A/N: Thank you, Crazy Muffin Assassin, for proofreading and editing.

"Where do you think you're going?" Shadow asked, standing up.

"I thought I made that clear." I growled back.

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Sorry. Let me rephrase that: Where do you think you're going without us?"

I took me a minute to process that. Shadow never goes out of his way to help anyone. "You want to help me?"

"You're a real genius, aren't you? Do you have any idea where Mephiles went?" I shook me head.

"Well, I do. Follow me." Shadow turned and started walking in the opposite direction.

"What are the rest of us supposed to do?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah! I don't wanna sit around worried while my brother goes off into battle!" Sky chimed in.

"Stay here. We'll be back soon."

"And if you're not?" Sky asked. She stood up and walked over to us. She sounded worried, and was sounding more so with every word.

"We will come back. I promise," said Shadow. Sky cringed, but backed off.

"Ok. I trust you," she whispered. She returned to her seat and rested her head in her hands.

"Let's hurry; whatever Mephiles is planning, you can bet it's better to stop him sooner rather than later." Shadow took out his chaos emerald and held it over his head. In a flash of green light, we disappeared.

Blaze's POV

I felt Silver's hand graze mine just before Mephiles kidnapped me. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I took off running. I didn't get very far before Mephiles caught me. On a side note, I don't recommend running in high heels.

"Don't run, my dear. This city is riddled with canals, and we all know how much cats hate water. It would be a shame if you drowned before I finished with you," Mephiles said. Damn, he was right; two feet in front of me was one of these canals.

"I suggest you follow me if you don't want to drown," I figured I could fight back later, somewhere where there's less water, so I went along with it.

"That's what I thought," Mephiles smirked. He stopped at a large set of black marble stairs turned to me.

"Well? Go on." He poked my back with his claws as further indication to keep moving. Reluctantly, I kept walking up the long staircase. On either side of the staircase were large, black marble columns, casting long shadows and obscuring the buildings' insides.

The building was open and unobstructed. There were few walls, just columns holding up the roof. The center of the floor was a mosaic picture, which looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't quite think of why.

The entire building was dark; it was the evening in whatever part of the world we were. In the back was an alter, or a shrine of some sort.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"The temple of Mephiles," Mephiles responded. The demon waved his hand and various braziers and torches around the temple simultaneously lit, illuminating the room. The majority of the temple was constructed out of polished black marble. You could see your reflection in just about everything you looked at.

"…Now, you're probably wondering why I brought you here, of all places," Mephiles started talking again.

I nodded.

"I brought you here because you have something I need."

"That's ridiculous! What could I possibly have that you need? I don't have any Chaos Emeralds, and you can't use the Sol Emeralds. Why do you need me?"

Mephiles remained calm in spite of my outburst. "Have you ever wondered about your fire? Do you know where it came from? Neither of your parents, nor any of your ancestors possessed the ability to wield fire, so why were you suddenly endowed with it?"

My heart dropped into my stomach. I couldn't talk, either to attempt to answer his question, or utter a profanity.

"When you were merely an infant, your parents, the king and queen, were presented with the opportunity to rid the world of Iblis. The catch? They had to sacrifice their daughter to imprison Iblis. They would use their only daughter, the heiress to the throne, as a living prison. The best part was if she died, so would Iblis."

The demon's words were like a slap in the face. "Y-you're lying! Iblis wasn't imprisoned! Silver and I fought it!" I shouted.

"On the contrary, I have no reason to lie. When the sealing took place, something went wrong. The process was, erm, disrupted and only a small portion of Iblis was sealed. You were left with the curse of pyrokinesis."

"B-but why a-are you telling me?" I asked.

"Because," he said diabolically, "I intend to take it back." The six chaos emeralds that were currently in his possession floated out and around him. "There's just one more thing; I was only able to gather six of the seven. If I had the seventh, this whole event would be much less painful for you."

Suddenly, I couldn't move. I felt entirely numb. The Chaos Emeralds floated over to me, forming a loose circle around my midsection. The magic gems started spinning, slowly at first, but increasing in speed.

Is it hot in here, or is it just me? I started sweating and the air became thin. Then, I felt a stabbing pain in the center of my chest. My knees buckled, but I couldn't fall. Now I was burning up. Normally, fire and heat have little affect on me, but now, my normal protection abandoned me.

I started seeing spots. I couldn't tell if I was delirious or the spots were distortions from the heat. The pain in my chest only got worse. I screamed in agony until finally, a blossom of fire erupted out of me into the air.

Mephiles extended his hand and the fire wound around it like a snake and sunk into his hand. He began to glow a horrible orange glow. The chaos emeralds dulled in colour until they black and drained of power. They dropped to the ground, shortly followed by me. I looked up at Mephiles with a much hate as I could muster.

"It looks like I don't need you anymore, princess," Mephiles said. He snapped his fingers and a small flame appeared on his index finger. "How ironic would it be if you burned to death?"

I closed my eyes and prepared to die, when someone shouted from across the room. The voice, which I instantly recognized as Silver's, sounded angry. I've only seen Silver lose his temper once or twice before. This isn't going to end well.

"Leave her alone!"

Silver's POV

Looks like we made it just in time; Mephiles was just about to kill Blaze. Shadow teleported us to the right city, but the wrong place within the city. We had to do a fair bit of running and searching before we found Blaze and Mephiles. I saw Blaze tumble to the ground and Mephiles catch something in his hand.

"Leave her alone!" I shouted. I raised a hand, and with my psychic powers, shot a nearby rock at the demon.

The rock struck Mephiles in the shoulder. He turned and addressed me. "Oh, Silver, so good of you to join us. And Shadow, too. I suppose I'll kill you first; you can actually fight back,"

Blaze whimpered. She seemed…weak, like she'd had the life sucked out of her.

"Although, I suppose it doesn't matter who I kill first; you'll see each other in Hell soon enough," Mephiles raised his claws in preparation to slit Blaze's throat. I grabbed his hand and wrenched it away violently.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Mephiles warned. Suddenly, his hand burst into flames, effectively burning my hand. While I was tending to Blaze and my injured hand, Shadow took the initiative to continue the fight.

I dropped to my knees next to my fiancée. "Blaze, are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm all right," she managed to say, dazed. She sounded tired and strained, like she'd just run a marathon through a desert. Each word was said slowly and quietly.

Without sounding cliché, her mouth said yes, but her eyes screamed no. She's lying, I thought dejectedly. I can tell because she rarely every lies to begin with, she's a terrible liar in general, and she sounded like she'd just completed a full cardio workout. I'll ask her later, I made a mental note. Then I noticed the blackened, powerless chaos emeralds littering the ground around her. Damnit. What have we gotten ourselves into?

Shadow's POV

Mephiles has learned a few new tricks since last time. For starters, he's somehow learned to utilize fire. As a result, I'm covered in burns and my quills are singed. The tuxedo I'd been forced to wear for the wedding was burned beyond recognition, much less repair. I'll apologize to Silver later.

"What, Shadow, are you getting tired already?" Mephiles taunted. I dragged myself back up off the ground and faced the demon.

"Please, I'm just warming up," I scoffed. I glanced over at the temple where Silver and Blaze were. Hurry up, damnit. I can't hold him off forever. I reached down to my wrists and started twisting off one of the rings.

"Going for your inhibitor rings? You must be desperate." As I unclipped my rings, a small fire ignited in the palm of Mephiles' hand. The fire burned brightly and it circled the demon. He jumped and the fire swirled around him in a tornado. What he did struck me as vaguely familiar. I didn't have much time to think about it as Mephiles punched me in the jaw. I fell backwards, with my head hanging over the edge of one of the canals. I tried to get up, but Mephiles planted his shoe on my chest before I could.

"I wonder if you can swim. These canals can be pretty deep," I grabbed Mephiles' ankle and twisted. Mephiles fell beside me and his hands immediately wrapped around my throat. He forced my head under the murky water. I struggled to get back to the surface, but his grip remained adamant.

In desperation, I kicked his chest, sending him over my head, into the canal, pulling me with him as well. Thanks to our heavy, metal skates, we both sunk like stones to the bottom of the canal.

We continued to fight several feet underwater, until Mephiles punched me in the throat. Whatever air I had left escaped through my lips and flitted up to the surface. To avoid drowning, I took out my Chaos Emerald and transported myself up to dry land.

I turned over, coughed and forced the grungy canal water out of my lungs. Mephiles followed shortly, surging out of the canal with a wave of water. Wherever the demon set foot, the water around it evaporated. He kept walking, his metal skates clanking against the stone walkways, until he was standing over me.

"Looks like the end, Shadow," Mephiles smirked. I made a rude gesture with my hand as I kicked out his legs. My hands wrapped around his throat before he hit the ground. Mephiles kicked me in the gut, but I refused to release my grip.

I did however lose my grip when the demon shot a small jet of fire at my face. For the most part, it missed; I was able to move out of the way. But part of it did graze my left cheek. My hands flew to my face and Mephiles' foot crashed into my stomach.

Sky's POV …Meanwhile…

I can't take this anymore; the suspense is killing me. Silver and Shadow have been gone for an hour and a half. I could tell from other people's body language that they felt the same. Joseph and the band seemed to be the most relaxed. Joseph was lying on his back, looking at the sky. The others were just sitting around. Blaze's parents were arguing heatedly. Marine was clinging to Tails' side, as if he would leave any moment. Knuckles was punching at a large boulder. Espio was meditating, Vector was listening to his music, and Charmy was eating candy. Rouge and Amy were trying to calm Cream down, who was hysterical.

Sonic was especially tense. He was up and pacing back and forth, with no sign of stopping.

Finally, I'd had enough. "That's it. I'm not sitting around and waiting for my brother to come back." I got up and started fast walking to the northeast.

"Wait! I wanna help too!" Sonic called after me.

"As long as you can keep up," I replied. Together we ran in the general direction of wherever Silver was. Within a few miles, we broke the sound barrier.

"How do you know we're going in the right direction?" Sonic shouted, after a few hundred miles. "I don't want to waste any more time than I have to."

"It's a twin thing!" I shouted back. The temperature became cooler as we progressed farther to the north. Finally, we arrived at our destination; a Mediterranean city called Soleanna. The place was made of stone, polished granite or marble and would be quite beautiful on any other occasion.

The entire city is roughly thirty-six square miles and neatly organized. All the canals and streets are setup in a lattice fashion and named appropriately according to their position.

"Oh, hey, I know this place! The guys and I caused a bit of trouble back in 2006," Sonic proclaimed. "Lovely city, terrible water. I nearly drowned the last time I was here,"

"Yeah, cool story. We still need to find Silver and Shadow," I said. I started running towards the center of the city. On the way there we passed a structure made of black marble. I wouldn't have thought anything of it, but a large plume of fire attracted my attention. If there's fire, there's Blaze and if Blaze is there, then Silver and Shadow can't be far behind, I thought. We changed course and ran over to the black marble building.

We rounded the corner to find Mephiles standing over Shadow and Silver tending to Blaze.

"Hey! Leave Faker alone!" Sonic shouted.

"Yeah!" I agreed.

"You," Mephiles sneered. "I killed you once, and I can kill you again,"

"I'd like to see you try! And how do you get off copying someone who's already copying me anyway?" the Blue Blur taunted. Mephiles pointed his hand towards Sonic and shot a spire of purple energy at him. Sonic barely had time to move out of the way. Instead of piercing his chest, it merely scraped his arm.

"Tch, is that the best you can do?" Sonic asked, inspecting his arm. Sonic rolled into a ball and shot out like a bullet at Mephiles. He struck Mephiles dead center and knocked onto his back.

While Sonic was fighting Mephiles with Shadow, I walked over to where Silver and Blaze were. Blaze was lying down in the middle of the floor and Silver was sitting next to her looking very worried.

"Hey, Silver, you ok?" I asked.

"Sky?" Silver sniffled. "I-I thought I told you to stay at Seaside Hill,"

His eyes were red. He looked like he was about to cry. "You're right," I frowned, putting my hands on my hips. "I'm sorry for worrying about you. Fill me in. What did I miss?"

"Well, the Chaos Emeralds are drained, Mephiles has somehow learned to manipulate fire, and Blaze is nearly comatose," his voice quavered on the last part. "Watch Blaze; I'm going to fight Mephiles. Make sure she doesn't move around too much. " His expression hardened and his hands clenched into fists. He started glowing cyan as he walked over towards the side of the canal where the others were fighting.

My attention turned back to Blaze, who was starting to get up. "Hey, Blaze, how're you feeling?" I asked.

Blaze groaned and placed a hand on the side of her head. "Stop shouting," Jeez, she really is out of it. Suddenly, her eyes focused and she snapped to attention.

"Sky! Sky? What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Sonic and I just got here. We came to help fight," Blaze's eyes widened.

"Silver! I've got to help him! Mephiles will kill him if I don't!" She got up quickly, only to stumble and fall back down.

"Whoa, Blaze, slow down. I think Shadow, Silver and Sonic got it covered," I helped her back into a sitting position. "And you're in no condition to fight anyways."

"No! You don't understand!"

"Blaze, you don't understand. Silver told me to make sure you don't move around."

"If it were any other day, I would give you such a burn," Blaze growled.

"Well what's stopping you, princess?" Blaze shot me a sharp glare. She knew that I knew I'd struck a nerve.

"Because I can't," she whispered. "Mephiles took my fire."

"How can he take your fire? I thought it was hereditary."

Apparently, I said something to offend her. "My fire is not hereditary! It's a curse!" Blaze huffed.

"Then why are you so mad? You don't have to put up with it anymore."

"I'd rather have to put up with it than to have it be used to kill my husband and friends!"

Shadow's POV

I slammed into the marble staircase and groaned. We're making absolutely no progress against Mephiles. No matter how hard we hit him, he kept coming back. I'm soaked in blood and starting to tire. The burst of energy from my inhibitor rings and adrenaline from the fight are starting to wear off.

Silver landed on the ground next to me. "This is becoming a drag. We need to end this soon, or we're all gonna die." Unfortunately, he's right.

"Silver, I think I have an idea…"

Silver's POV

The three of us charged at Mephiles from three different directions. Fast as lightning, the demon sidestepped Sonic, kicked Shadow in the ribs, and head butted me. I fell on my rear, holding my nose, Shadow fell as well, and Sonic continued fighting. Mephiles lashed out with his claws, clipping Sonic's arm. The demon kicked Sonic, who fell onto the marble staircase. Mephiles walked over to Sonic and continued beating him. He lifted the blue hedgehog and threw him into the temple. The blue hedgehog landed on a metal brazier, breaking it.

Mephiles turned towards me. Using the last of my energy, I used my psychic powers to shove him into the stairs. He stood back up, seemingly unaffected and walked over to me. Mephiles picked me up by the collar of my dress shirt. "Any last words before I kill you?"

"Yeah," Sonic said from behind Mephiles. "Ain't irony a bitch?" Sonic plunged the shard of the broken metal brazier into the demon's back. Mephiles' hand released me and went to his chest, where the sharp tip of the blackened metal protruded. Mephiles lurched forward and fell on his face. A pool of his black blood spread around him. His body slowly lost its integrity and melted.

Shadow clipped his inhibitor rings back on and walked over to the others. I sat down with the others and rested against one of the pillars.

"C'mon guys, let's go home," Sonic beckoned, scooping up the drained chaos emeralds and holding the green one to teleport us back to Seaside hill. We all got up and stood around Sonic. I picked up Blaze bridal-style and stood next to the blue hedgehog as well.

The Chaos Emerald's radiant green light surrounded us. The black and white marble of Soleanna blurred into the white sand and crystal clear water of Seaside hill. Everyone gathered around us spouting question concerning the details of what the hell happened. No one really answered. We just kinda shouldered our way through the crowd of friends and family.

"Blaze! Thank God you're all right!" Her mother cried.

"Yes, Mom, I'm fine. You don't need to cry," Blaze said quietly. "Silver, you can put me down now; I can stand on my own,"

Slightly embarrassed, I set her down, but left my hand around her waist.

"So, now what're we gonna do?" Joseph, one of the few people that weren't crowding us, asked.

"Well, and I'm just shooting ideas off the top of my head, I was thinking about getting married to Blaze," I said.

"But you can't be married looking like that!" Blaze's mom protested. "Your clothes are in ruins!" She was right. The five of us looked like we were tied to the back of a train and dragged cross-country.

"I suppose you're right," I grudgingly agreed. That thing I want, much less need is to strike up an argument over something avoidable. Blaze, however, managed to remain relatively unscathed. "I guess we won't be married just yet.