Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognized characters or gameplay patterns within this fanfiction. Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, Eggman, Blaze, and all related characters of such are owned by SEGA. All original character's are owned by me, unfortunately.

Exile 8.10

Blaze grinned as she felt the fires come to her calling. Her eyes were feeling normal now, and she could see the strange colored moon and stars above them as they sailed. The wind was with them now, and had been for hours. Tails and Spark were asleep down below, and Blaze stood there on the deck, enjoying the feeling of the wind against her skin. Every once in a while she would move the mast around, steering them gently.

The moon was still shining above them, not having moved despite the hours that she knew had passed them by. The sky was a dark red now, despite the sun not being anywhere close to rising. The sea was actually a light violet, almost lavender. She remembered from Sparks' story that this meant they were getting closer. Surely they didn't have that much further to go? They had been going for a while now, almost a week? Two weeks? Two weeks, maybe three by now.

They were out of coconuts, at least. Blaze considered that a boon. She liked coconuts, or whatever this world's equivalent to them was, but there was only so many times she could eat them for breakfast and dinner.

She thought about going down below deck and getting some actual meat, but she didn't want to wake up Tails and Spark. They'd done an enormous job the previous night, getting them through the gauntlet of elements, as Blaze was putting it in her head.

Now it was their turn to rest, and her turn to sail. The Grace was surprisingly maneuverable, which she hadn't realized when Spark or Tails were steering. It wasn't that they were bad at it, but they definitely lacked a flair that Marine had that she was used to. Admittedly, almost no one had that same flair for sailing that Marine had. She was having a hard time coming up with a time that the tanuki had gotten caught up in a storm that hadn't been on purpose.

She had, however, known Marine to purposely sail into storms for the sole purpose of doing extremely dangerous stunts on the storm waves. Which may or may not have been augmented by her hydrokinesis. Stunts included spinning on the waves like a top, jumping over an entire wave valley because she could make the boat fly, or jumping over rocks while spinning in the air so they landed facing the rocks again...just to do it again a second later.

Still, the Fox's Grace handled surprisingly well for a small metal boat. Blaze instinctually leaned into the waves, making the boat almost surf along the top. It was good to be able to see again.

Despite the odd colors, which she knew wasn't just her eyesight. The strange lilac color from the ocean, the weird poison moon...while it wasn't exactly like the story of Captain Monsoon, it was definitely close. The strange colors, the weird timing things, the waves and elements trying to ensure they would never get there...it all pointed to the story.

But did the Blooming Tides actually have that power over time? Or was that just the story? Was there something else going on that she didn't know? That was quite possible, all things considered. She hadn't reached out for the Sol Emeralds yet, not since she'd burned herself out. She still remembered the feeling of them back in Vianex, when she'd realized they weren't charging.

It was one of the bigger reasons she'd wanted to get out here. The emeralds were waiting for something, she knew, but what it was they weren't telling her. She might learn if she tried actual pyromancy, but her skill with it was...nonexistent. And considering Spark hadn't said anything about it being a thing, she doubted that the vixen would know now.

But still she sailed on, through the waves and wind that threatened her stance. For hours upon hours, she kept going, only barely adjusting when the mast needed it. The sun was now starting to come up, despite that Blaze knew it should've come up three or four hours ago. And when it did, it lit up the world a brilliant light blue for dawn, dimming to a sunshine yellow throughout most of the day. The sun itself was a wrathful red, although Blaze made sure to never stare at it herself. Another world, but always the same in many ways.

Tails and Spark weren't up yet, despite being nearly noon. Although the sun was only up at a quarter, so it felt closer to nine in the morning. Blaze grumbled a bit as she thought of the two.

She didn't mind them, per se. She did mind that Spark was so...freely trying to get Tails to sleep with her. Why would Blaze care, though? She knew why, deep down, but she wasn't going to vocalize those thoughts or give them much credence. If Tails wanted to sleep with Spark, that was up to him. Her goal was making sure they came out of it alive.

The worst part was that neither of them were really hiding it. She could smell the lust off of Tails when he looked at Spark, or herself. And don't get her started on Spark's scent; the vixen was practically awash with it. How Tails didn't know by now, she had no idea. Maybe it was because they were all rank and needed a shower badly? Rainwater didn't do nearly as much as soap and water did.

Next time they found an island, she'd find a way to get clean. She still had dried blood on her fur from being shoved around during the last storm, her leg and hand getting cut from the metal plates that Tails still hasn't used. She could gripe about that too, she supposed. He said he would make the boat better, but while he did make it more livable, it wasn't exactly making it a better boat. The Grace wasn't the best looking ship she'd ever seen, either.

But she had to take the good and the bad. While he wasn't working on the Grace, he was helping Spark with her common. The girl was almost able to hold an entire conversation in the new language, something that if Blaze didn't suspect something was far new to her. And Tails had the bonus of being able to read minds for new words.

The Grace started rocking, and Blaze stood up gently. The ocean was calm, far too calm to be normal. Something was changing it, moving towards them, and she had a feeling she knew what it was. She stomped on the top, "Get up you two. We'll have problems in a few," she shouted. She heard the usual stumble around, and she smelled the lust off of both of them. She wanted to shout at them to just screw already, but knew she shouldn't.

There was one major obstacle that they hadn't dealt with yet, from the story. There was the whirlpools, and the rocks, and the tornadoes, and the hail and sleet and rain. There was no fire element involved, unlike the other three or four. Even the lightning was against them at times. "What's wrong?" Tails asked as he stumbled out. Blaze stared at him before a moment before she raised a hand, pointing straight ahead.

"Last obstacle ahead, I think," Blaze answered. "The Kraken."

"That's what we just use lightning and fire for, right?" Tails asked. "I don't think it shouldn't be too difficult to fight."

"Now that you say that, it's going to be quite difficult," Blaze smirked. "Where's Spark?" she asked quietly. The Grace rocked a bit more, although Blaze made sure she didn't move, and crossed her arms as if daring the Kraken to make a move now.

"She's uh..." Tails said, blushing as he looked back. "busy." Blaze rolled her eyes.

What a time. "She needs to hurry up then," Blaze murmured under her breath. Seriously. She probably should take the threat of a kraken more seriously than she was, but there was a large part of her that was more than happy at the fact she'd be able to see it. And she had most of her power back.

Not quite all of it, and she doubted she'd be able to, but she had most of it. How it had gotten trapped in Vianex though, she'd wanted to know. She readied her flames, letting them coat her hands in their reassuring warmth.

The first tentacle that came up with less of a tentacle and more of a black eyestalk. At the end of it lay an eye that was nearly the size of the mast in terms of diameter, staring straight at her with an empty black husk. She gave a small lance of flame into the eye for its trouble. If it wanted an eyeful of her, it was going to have to work for it.

The second one slowly raised up the aft, and she cut through it using another small lance of flame. The black thing wriggled on the deck until she kicked it off, taking care to be careful of its undersides. It had not one or two mouths, but rather hundreds of teeth like a normal octopus had suckers.

It was going to try to munch on the Grace. In fact it already had, Blaze noticed as she saw the small teeth marks where the tentacle had lain.

The water current suddenly started to push the Grace back, and Blaze stared at the monster that slowly rose out of the depths. For once, the name 'kraken' was reasonably applied. The monster was nearly forty or fifty times taller than the Grace was, with thick eyestalks coming out from its main body. It wasn't black, but rather that was the only color that could be assigned to it. It was as if light entered the thing's body, and simply vanished. There was no other way to put it.

It didn't have only ten or twenty sets of tentacles either, or eight that octopuses had. It had forty, fifty...Blaze lost count as she saw the giant things slowly drag up from underneath the ocean's waves. "Holy hells...that's a kraken alright..." she heard Tails mutter. That was the best name for it.

It was almost overkill in size. And Blaze looked down, to see that it was almost mirrored on the other side of the ocean's surface. Actually...it wasn't just appearing to be mirrored, was it? She created a small lance of flame, spearing it into the water into the kraken's reflection.

The kraken in front of them had it's surface break, as if the reflection was the real thing and it's appearance here was only an illusion. "Break the water, throw everything you have at it!" Blaze shouted.

The water stilled abruptly, and Blaze understood why; the thing could understand common. Three tentacles slowly wove their way up the Grace's surface, armed at the end with mouths and teeth. Larger tentacles, ones nearly the size of the Grace itself, popped out of the water, seemingly intent on slamming them down.

Spark summoned a sphere of lightning suddenly, surrounding the Grace with electricity that immediately cut off and burned the tentacles currently on the ship's deck. A large one slammed down onto the sphere and immediately retracted, Blaze feeling more than hearing the roar of pain and agony from the kraken.

How had Spark suddenly gained that much power and control? Blaze wondered to herself, before she summoned a small circle of fire around them, boiling the water underneath. The kraken did another roar, and Blaze saw the reflection start to cease.

That may not have been the best idea, Blaze thought after a moment. The kraken, already taller than most mountains, suddenly got much taller as its reflection got smaller. Soon enough it gave off no reflection from the water, and was almost three times taller and larger than it was before. It wasn't some squid like thing now, but a fish crossed with sharks crossed with squids plus nautilaus shells. It had large fins on its head, moving in the wind current, showing off the eyes that lay behind them.

"What is that...?" Tails asked. That was a silly question, Blaze thought. They already knew what it was; a creature from beyond myth, and from beyond time.

The water primordial.

—Side T—

Tails should probably have been upset that Spark had taken his Charger. She could already control the electricity in her body, whereas he couldn't generate it at all. Instead he had to pull it from the air by waving his tails together and hope he wasn't in a humid environment, such as...an ocean? Also, for Spark's information, generating static electricity on an ocean is difficult. Generating static electricity while trying to dodge the strange eldritch cthulhu demibeast godlike thing in front of them was the definition of impossible. While on the ocean.

Blaze and Spark seemed to be handling it quite well though, from what he saw. There wasn't much he could actually do, he knew, but that didn't stop him from trying. The wind had stalled in the area, leaving them with not going anywhere, and the waves had been quelled. It was as if the ocean had become a lake, without so much as a gust of wind, an idyllic view of phantasms, only destroyed by the 'strange eldritch cthulhu demibeast godlike thing'. He wasn't going to call it a kraken, as he felt that wasn't putting the name right. This was to a kraken as a colossal squid to a six inch squid that he buys at the supermarket on the random days that he felt like seafood but didn't want fish.

No, he was going to call it something else. Something involving water and its reflections...he casually stepped up to the deck and swung his tails to slash at a set of arms that were trying to take them down under the water. Reflection beast? No..."What is that...?" he asked, turning to see Blaze lancing fire at the arms and tentacles slowly waving their way up the Grace's hull. Spark continued blasting smaller lightning bolts directly at the beasts' eyes, although which one Tails wasn't sure. It had hundreds of the things.

The Eye's Reflection. That was a good name for it. Suitably strange. "It's the water primordial!" Blaze yelled as she cut off another arm. It seemed to have an innumerable amount of them, Tails thought, as he saw more of them stick their tips out of the water's edge. They came with no ripples or waves, and Tails took a breath before he took to the air. He could barely see the top from where they were, and Blaze and Spark seemed to have a good system going. Occasionally he would feel the bolts from Spark as she shot more towards the things eyes.

Monsoon in the story had flown behind it, using his aerokinesis. Tails had something far better; actual control of his flight. Arms came out of the water, trying to knock him into the ocean's surface as he tried to fly around the thing. Dozens of its eyes stared at him as he passed, dodging just enough to not be hit by each one. He noticed that each of them had dozens of suckers and teeth, and claws that freely rotated, like a drill's edge. It was as pure a black as obsidian, except for the claws. Those were blood red.

The backside of the Eye's Reflection wasn't much better than its front, if he had to be honest. There was an endless void back there, sucking in light rather than reflecting it, but with no possible way to tell what it belonged to. Maybe 'The Abyss's Reflection' was a better name for it, but he had already name it in his head. It flashed a brilliant white, and Tails was suddenly looking at its front, with the Grace behind it. He felt the bolts from Spark and saw the lances of flame from Blaze.

"Bringer of Chaos," he felt the words appear into his head. "Do you seek the World that Never Was?" More words simply appeared in his head, as if something was jabbing a knife into his brain and forming the words directly into his brain.

"No," Tails shouted, his head feeling like it was exploding. "We're going to end the Blooming Tides!"

Waves started appearing again, and Tails felt the wind start to blow. "A thousand and a million cycles have been seen. Yet not once have the Blooming Tides been defeated. Bringer of Chaos, what hope do you have to end that which cannot end?"

"Everything has an end! A beginning and an end!"

"The ouroboros disagree. Billions of revolutions, million of cycles, and Chaos would end that which will not end?"

"That's what Chaos does!"

"No. See now, the Bringer of Chaos is not ready. The Guardian of Sol is not ready. The Anomaly is not ready. Will wait for next cycle," the words appeared in his mind, and suddenly the thing began to move. Or rather, it was always where it was moving to, and Tails felt the arms pull at him, tossing him with ease into the ocean's surface. He didn't fall in, instead bouncing on the surface as he felt pain shoot up from his arm. Tails blinked, his good hand feeling the surface of the water, slowly bobbing him up and down on the waves, and he realized he wasn't sinking. He spun his tails, growling as he darted back towards the Reflection.

Another arm popping in front of him and smacked him back towards the Grace. He bounced off the water again, landing in the hull of the ship, massive amounts of lightning and electricity in a giant sphere around them, ensuring that the Reflection wouldn't find it easy to get in. Spark was on the bow, sweat coming off her face in droves, and her hand was on the Charger, pressing it almost indiscriminately. "What did you find out!?" Blaze shouted, a small but concentrated laser of fire headed towards the Reflection.

"Nothing good! It kept talking about cycles, and how we weren't ready!"

"You talked with it!?" Spark's confused shout came. "How!?"

"Not ready...well, if we're not supposed to be here, because we aren't ready, then I think it's time we break it. I have a plan," Blaze announced. "Spark, how long can you keep this shield?" she asked.

"Not long. Thirty seconds at most!" Spark yelled, her voice hoarse, and her body starting to fail. Tails could feel it already, she was pushing more and more energy into it, occasional bolts emanating from her body into the shield. It did seem to keep the Reflection at bay, but it wouldn't be long.

Tails spun his tails, landing next to her. He felt how she was doing it, using her energy to keep it steady, adding more and more every time some got leeched off from the Reflection hitting it. One arm was useless, he knew, and his back was killing him, but he had an idea. He reached out with his good hand, clasping over Spark's easy. He felt for her energy, for the Charger's energy, and wasn't surprised to see it mostly gone. It had half a single charge left, if that. He felt for her energy, for the shield around her, and he added in his concentration.

He felt the wind break against him, the sudden motion sending him off track a bit. Blaze was behind them, creating a circle of fire in front of them. They started to move, Tails felt, on the ocean's almost flat surface. The waves had come back, but they were small swells, barely even worth noticing. Despite the movement, the Eye's Reflection kept up with them as if it was nothing. He closed his eyes, focusing all of his brainpower on the shield around them.

"Blaze. Keep going," Tails said simply, a steel tone hinting itself to even his ears. He deliberately broke Spark's concentration, shattering the shield and the energy contained, leeching it into a circle around Blaze's fire. The cat didn't say anything, but he could sense how she steeled herself, whatever her plan was.

"Tails! You've just killed us!" Spark yelled.

Arms upon arms came upon the small field that Tails had set up, and instantly he took small bolts, shocking the arms the came closer. It wasn't a true shield, because it wasn't surrounding them, but instead it was almost reflexive. He knew where the arms would be, a sense he didn't know he had, because he wasn't looking at them. Arm after arm came crashing down nearby, and still Blaze sailed on, gradually getting them to go faster and faster. Each arm and tentacle got shocked before it could hit, despite the Eye's Reflection keeping up with them by simply not moving.

"What is this...?"

Tails wasn't sure if that was Spark asking, or the Eye's Reflection. He kept up his concentration, putting all of his being into the defense, an orb of electricity shooting out whenever anything came near them, even if it was at the back of the Grace. "The thing about reflections, primordial, is that they're only as solid as the thing they're on!" Blaze yelled as she suddenly turned the Grace, the bow facing directly into the Reflection.

"Tails, now!" Blaze yelled, and Tails grinned as he let loose with everything the circle of electricity still held. Bolt after bolt struck the Reflection, and did nothing, but it was there that Tails realized her plan. The Grace sailed smoothly into the Reflection's mouth, or into its body, and as it did so, the beast let out a cry of pain and hurt. The bolts kept it there, and Blaze simply sailed on through the Reflection's body as if it wasn't there. Everywhere their wake touched, reality asserted itself around, forcing the beast back into the lair of the water.

"The cycles will end!" Tails roared, as the Eye's Reflection seemed to freeze in place, slowly vanishing into the water around them. Despite the fact they were moving, and moving surprisingly fast, it kept pace with them easy. Or maybe they weren't moving, and it wasn't moving, but it was definitely going back into the ocean.

"Rock was right. You are ready..." Tails felt the Eye's Reflection beam into his brain as the last part of it's black body seemingly disappeared. Spark rested for a moment, before she stood up and Tails opened his eyes. The path was clear, now, and the sky was a deep blue. There was a heat coming from Blaze, looking over the dawning sun on the far east.

"What...was that...?" Spark asked, before she shook her head and immediately dived onto Tails, kissing his neck hard. "I do not care I guess, but how did we survive?" she asked, rolling off of him a moment later. Her fur was damp and cold, full of sweat and oil. It felt nice, but Tails shook that thought out of his head. That wasn't a thought he needed to have.

"Someone knows a bit too much about Cthulhu," Tails murmured, giving a knowing smirk up to Blaze. The cat returned it.

"Cthulhu ftaghn," she responded. Tails rolled his eyes. Of course Blaze would know of that. "It's a book series in my world. The words are harmless," she explained. "And right there, I guess, is our destination," she motioned in front of them.

There was a tall set of mountains in front of them, some of them spurring volcanic ash into the air. A long coastline of blue dirt and purple seawater sat there, and Tails could see into the valleys around. In one of them, sat an old wooden ship that he could barely saw. Blaze kept the vacuum going, seeing as how there was no more wind around. "Looks like that's as good a place as any to start," Tails pointed out.

They were here. At the place of the Blooming Tides. Maybe, Tails thought, they could finally try to get home.

—Interlude—

Marine wasn't sure when this had all turned so topsy-turvy on her. Sonic was yelling something at her, and she thought Shadow was trying some new chaoskinetic thing from behind her. But she was surrounded by water, unable to hear anything more than ten feet away, and apparently water was a good way to nullify chaos powers.

She felt Knuckles try to punch the water she was surrounded by, and the robotic backpack she was wearing immediately turned on him, using her own power to smack him away. He was sent flying into a nearby cliffside, small yellow rings coming from him.

It was hard for her to remember. She knew what had happened, but when had...all of this, happened? They were still searching for the Chaos emeralds, right? They were on number seven, now.

A chao entered the water body she was contained in, and it took only a moment of thinking for it to be shot back out unharmed. She was, at least, trying to make sure of that.

But the robot was connected directly into her head, like those comics that Cream had once shown her years ago. It was using her own power, her own hydrokinesis, to keep her contained. And it was almost fully within Eggman's controls.

She had known this would have been stupid. She had known it. But he had promised her power, in comparable to Blaze. The power to undo the very oceans themselves. And truthfully, she was aware that he had succeeded. She was more in tune with her power than ever, feeling the raging rivers within her body and soul.

"Just keep going. Ignore the robots; they're all deactivated right now, except Metal Sonic. And Cubot, but I'm not worried about him," Eggman's voice sounded in her ears. Sonic was keeping an eye on him, and had sent Marine to enter one of his other known bases to search for an emerald that they were all fairly certain was there.

A small green eye was visible in the darkness of the base, a grey metallic thing with barely the emergency red lights still on. Marine stopped to stare at the thing; a tiny robot, not much taller than her knees. One wheel, shaped like a ladybug. It's single eye was visible in the darkness, but it didn't move or attempt to stare at the tanuki as she passed. Her shoes clanked loudly against the metal floors, and she could imagine that back at full construction this place would've been loud.

"Two rooms ahead. You should find the emerald," Eggman's voice called out in her ears. Two rooms, she could do it. She was Captain Marine! Savior to Blaze and...Blaze. Tails. Who was she kidding? She had messed up already, taking the Sol Emeralds to whatever this world was called. The World of Chaos? Sonic and Shadow had just shrugged when she had questioned them on it.

The first room was dark, and cold. Colder than normal. It was round, with a pillar in the middle. A teleportation circle? Or a receiver of some kind? It looked like a communications array, but Marine couldn't tell while it was off. In the center were two red eyes, the eyes of Metal Sonic, cautiously watching her. "He's harmless. Really," Eggman said in her ear. "He's not harmless at all, Eggman!" Sonic's voice yelled out, much further away.

But the robot duplicate of Sonic didn't move, instead just staring at her as she walked around him. There was another door, open as all the others, on the far side. She heard the swivel from the robot's head as it continued to track her.

The hallway was empty, just as empty as everything else was here. On the side were what looked like old frames of projects gone wrong. There was a picture of a water monster, standing tall over some ruins. Whatever it was, Marine didn't know. She ignored the others, even the ones that looked like were out in space.

The room wasn't large, but it had three things that interested her. One was a small pool, filled with water. It was taking up nearly an entire third of the room. On the other side lay a glowing violet gem, one that reminded her strikingly like one of the Sol Emeralds. She knew though that Knuckles was currently watching over them. She figured that Blaze would entrust another Guardian to watch over them for a short time. The echidna seemed approving when she mentioned the 'short' time bit.

And in the center lay a small backpack like thing. It had only one cord, a tiny plate that looked like it rested on the base of a tail. She reached out with her power over the pool, letting the water create small waves and ripples in it. There was something here that was making her nervous, but she wans't sure what.

"It should be right in front of you," Eggman's voice said. "Is it?" he asked. There was a hidden tone to it, as if he knew he wasn't talking about just the emerald. His previous words spoke to her, 'You can be powerful unlike any you have seen before. You want the power to fight with your friend? Then you must take it.'

She reached out with one hand towards the backpack, and she felt it re-orient itself as the arms latched onto her. The pool water started to launch towards her, and she felt with horror as it was her own power doing it. Her own hydrokinesis. It was weak, at first, but then the plate that she thought went above the tail connected to her neck.

And suddenly her power wasn't hers, anymore. "Foolish girl! I told you not to touch anything else!" she heard Eggman shout. There was a prideful tone in it though, as if she did exactly what he had expected, and honestly wanted. The water reached out around her, surrounding itself like a protective bubble. One small water arm grabbed the violet emerald, actually a small tube of violet energy, and she felt...strong. Stronger than anything. But all of it was being channeled through the backpack, armed and used by...somehow she could traceback the signal. Eggman was controlling it. He was controlling it with her power!

She still had the violet tube, a small shard of chaos power. Since then, almost all of the Sonic Team had been working on getting her out of the bubble, or working on getting the tube out. If either one of the two could be done, they would have won.

Yet the water protected her from Sonic's spindash, and he always seemed slower when she was around. Knuckles was knocked away the moment he tried. Amy's hammer was almost dissolved before it could knock away more than a gallon, which was eager to answer her call back. Or rather, the backpack's call.

It was just a sphere, now, with four long arms and hands on the ground, moving her around as if walking on them. Spikes of water occasionally shot out, making sure that all trees and debris got out of her way.

She wanted to cry, almost. But she didn't want to add more water to her power. She had just wanted to help Blaze, but here she was, being used as a weapon against the world. Energized by a Chaos Emerald...or at least the chaos power of one. And if she managed to reach the ocean, as it appeared she was going to...she was going to win. And she wanted to lose.

There had to be something she could do. But her power, her hydrokinesis, wasn't her own anymore. It was Eggman's, or the backpack's, or whose ever it was, but it wasn't hers. She tried to exert any amount of control over it, only to lose it the instant she got some. She tried to make openings for Sonic, but he always seemed much slower when trying to attack her. Was he afraid of something? What would he have to be afraid of? It was just water.

She was over the jungle, now. And a large part of her felt the call of the ocean, not far from there. If she reached it, then Eggman's promises would come true; she could control the very tides themselves. She felt the urge of the water around her turn to moving faster, despite the attacks coming in from all angles.

Marine was unsurprisingly tired. It seemed the more the backpack used her power, the more it drained her of her energy. She didn't have much left now, and she was resigned to the idea that she was going to be a slave to this thing. Why should she try? The last time she tried, she ended up dooming an entire world that doesn't even know it yet. Although Blaze did say she ended up on this world before, and she hadn't had problems...but that was by using the Sol Emerald's power. Marine couldn't do that.

She was a hydrokineticist. An aquakineticist. She was water, not fire. Blaze was capable of using the Sol Emerald's power. Not her. And she was so tired anyways. She hadn't even seen the emeralds for a while. Some guardian she turned out to be. Couldn't even keep track of the artifacts she was supposed to be watching for longer than three months.

Was there some kind of water gem out there? Maybe she could become the Guardian of that. It might help in this scenario. She felt Sonic try to strike at her again, but was knocked away just as quick.

Then she felt something weird. A small little plop, ending in her bubble. She couldn't move, but she could feel it, just letting it slide around in her bubble. A hook?

The backpack, and Eggman controlling it, didn't seem to care about a little hook. She let it drift a bit before she used a very small part of her power, a tiny infinitesimally small part, to push it closer. She opened her eyes, finally, to see the long fishing line it was connected to. A large purple cat, standing with a small, by comparison, green frog on his shoulder. He had a tiny smile on his face, as if this was something he was completely used to.

She pulled it closer, and reached out with one arm for it. She gave it a small tug, and the cat grinned. Was the cat hoping to pull her out? With a fishing line? That must've been one hell of a fishing line.

Instead he pulled back, and showed off his rather impressive strength as she moved. Everything. All of the water arms, the backpack, and everything moved with it, forcing her to stumble around. He pulled the line back a little bit more, and he gave it a soft flick.

A flick that she felt.

Not with her power, but with her body. With her hands, and her arms, and her fur. She wasn't some nameless water titan. She was Marine! She was Captain Marine, of the Water's Wave! She was the -current- Guardian of the Sol Emeralds.

If this no-name cat could pull her around, then after all that she's been through, all the pirates she and Blaze had fought, she could fight this thing! She could fight herself, her own power, easily enough, or she wasn't Captain fucking Marine!

She reached up with one hand, feeling for the plate on her neck. She supposed it was intended to interfere with signals to her arms, but something was blocking that part from working now. She could almost imagine how frustrated Eggman was, that once again he was being outsmarted. And this time by Captain Marine!

She felt the plate, and with a disguised roar of pain she shunted it off, feeling it tear off the skin as she did so. It had been embedded pretty deep in there, she knew, and suddenly all of the power around was her own.

She pulled back the water, and let it fall from her. She fell to the ground, dripping wet, Eggman yelling in her ear. She wasn't paying much attention to it though, and with a casual flick she tossed the earpiece off. She'd deal with him later.

"Are you okay?" The big cat asked gently. He reached down with massive yellow gloves. "That looked scary."

Marine couldn't help herself but started to laugh. Yes, it had been scary. That was a good way of putting it. "I'm...I think I'm going to be okay now," Marine started to say. She certainly hoped so, at least. Her heart was still pumping furiously, and she could feel herself start to shake from the adrenaline.

"Would you want to fish? I know a good spot that's close by. It might help you."

Marine laughed hysterically. Sure, after almost dying from aquakinesis overload. Fishing sounded good.

Props to Marine for being the only one capable of cursing in this fic. I wasn't actually sure about leaving it in, but I wanted the emphasis so...leaving it in.

And thus, we reach the end of the Exile. The last bit of the second Bloom. And now...we get the Expression.

Until Next Time.