Now that they had six Chaos Emeralds, the question arose as to the seventh. Namely, how much effort should they be expending to find it?
"The sad thing is, they'd be pretty much useless," said Tails glumly, fiddling with a bolt on his Chaos Emerald tracker. "We could find all seven Chaos Emeralds, someone could go Super, and what then? You could kill one form of Fio in five seconds flat, then you'd scatter the Chaos Emeralds all over the planet again and he'd be back ten minutes later. It's like using a stick of dynamite to kill a single cockroach when your kitchen's full of 'em." He glanced up at Sonic. "Unless you could stay Super somehow, instead of scattering the Emeralds?"
"Hey, don't look at me. You're the scientist!"
"And you're the one who goes Super all the time," laughed Tails. "You do know how it works, right?"
"Well, not exactly," admitted Sonic. "It's just something that . . . happens. I know it's not really my choice to scatter the Emeralds after a fight, they just sort of fly off on their own the minute I know the battle's over. Never really did get how they do that."
"Maybe it's a power-conserving measure?" said Tails thoughtfully. "Maybe going Super uses up all the Chaos Energy in them, and they have to scatter so nobody uses them again too soon."
"No, no," interrupted Sonic, suddenly becoming animated. "They have way more power than it takes to make a hedgehog go Super for a little bit! Remember? Shadow and I went Super together once, and it lasted just as long as a regular one-person Super session."
"Oh, you're right!" said Tails. "And they made three of you go Super once, and it still lasted just as long!"
"Right, so they've got way more energy than—wait, three of us? When was that?"
"I—" Tails' face clouded. "I . . . don't know. But—I could've sworn that—"
"No, no, you're right." Sonic shook his head, concentrating intensely. "I remember it too! Me, Shadow, and Silver, right?"
"Yes!"
"But when was that? What were we fighting?"
"I . . . I . . . " Tails looked up at his older brother blankly, and found Sonic looking back at him with equal confusion.
"You can't remember?"
"Not a thing."
". . . That is just weird."
They still couldn't figure out the dynamics of just how much Chaos energy the Emeralds actually contained, but Tails still set up his tracker and made some leisurely sweeps of the planet, searching for the seventh Emerald. Meanwhile, Fio was not seen for almost a week.
Then, early one morning, Sonic suddenly sat bolt upright on the tree branch he'd been sleeping on. One of the house's windows opened and Tails' wide-eyed face poked out.
"Do you feel it too?"
"Yeah." Sonic squinted to the east, his nose quivering. "Something's up."
"I think I smell smo—Sonic, look!" cried Tails, pointing. Far in the distance, an enormous plume of flame billowed far into the sky. For a moment it seemed to spiral even higher and brighter than the rising sun—then it vanished.
"That's no forest fire," said Sonic grimly, catapulting himself off his perch and hitting the ground running. Tails scrambled out the window, tumbled headfirst until his tail-rotor activated, and whirred after the hedgehog as fast as he could.
Several miles along, they caught sight of a massive purple form, and a smaller purple form seemingly orbiting it. As they drew closer, Tails gave a little sound of consternation; the larger form was an enormous purple dragon. The morning light glimmered off sleek purple scales and shone faintly through a pair of broad leathery wings, while two whitey-purple eyes flickered occasionally from the depths of a harsh, craggy face. Even its teeth had an odd purple tinge, and the fire spurting from its mouth was an eerie mixture of orange and mauve.
"It does take mythical forms," said Sonic grimly.
The long snout rose and turned in Sonic's direction; evidently Fiolet had heard him. The brief pause allowed the smaller of the two forms to stop moving for a moment, revealing Blaze. She was slightly windswept, but seemed unharmed.
"Don't come any closer!" she called, her voice firm despite a slight waver of breathlessness. "I can control his orange flames, but not the purple ones. You will get burnt."
"What happened?!" called Sonic, approaching anyway.
"I was taking my morning walk when I met him," shrugged Blaze, then leaped aside nimbly as a torrent of fire scorched the ground where she'd just been standing. "He seems unusually aggressive."
"I'll say," Sonic called back, maneuvering around the dragon to find an opening. "This has got to be the biggest show he's put on so far."
"Stop trying to be clever," growled a deeper voice. The dragon's mouth didn't move, par for the course, but it was obvious from the way his eyes rolled that he was the one who had spoken. "I grow tired of death."
"Do ya?" asked Sonic mildly, hoping to keep him distracted.
"Five thousand times by now, I have died," snapped Fiolet. "Enough is enough. I desired to keep you all alive for as long as possible, because my powers are useless without victims, but you are all too cunning and resistant. Therefore it will serve me better to just kill you all and find new prey."
"No more Mr. Nice Monster, huh?" quipped Sonic, sidling closer. Fiolet growled, but suddenly whipped his head around swiftly as Blaze flung a wave of flame at him. Breathing a stream of his own mixed-hue fire, he blocked off most of her attack; whatever was left licked across his face with seemingly no effect.
"He's very fire-resistant. I suppose it's a natural trait for dragons," called Blaze. As Fiolet lunged to counterattack, Sonic hurled himself into a spindash, aiming for the dragon's flank. Tails leaped after him, nervous but determined.
The dragon itself—not Fiolet—gave a pained yowl as the twin spindashes struck its back, spewing stripped-off scales every which way. Lashing its long tail to shake off the assailants, the beast bounded off a fair distance, screeching.
"Begone already!" snarled Fiolet, pain and rage drawing out his syllables as he twisted around and around, trying to lessen the stinging in his back. "I will not have this interference! You! The fire cat! You pose the most risk to me in this form, I shall fight you first."
"Says who?!" snapped Sonic, digging his feet into the ground at Blaze's side. "You want us to sit in the dugout meanwhile or something?"
Snorting impatiently, Fiolet blew a stream of flame at the three Mobians. They all scattered rapidly to avoid being scorched. With one spring, Fiolet got between them, singling Blaze out before him. Before Sonic and Tails could return to striking range, the dragon circled swiftly in place, spewing a stream of dark-purple fire in a broad circle around himself. Clouds of steam and smoke billowed from the ground as the grass boiled in place, then scorched.
When the haze cleared, Fiolet and Blaze stood inside a ring of purple flame. It was a good fifteen feet high, shielding them both from view, and it gave off a massive amount of heat.
"Blaze?" called Sonic, approaching as close as he could without getting broiled. "Are you okay?!"
"I'm fine!" called Blaze, her voice steady. "Don't worry."
"Don't worry, she says," muttered Sonic. He glanced up at the tops of the flames. "Tails . . . ?"
"Already on it!" called Tails gamely, powering up his tail-rotor. He rose twenty feet, then thirty, and attempted to hover over the flames to get inside the circle. Apparently it was still too hot at that height, because he pulled back hastily and pressed even higher. At about fifty feet, he tried again, but barely descended at all. After a few minutes, he gave up and came down for a landing next to Sonic again.
"The rising heat creates too much of an updraft," he panted, his bangs plastered to his forehead with sweat. "Even if it didn't, it's too hot up there to go any lower towards the flames, and the heat distortion makes it impossible to even see down there. Sorry, Sonic . . . "
"Not your fault," mumbled Sonic, eyeing the rippling wall of fire resentfully. "How is Blaze surviving in there?"
"Heat does rise, so that might help," said Tails, sounding unconvinced himself. "But mostly I think it's just Fio's fire, and it follows Fio's rules. He's probably keeping the inside of the ring cool enough not to hurt him, so it'll have to be cool enough not to hurt Blaze too."
"Or it could follow his rules even more, and only keep him safe," said Sonic grimly.
"But she's got to be okay. He wouldn't be keeping the ring in place if he wasn't fighting her anymore . . . "
"I guess so." Sonic shook his head angrily. "Seriously, we've got to do something! Where's the nearest water source? Maybe water still works on it."
It didn't. First off, they couldn't get close enough to the fire to throw water at it properly, and even then a lot of it had evaporated before it even reached the flames. By now the conflagration was attracting attention. Mobians kept gathering from every direction, and if this went on much longer some of the humans from Station Square would start showing up too. Several more attempts to get through the flame barrier were made, but nobody managed to get anywhere near succeeding; even Omega was forced to retreat when his "system meltdown" alarms started up while he was still five meters away.
Silver had been one of the first to arrive, and he was rapidly approaching a state of panic.
"It's an enclosed space!" he protested, his quills still smoldering slightly from his own attempt to approach from the top. "She can't even dodge in there, she can't control the purple fire he breathes, she can barely hurt him with her own fire—she doesn't have a chance!"
"Well, what do you propose we do about that?" asked Shadow acerbically. "We can't just throw attacks through the fire, we risk hitting her. And a lot of good your psychokinesis is doing us."
"I can't use it on targets I can't see!" said Silver desperately.
"Like I said. A whole lot of good."
Silver looked away, biting his lip.
"If the flames would just part for a second, just long enough for me to get a look at him . . . "
Shadow rolled his eyes impatiently and turned back to the others, who were shifting about restlessly and discussing in rapid, low tones, trying to come up with some plan for getting rid of the fire or getting Blaze out of it. Tails had already torn off homewards several minutes ago, planning to get the Tornado and drop firefighting chemicals on the flames. It would take a while to get the plane ready though, and time was of the essence; nobody had much hope for that plan.
Silver paced back and forth like a cornered animal. He heard the others' urgent voices skipping from topic to topic, offering and abandoning tactic after hopeless tactic.
"If only Knuckles' arm was healed, I bet he could burrow underneath . . . "
"He's still in a sling, and he's not even here. What if we threw wood at the fire and sort of drew it off to the side?"
"No, that'd just make it worse . . . "
"How long's she been in there?"
"Almost twenty minutes, I think."
Silver felt his desperation building exponentially. Why was there never anything they could do? Some of the most powerful creatures on Mobius, even the Ultimate, thwarted by a simple curtain of fire—and here he stood too, helpless to do anything, just because he couldn't get a lock on his target. What good were powers if you couldn't use them? Blaze was going to die—
He swallowed. If Blaze did die, he'd never be able to live with the knowledge that he stood aside helplessly and let it happen. He ran a high risk of dying himself—his powers were practically useless against formless things like flames—but it was better than the alternative. Pushing off the ground lightly, he powered up his psychokinesis and encased himself in an cyan glow. For a moment he hovered, pouring more and more energy into a shield of psychic energy around himself, hoping a thick enough layer would do at least some good. He wouldn't be much help to Blaze dead.
The blue shield around his body flashed brighter and darker in a steady rhythm, growing a little stronger each time. The soft electric whine of his psychokinesis rose with it, turning to a high-pitched pulsing hum, growing steadily louder until it began to rise above the crackling of flames and distant murmur of conversation.
Shadow was the first to glance around and notice what was happening.
"Silver you idiot, no!—"
But by then Silver had already swung back, drawn one final burst of energy, and lunged. The briefest scream of air splitting before him, and he had vanished through the purple flames.
He smacked into something large and heavy almost immediately. That was good; the primary risk had been that he'd simply shoot straight through the other side of the ring. Stopping on a dime at this speed wasn't really an option.
The even better part of it was that it struck Fio backwards through his own wall of flame, forcing him out of the ring. Silver tumbled with him, shielded from the worst effects of the second passage by the dragon's body. The dragon itself screeched with pain; it may have been flame-resistant, but that was still nowhere near flame-proof. Rolling over violently as it tried to soothe the burns, it flung Silver off and sent him tumbling, luckily not in the direction of the fire they had just come through.
For a moment the hedgehog lay dazed, his fur smoldering slightly. Unfortunately, this moment was long enough for Fiolet to recover, bound to his feet, and snatch Silver up in his enormous toothy jaws. Snarling, the dragon whipped its head violently back and forth, shaking Silver like a dog shakes a rabbit. At last, loosening its grip, it gave one final toss of its head and flung Silver to the ground.
Silver didn't move for a while. After an interminable moment he groaned, twitched faintly, and rolled over very slowly, wincing as the gashes in his sides protested.
"Still alive?" asked Fiolet, lowering his head to squint at Silver disbelievingly. You're hardier than I—"
Silver's hand suddenly shot into the air, glowing blue. Before Fiolet even knew what was happening, Silver had slammed the dragon's head against the ground and tossed its unconscious body aside.
Several of the others were hurrying over to help by now. Shrugging them off, Silver pulled himself to his feet and bolted for the ring of purple fire. It was starting to die out already—Fiolet must have been feeding the flames from the inside—and there was a clear spot where the dragon's rolling body had smothered the flames. Silver dove through the gap without even thinking, and almost immediately came up short.
"Blaze," he breathed. "Oh my gosh."
Blaze smiled up at him tiredly from where she sat. She was alive, but rather battered; one side of her dress was scorched and ripped, her stiff upright ponytail had come undone and lay unkempt against her head, and one of her shoes was torn open and nearly coming off her foot. Worst of all, though, one of her shoulders was bleeding.
"Are you all right?" asked Silver urgently, dropping to his knees next to her. "He didn't bite you, did he?"
"He did, just now," said Blaze, her voice breathless but still level. Silver felt his stomach drop out. He'd been too late.
"Blaze," he whispered. "I'm so sorry . . . "
"There's no need to be," said Blaze gently, shaking her head. "He would have finished me completely if you hadn't arrived. And look at you—burned, and you're bleeding—you could have been killed. You shouldn't have risked it, Silver."
"I had to risk it," said Silver vehemently. "I couldn't lose you. Not again."
Blaze smiled again, reaching her uninjured arm to clasp Silver's hand.
"Silver—"
"Shhh, don't move," murmured Silver. "You'll be all right. Just rest. We're going to have to wait for the venom to take effect, and then you can drink the—"
"Silver," interrupted Blaze firmly. Her breathing was still uneven and shallow, and seemed to be getting worse instead of better. She clasped Silver's hand tightly and looked him in the eye. "Silver. Please. You need to listen to me."
"But—"
"Silver, it's important. We don't have much time."
Silver blinked silently at her, registering the desperate look in her eyes. Wordlessly he nodded in acquiescence and settled down to listen, his hands cupped gently around Blaze's, his eyes fixed earnestly on her face.
She seemed to be in a fair bit of pain, but she still sat upright, speaking urgently. The flames died slowly around the two of them as she told Silver a whole host of things, things about the Sol Dimension and her kingdom there, things he mostly didn't even understand. The other Mobians watched tensely from a respectful distance, understanding that something serious was being imparted.
At last Blaze seemed to be finished. She glanced up as if checking a mental list of points, making sure she had forgotten nothing, then sighed relievedly and gripped Silver's hand.
"Promise me you'll remember all that?"
"I'll . . . I'll try," stammered Silver. "But why?"
"I need you to set my affairs in order back at home," said Blaze. "I'm sorry to put such a burden on you. But please, if you can open a portal to the Sol Dimension and—"
"But why?!" interrupted Silver, eyes wide. "You're not going to die!"
"Silver . . . " said Blaze gently, with a pained smile.
"But . . . no!" Silver shook his head vehemently. "Your fire, the venom's bound to take your fire powers! It'll be the same for you as for Shadow."
"I'm afraid not," whispered Blaze. "Shadow only channels Chaos. I generate fire. Fire is my life-force. When it goes . . . "
"No," whispered Silver. This time his entire world seemed to drop out from underneath him. "No, Blaze, you know how the venom is. It always does something different from what you expect! You'll be okay, Blaze, just don't give up, don't—"
"Silver." Her tone wavered slightly. Please don't make this harder for me . . .
Silver swallowed, forcing himself to keep calm. He would have given anything to be able to hug Blaze right now, but he knew it would hurt her shoulder and burned side and he couldn't be that selfish.
"Blaze. If this is about the prophecy—"
"No, no." Blaze laughed softly. "I'm hardly blameless. But you couldn't expect Fiolet to restrain himself to only killing the prophesied maiden."
Silver swallowed again, his eyes bright.
"I still don't believe it. You'll live, Blaze. You'll live."
"I hope so," she whispered. "All we can do is wait."
Without warning she shuddered violently.
"Blaze? . . . "
"It's so cold," she whispered, shivering. Her hands were growing cool between Silver's palms, and her eyes were misting over. "So . . . cold, Silver . . . "
Silver drew her close gently, wrapping his arms around her.
"Does this help?"
She nodded silently, her breath shallow. Silver bowed his head so his mouth was right by her ear, swaying back and forth as he whispered some jumbled verbal brand of white noise, trying to comfort her, tell her all the ways he loved her in between the moments his voice caught and he couldn't go on.
Then the moment came when she gave one final shiver in his arms and her heartbeat stopped. Silver sat frozen for a moment, his muzzle still buried in the tangled remains of her ponytail. His whole body shuddered once, twice; then he slowly lifted his head. Very carefully he laid Blaze's body down, checked that her eyes were peacefully closed. Very deliberately he cleared the tears from his own eyes with one finger and stood up, head bowed.
"A shame," said a dark, quiet voice. Fiolet had come around. Silver glanced up at him briefly, then turned away.
"I can kill you next, if that would make you feel better," shrugged Fiolet.
"That won't bring her back," said Silver softly.
"Perhaps not, but it would at least give you a chance to release a bit of that grief," coaxed Fiolet with a malicious grin. Evidently he liked his prey lively. "Oh, come now. I'll let you flail at me a bit before I kill you, then you can feel you've tried to avenge her."
"That still won't bring her back," whispered Silver.
"Of course not. But it would make you feel like you've done something, now wouldn't it?"
"Make me feel better," said Silver dully. "Avenge what you've done to me. Not to her." He took a deep breath, his head still low. "I only fight when I can save others, Fiolet; it'd be too dangerous for me to use my powers for my own benefit. That's gonna be a problem for you, though." He looked up, his eyes glinting oddly. "Because you just bit me."