(Ten years ago in the past)
Saturday, September 21; 8:15 p.m.
Shadow and Silver jump out of the time portal into a long corridor. Silver looks around asking Shadow, "Where are we?"
"Soleanna: ten years ago," answers Shadow. The two hedgehogs walk through the hallway and stop at a large glass window. "As you can see," Shadow explains to Silver. "These scientists are working on the Solaris Project."
"What's that?" Silver wonders.
"The king, also known as the duke, wanted to work with Solaris so that he go back in time to see his late wife," says Shadow. "She died five years prior from an unknown disease."
"That's awful!" Silver cries. "So what does any of this have to do with Sonic?"
"Absolutely nothing," Shadow answers. "but this does show who the real Iblis Trigger is. Just watch."
In the other room, the Duke and scientists (who are wearing masks) are watching a cylinder filled with sparkling orange energy, which is supposed to be Solaris. One of the scientists says to the Duke, "Lord, it seems like Solaris doesn't want to work on this project anymore!"
"Really?" the Duke questions. The Duke is a tall human with gray hair, a gray mustache, and gray eyes. He is wearing a white fez on his head, a long white coat, and black boots. He might not look like a king, but his wisdom and mature personality fit the bill indeed.
"The level's not dropping!" another scientist yells out. "My lord, it's too late! We've got to take shelter!"
The Duke slams his hands on the table that's holding the cylinder and screams, "Why, Solaris? Why do you refuse to listen to my voice?!"
Just then, a little girl, around seven years old, runs up to the Duke and pleads to him, "Daddy, there's a monster under my bed! Can you get him away from me?"
The girl has red/light brown hair, big blue eyes, and is wearing light orange pajamas and matching slippers. Duke turns around and says to the girl, "Elise, go back to bed. I'll take care of the monster later."
"No!" Elise whines. "Do it now!"
The cylinder blows up as the Duke covers Elise from the explosion. Heck, the explosion was so large, it destroyed all the windows and knocked over the scientists.
"Duck!" Shadow screams.
"A duck?" Silver wonders. "Where?"
"Down, you idiot!" the black hedgehog screams as he pulls Silver down by the quills as the explosion demolishes their window.
After the explosion stops, Shadow and Silver look around and see that everyone in the room is either dead or unconscious. Shadow shakes the Duke to see if he's still alive.
"This guy has a pulse," says the 15-year-old.
"All the scientists seem to be dead," Silver says, who then notices Solaris splitting into two parts. He doesn't know what the black/purple particles on the floor are, but he's very familiar with the magma rock, which is turning into a medium-sized flame.
"Shadow, look!" Silver cries. Shadow sees the flame as Silver yells out, "That flame...is that Iblis?"
"Yes," answers Shadow as he sees the black blobs of goo crawling on the floor. "and that shadow is the original Mephiles."
"That's Mephiles?" Silver says. "He looks like slime!"
Iblis and Mephiles flee to different directions. Silver then screams to Shadow, "Dude, they're escaping! We need to do something!"
"Shut up, you moron!" Shadow yells to the white 12-year-old. "We could get in trouble for this."
The Duke wakes up, shakily saying to the hedgehogs, "You boys...aren't in trouble..."
Shadow and Silver exchange glances at each other. Silver then asks the oldish man, "What do you mean by that?"
"This...is all...(coughs)...my fault," says Duke. "I should've known earlier that Solaris wanted nothing to do with this project." He takes out a gray scepter and gives it to Shadow. "Seal the Mephiles with this..."
The Mephiles? Whatever... Shadow grabs the scepter and says to Silver, "I'll go after Mephiles."
Silver nods in response. "Then leave Iblis to me."
Shadow runs out of the room as Silver goes the other direction to stop Iblis. The Duke stands up and picks up an unconscious Elise off the floor. Eventually, Silver traps the flames with his psychokinesis.
He then notices the king, holding his daughter, walking up to him. "What are you doing?!" Silver shouts to him. "You have to leave!"
"This task is way too dangerous for you, young boy!" the Duke responds. "I have my duty."
Silver snickers. "Duty," he says under his breath.
Unfortunately, Duke heard Silver's comment. "It's not funny!" he screams to the hedgehog. "This living flame has been entrusted to the royal family!"
"Huh?" Silver says as the Duke approaches Iblis.
"The Flames of Disaster will awaken if nothing is done!" he explains to the preteen. "That must not happen."
Duke lays Elise on the alter and pulls a white Chaos Emerald from his pocket. He launches the emerald upward and takes a few steps back. "Eternal Sun!" he begins to pray. "The living flame that has been entrusted to the royal family! Fall into slumber with a royal soul!"
The king lifts his hands upwards as Iblis vanishes into the emerald. The emerald injects Iblis as a beam of light into Elise. Silver stops using his psychokinesis and looks in wonder. Duke stumbles on the alter, catching his breath.
He turns to Silver and asks, "Can you hold my daughter...? I'm too weak..."
Silver picks up Elise, almost dropping her! "She's so heavy!" he whispers loudly.
"I'm sorry," says Duke. "She has a tendency to get into the cookies during breakfast. Anyways, can you take her to a safe place?"
"Sure," Silver awkwardly says.
Duke weakly kneels down to Elise's level and strokes her head. "That's a good girl, Elise," he says to her. "Remember: be brave. Don't cry...no matter what happens. Otherwise you tears will call forth the flames inside you. Become a strong queen who doesn't cry no matter what happens...and live...happily..."
He falls onto the floor, dying. Silver takes a long look at the Duke's dead body. This poor girl in his arms will be upset about this. How she doesn't cry over this is mind-blowing to Silver! How did she cope with something like this? If she cried or died at some point later in her life, then Iblis must've been released. Oh wait! Silver finally understands: Princess Elise was the Iblis Trigger this whole time! It all makes sense.
Meanwhile...
As Silver is taking care of Iblis, Shadow is in a different part of the base going after Mephiles. Shadow gets out his Chaos Emerald and says, "Chaos Control!"
Mephiles 'sees' this situation unfold. "What...stop!"
Shadow takes out the Scepter of Darkness, which somehow floats in the air in front of him.
"Who...who are you?!" Mephiles wants to know.
"I'm Shadow," answers the black hedgehog. "Shadow Perez-Rodriguez."
As the purple blob begins to get sucked into the scepter, Mephiles says, "Shadow...you face...your form! I will remember...your death...certain...you...will die!"
After Mephiles gets sucked into the scepter, it falls onto the floor. Shadow picks up the scepter and says to himself, "I wonder how Silver's doing..."
8:40 p.m.
Silver is outside the castle, still holding the unconscious princess. Shadow walks by with the scepter and asks, "Now you understand the full story?"
"Yes," Silver nods. "Did you seal Mephiles?"
"Of course I did," answers Shadow. "I'm the coolest."
"Narcissist much?" Silver rolls his eyes as he lays Elise near a tree. Shadow then sets the scepter next to her. Silver turns to the high-schooler and asks, "You're just gonna leave it behind? What if she plays with it?"
"Mephiles' fate will be the same no matter where it is," says Shadow. "And tell that girl to not even touch that scepter."
"Okay," says Silver. "but I just want to say a few things to her."
"Make it quick," Shadow groans. "We need to go home soon."
Silver kneels down in front of Elise and says, "So...Princess... This is so awkward... I'm sorry your dad passed away...he wanted to let you know... When you wake up, don't cry...because if you do, we all die, and you don't want that, do you? We all want you to grow up to become the strong queen I know you'll be."
"Are you done yet?" asks Shadow.
"Not yet," answers Silver. "We need to get her some flowers."
"Who said we needed to get her flowers?" Shadow says. "We don't have time for that."
"I was just trying to be nice," Silver mutters under his breath.
Shadow gets out his green emerald, while Silver gets out his blue one. They both hold their emeralds aloft and shout, "Chaos Control!"
The space-time rift opens up, with Shadow jumping into it. Silver takes another look at Elise, who's starting to move around.
"Daddy..." the seven-year-old mumbles.
"Daddy's no longer with you," Silver says as he walks over to her. He then puts his emerald in her hand. "Here. Just see this emerald as a lucky charm. Hopefully, it will help you a lot better that it helped me."
The white hedgehog jumps into the space-time rift. Elise opens her eyes, beginning to wake up. Who was that guy talking to her? And why was he here?
And that was Chapter 16! What did you think of this chapter? I thought it was interesting, and hopefully the next chapter will be as well. In that chapter, Silver reunites with Blaze, Team Dark finds Mephiles, and Dr. Eggman threatens Princess Elise.
As always, remember to review, and I'll see you in Chapter 17!
