WARNING: Moderate blood, gore and violence for this chapter because Mephiles is a little shit

It was the third time of trying to create the vortex when Silver collapsed.

"Silver! You okay?" Tobias sounded concerned.

"I heard her scream," Silver shivered. Suddenly his voice changed.

"Giving me the chaos emerald is the only way." His voice brought fear to everyone.

"Mephiles," Shadow whispered.

"Who?" asked Gemma.

"Mephiles the dark is quite possibly the coldest and most murderous person to have existed."

"Murderous-" began Mollie, but then Silver yelled.

"No!"

"Giving me the chaos emerald is the only way," growled Mephiles. He grabbed Flash's hand and touched the middle of it. The feeling was like an icy shiver all over her body, like all of the warmth was being sucked out of her. Then, the chaos emerald emerged. Flash couldn't speak, she was too cold. Mephiles grabbed the chaos emerald and it was like an icy dagger was being plunged into her heart. She groaned.

"Hm… it's stuck." Mephiles cracked a smile by the glow of the purple chaos emerald. "I think some force will be required."

And then he pulled. Flash screamed. It felt as if her soul was being ripped out. Mephiles laughed, a deep piercing laugh, but pulled harder. In fact, he pulled so hard that his whole body shook with the effort.

There were no words for Flash's pain. It was like her insides were burning with icy fire, and right in the centre, something pulled.

"Let go! You fool!" Mephiles yelled. With one lazy flick of his hand, a slit appeared on Flash's arm, pouring crimson. Flash couldn't feel the pain. She didn't know how to let go. Another slit appeared in her other arm, a pool of crimson then appearing on both hands. Mephiles slashed her neck, her cheek, and then aimed for her heart.

Silver was violently trembling.

"Silver, what do you see?" urged Sonic. Silver's face in the light chilled them all to the bone, even Shadow. It was full of revulsion, fear and anger. All of a sudden, he stood up.

"We have to try and make the vortex again," said Silver. Reluctantly, the others all joined hands. They focused, but no one did so like Silver. Waves of green light emitted from him. The sky flashed with purple, again and again. Gemma and Amy fell to the floor out of exhaustion. Next, Tails fell, shortly followed by Mollie. Tobias began to waver, but it was Rouge and Knuckles that both followed Mollie. Craig managed to continue for another minute, but then fell at the same time as Tobias. It was just Sonic, Shadow and Silver left. The flashes of purple got closer and closer together, almost as if they were strobe lighting.

And then the vortex appeared.

The three broke apart. "Go Silver," said Sonic, "Now!"

"Save her," said Shadow, "you know you can."

Taking one last look at his comrades, Silver ran and jumped into the portal, willing it to take him to Flash.

' Flash?'

Flash gasped.

'Flash, are you there?'

'Dammit Silver. I thought I'd never hear you again!'

Relief made Flash feel dizzy. Or maybe it was because of the blood that she'd lost. A flash of green blinded her for a moment. Mephiles looked up, his bloodthirsty eyes angry.

"Silver," he growled. He turned to Flash. "Don't look so excited," he said, "he is easily dealt with."

"You can't," Flash's eyes blazed.

"Why not?"

"Because to me, green is the colour of hope."

Although it was dark, Silver could hear Flash's weakened thoughts. She sounded exhausted.

'Mephiles is coming. Be strong.'

Sure enough, there was a flash of purple, and the evil guy appeared.

"Mephiles!" spat Silver, "You will pay for your actions!"

"No, you will," hissed Mephiles, "Your partner lies dying in the darkest corner of this world. Even if you defeat me, you will never find her."

Despair surrounded Silver.

'It's not true. I can still see… your light… the light...'

'Stay with me, Flash. Please. You can do it.'

'I-I will.'

The battle began, and all Flash could do was try to stay alive. The attack on her heart never connected. The chaos emerald had thrown Mephiles back into the darkness.

'Flash?'

'Still here.'

Silver was fighting with everything he had, but Mephiles was blocking every move. Finally, one move connected and he flew through the air.

'You can do it Silver. I know you can.'

Flash's stomach churned. She hoped and prayed.

Praying for Silver to win.

Shadow and Sonic watched the sky, which was flashing with purple and green light.

"D'you think Silver will win?" asked Sonic. Shadow shrugged.

"Either way, light will be restored," he said. "If Silver loses, Mephiles will continue to pull the emerald out of Flash until her heart stops beating. The emerald will give itself up. If he wins, Silver will be able to take all of the chaos emeralds from Mephiles and bring Flash back to Earth. Mephiles will be sealed in that alternate dimension for a long time, if it's Silver that seals him. Once we have the chaos emeralds, and Mephiles is trapped, we can restore light and energy to the world."

"But Flash might not survive if Silver wins."

"Either way, I'd expect that you're looking at certain death for her."

"Why is it so… so cold?" Flash shivered, curled up on the floor. Blood ran down her face – or was it tears? How long had she been lying there in the darkness? The battle raged on, flashes of green and purple dancing I the air. Then, there was an almighty flash of purple, and everything went dark. Flash didn't have the energy to message Silver. All she could do, was watch and wait. Then a pinprick of purple appeared again.

"No… No…" Flash whispered, then screamed, "SILVER!"

The light got brighter and brighter. But then, suddenly there was another light, and another. Flash counted six of them, all different colours. Red, dark blue, light blue, white, yellow, and of course, purple. What was going on? They got brighter and brighter until they were right in front of her.

"Flash." It was Silver that spoke. Flash swore loudly.

"I thought you had been killed," she whispered.

"You look like you've been killed," replied Silver, staring at the slits on her arms, hands, face and neck. "We need to get going."

Slowly Flash forced her legs to move, and she stood, shaking. Everything hurt, but not quite so badly anymore.

Slowly the chaos emeralds danced around them, and there was a blinding flash, and then, lots of screaming,

"FLASH!" Gemma yelled.

Flash stared at the smiling faces of Mollie, Tobias, Gemma, Craig, Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles. Then she saw Shadow and collapsed.

It felt like Flash had been asleep forever when she finally woke up. At first, she wondered if it all been a horrible dream, but then she saw the bandages crisscrossing up her arms and around her hands. She looked around and saw that she was back in her room. Silver was sitting at the end of the bed in his usual positon, watching her warily.

"I'm not dead yet," said Flash, not daring to smile in case it hurt.

"It's a good job that Tails and Mollie know first aid. You were in a pretty bad way." Silver looked relieved.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"48 hours."

"Woah. What… what happened while I was gone?"

"We made a camp on the edge of the school and managed to make a fire. Then we all tried to make a vortex to take us to where you were. It was our fourth attempt when we finally got there. SO I went through and came face to face with Mephiles. The battle was fierce, and he seemed to block all of my attacks. I thought I was going to lose so many times, and I was worried that you were… gone, just like Blaze. All of a sudden, Mephiles fell, scattering the chaos emeralds everywhere. I picked them all up, but then I heard you call my name. All I needed to do was to follow the voice and I found you. You weren't answering me in your mind, so I thought you hadn't made it. But, in the end, you were okay. What's your story?"

Flash told him everything. About waking up in the dark, to meeting Mephiles, his torturing session (in which Silver went pale) and the battle.

"Then I could only see the purple chaos emerald, so I thought that Mephiles had own. But then I saw all of the other emeralds and KABOOM! There you were. Hey-" Flash suddenly remembered something, "What does my Dad think happened to me?"
"I took care of that myself," Silver grinned, "Mind control is pretty useful when it comes to convincing someone. All I did was snap my fingers, and he now thinks you rolled down a hill, and got bad injuries from it."

Flash laughed, even though it hurt. "I rolled down a hill?"

"That was Tails' idea." Silver grinned sheepishly.

Flash's smile was suddenly replaced by one of shock. "You," she said.

"What?" Silver asked.

"You… you were there when the building collapsed and my mother died."