"Is this all you've got?" he sneered, "Simple mind tricks?? Running all around me isn't gonna help you! It's gonna HURT YOU!" As he shouted, he swung the scepter at one of the many Sonic-after-images, hopefully to stop the hedgehog in his place, but he only managed to hit thin air. "Wha-?!"
He didn't even turn around a whole inch before Sonic landed a swift, powerful kick straight into his chin, sending him into the air, hitting the ceiling, and falling to the ground flat on his back, the Jeweled Scepter landing about a foot away from him.
Silver slowly turned himself over to his stomach, trying to push himself upright. "Give it up, Silver," Sonic's voice rang out. Silver glared up to see the blue hedgehog approach him. No... he won't lose to him! Not again... He looked away, his eyes scanning for the scepter.
"Just come in quietly," Sonic continued, "And I'm sure we can work this all out peacefully." As he came closer, he noticed Silver was facing the other way... and his hand was outstretched. He glanced up and saw the Jeweled Scepter covered with a blue-green glow and coming closer to the gray hedgehog. He jumped forward to try and stop him, but as he got next to him--
BAM!
Too late. Silver had twisted around and shoved the end of the scepter into Sonic's gut before he could stop him. Sonic coughed and staggered backwards as Silver climbed back to his feet, pointing the scepter at him as it began to glow brightly. Sonic was covered with a green energy, and before he could do anything, he was suddenly shot backwards, crashing head first into the wall above the vault entrance. He fell forward and landed hard on the ground, out cold for real.
"Sonic!!" Blaze cried.
Silver chuckled lowly. "You call yourself the world's greatest hero?" he spat, "FEH! Pathetic..." He turned away and took a few steps. "There's only one thing left to do..."
From behind, he suddenly felt an increase of heat on his backside. He turned around in time to see a blast of fire shooting straight at him. He jumped to the side and telekinetically pushed the wall of fire away from him, then looked over to the source of the flames. "Blaze??"
The cat princess stood across from him, her arm extended, her palm faced out, and her eyes filled with hurt. "You know how I feel against treason, Silver," she murmured, "In fact, you know me better than anyone else does!" Blaze bit her lip as her eyes slowly began to well up, "How can you betray me like this?"
"Blaze, don't you know?" said Silver, "I'm doing this all for you!"
"What makes you think stealing the Jeweled Scepter would do me any good?!"
Silver took the long scepter into both hands as he explained. "I'm going to make things the way they were, before Sonic entered the picture! Then you and me can be together again!"
Blaze glared at the hedgehog, then glanced down at the sceptor he was holding. "Silver, just give me the scepter. I'm sure we can work out whatever is bothering you."
"Stay back!!" Silver snapped, taking a step backwards and holding out his palm, "I won't let you stop me! I made it this far! I can do this! I can fix everything!!"
"Silver, listen to me!" Blaze shouted, "You don't know just how powerful the Jeweled Sceptor is! It's overpowering your mind! You're not thinking straight!"
"You never had faith in me," Silver sneered, "You always looked down on me like a child. You ignored me, passed me over constantly..." He held the scepter into the air, "But now I have the chance to change it all!"
"I don't know what's gotten into you," Blaze ignited a fireball in her hand, "But I'm afraid I'm going to put a stop on your plan!" She hurled the fireball at her old friend, who was only too prepared for it and used the scepter to bat it back at her. She quickly cartwheeled out of the way as it blasted into the wall.
"Don't get in my way, Blaze," Silver called over, "I don't want to hurt you."
"Then stop all this!" the cat cried.
Silver squeezed his eyes shut and grit his teeth. "I can't do that!"
"Why not??"
"You just wouldn't get it!!"
"Silver, don't be so naive!"
The hedgehog snarled. "SHUT UP!!" he screamed as he threw a psychic wave at Blaze, who leaped away and raced sideways up the wall towards where Silver stood. She bounced off and aimed a kick at his head, but he managed to avoid the hit by spinning out of the way and coming back, swiping the scepter at her. Blaze ducked each swipe Silver threw at her, and thew in some punches and kicks at him. Silver managed to keep up with her, throwing in physical attacks of his own, deranged with power. He then raised the scepter up again and slammed it down towards her head, only to have her catch it in time. The two wrestled for a moment, each pushing forward on the scepter to knock the other one down, neither one backing off.
A blue aura formed around Silver's hands and suddenly, Blaze was thrown backwards across the pedestal, near the steps. She looked up to see Silver march towards her, scepter in hand, ready for another hit. Before she could give him that chance, she lit her palms and threw them forward, smacking a laser of fire into the hedgehog's chest, and snuffing the flames out as he fell back on the ground, yelling in pain from the burns.
Blaze got back to her feet and slowly approached Silver, who was sprawled on his back, breathing heavily, rubbing his chest where his burn wounds were seeping in. "I'm sorry, Silver..."
Silver opened his eyes and glared back at the cat. "No, Blaze... I'm sorry!" Suddenly, his arm jolted in the air, holding onto the Jeweled Scepter, and had it aimed on Blaze, who was suddenly engulfed in a deep blue, frigid energy. Blaze was literally frozen in her tracks as she felt intense cold cover her entire body.
"S... so cold...!" she gasped as she slowly began sinking to her knees, "My flame... it's being... extinguished...!" She fell to her stomach as Silver climbed back up to his feet, continuing to aim the scepter at Blaze. As she laid on her belly, she weakly glanced back up at the silver-colored hedgehog and raised her hand shakily towards him. "Sil...ver... please...!" The arm fell as Blaze slipped out of consciousness.
The sight of his friend in such a state had seemed to set Silver straight for a moment, as he suddenly grew worried. "Blaze..?" he took a step forward while taking the scepter into both hands, and stopped. The power of the scepter flowed full force through his body once again, and he then smirked in satisfaction. "Just how I want you..."
Meanwhile, down below, Sonic was just waking back up, rubbing his aching head, trying to remember what exactly happened. He glanced up the pedestal where Silver stood... and was lifting Blaze into his arms and walking off. Sonic then finally remembered what was going on. "Silver!!" he shouted, jumping back to his feet and getting the other hedgehog's attention. "Put her down!! Now!"
Silver only gave a menacing grin in response. "Try to stop me," he snided as he held up a gray Chaos Sol.
Sonic could only imagine what he was planning and wasted no time to race after him.
"Chaos Control!!"
A bright, flashing light surrounded Silver and Blaze, and Sonic did a dive to try and catch him... only to miss by just a few inches, and he went crashing on his tummy. He snapped his head back up; the area around him was empty. Silver was gone...
... and so was Blaze.
"No!!" Sonic cried out, slamming his fist into the ground. He growled in frustration, trying to make sense of the whole situation, but coming up with nothing. "Silver... just what are you to up??"
A/N: This is actually as far as I got in my outline. And since I'll be away for the weekend, it's gonna be a long while before the next part is up. Sorry. ;