Chapter 19
Yeah, I felt very uncomfortable during the sex session with Sticks... at first. But I was surprised at how fun it managed to get. But I'm not going to mention any of what happened. But let's just say that it made me turn into someone that was willing to have sex with other Mobians... so long as I got theirs' and my current partners' permission. And Blaze also admitted that she was interested, but I had to earn her trust, first. Sure, getting rid of Eggman Nega was a good start, but I had a feeling I'd need to solve the issue of Solaris and the events of Sonic 06 before Blaze would be more willing.
Speaking of, we learned quite a lot by looking into GUN's records about Soleanna. We had learned everything about how the kingdom found a small, living flame that was impossible to burn out. They regarded this as their god, who told them its name was Solaris. But then, the Duke's wife had died from a terminal illness similar to what Maria had, a strand of NIDS that killed far faster and more painfully. Shortly after, he did experiments on Solaris to find out how to use its powers to bring his dead wife back to life... and it was just as it was in the games. The explosion killed everyone in the blast, but also left only a single survivor, the Duke's daughter, Princess Elise III. And it was said that the explosion resulted in Solaris splitting into two entities. A black shadow and a powerful flame of vengeance. And Blaze was struck badly at reading that part, specifically.
"Oh no... it's happening again, but much worse... so much worse..." Blaze said with concern, me looking at her with seriousness.
"What is?" I asked, playing dumb.
"Solaris has evoked her wrath onto those humans because of the torture they induced on her. And when she is furious, she splits into two forms. Mephiles the Dark and Iblis, the Flames of Disaster... only my parents were able to quell their wrath to the point they returned to normal... and of course, the first instance was because of Eggman Nega trying to rule over my world. We need to find them at all costs..." she said, me looking at her with a nod.
"Would it be possible for them to have life forces? And if you could show me what these life forces are like?" I asked, her nodding... she then held onto one of her Sol Emeralds and I held a Chaos Emerald in mine. She then touched our emeralds together and I gasped as I saw the essence she meant as well as a small memory... of what Solaris looked like in her angered state and how her parents defeated it... by using her Sol Emeralds to contain its powers and forcing it to be quelled with purity.
"Okay... time to find their locations," I said as I then found Iblis quite easily. And he was right where I thought he'd be, right inisde of Princess Elise. As for Mephiles? He was inside of a dark scepter that was currently in the possession of a certain egghead in a snowy mountain close to Soleanna.
"I can sense their locations... both of them are currently sealed in vessels. Mephiles is inside of a dark scepter in a snowy mountain base owned by Eggman from this world... and Princess Elise is the current vessel for Iblis..." I said, that making Blaze gawk.
"This... is problematic..." she said with concern... and I then gasped as I felt another thing happen. Shadow, Rouge, and Team Chaotix had just found the scepter... and they shattered the scepter in the process!
"FUCKING SHIT!" I shouted in shock, which made Blaze surprised.
"W-What is it?!" she asked.
"The scepter got broken! Mephiles has been freed!" I said with fear... and then, I sensed again, seeing that he'd taken Shadow's powers from his... shadow. "Even worse, he's absorbed the powers of Shadow, who is a very powerful robot that is connected to the Chaos Emeralds! We need to head out effective immediately!" I said, her nodding as I then proceeded to grab my Chaos Emeralds and say the word. "Chaos CONTROL!" I shouted, me then warping to the area immediately... JUST in time to see Mephiles send the whole lot of my allies into the future!
"SHIT! We're too late!" I said with fear.
"W-Where are they?!" Blaze asked as I then felt it... Mephiles hadn't left. He was still around.
"It's not where, but rather when," he said, me feeling a feeling of dread I hadn't felt before at all in this world. I looked around, as did Blaze, but Mephiles stayed in the shadows.
"Mephiles... do you not recognize me?" Blaze asked. And he simply chuckled creepily, unable to be seen.
"How could I not?... The princess that was meant to protect me... but failed miserably... how I would love to make you perish right here and now, but that wouldn't be fun, would it?" Mephiles asked, me finally having enough as I proceeded to use the powers of the fire emerald to light the place up with light, melting the snow around us in the process. And when I did so, Mephiles finally emerged, as there were no more shadows around for him to hide in. And he looked exactly like he did in the game, no mouth and everything.
"You will not interfere with my plans. I will merge with Iblis and I will have my vengeance!" Mephiles said before then grabbing me with telekinesis, me gasping as I felt my body unable to move from the spot! "Now, if you do not comply with my demands, you will perish," he said, me feeling like I was getting squeezed by a pressure plate... I managed to withstand the pain and grab the Chaos Emerald of electricity, me then forcing the air around Mephiles to shock him relentlessly! And that was enough for him to actually get hurt, since the electricity was very bright! And I guess light was his biggest weakness! Regardless, I finally felt myself back in control as Mephiles then teleported away in an instant, me gulping at that.
"He... he knows how to use Chaos Control..." I gulped.
"What's that?" Blaze asked.
"It's where you use the powers of the Chaos Emeralds to control the world around you... you can teleport anywhere, you can slow or stop time, and you can even time travel if you use it with two emeralds touching each other... but it seems I'll need to do that as of right now to rescue Shadow and the others in the future... who knows if they'll be safe?" I asked in fear.
"So, what do we do about Elise? Because the only way for Mephiles to effortlessly fuse with Iblis is to have the vessel cry tears of sadness!" Blaze said with seriousness.
"You will go find the princess and protect her at all costs. I will go to the future to find and rescue my friends," I said, her nodding as I then focused with the two emeralds touching each other... I focused on going into the future, right next to where Shadow, Rouge, and the Chaotix were at... and after I executed the technique, I gasped as my environment changed drastically, me seeing that I was now in the area of Crisis City! And I was right next to the 6 people, them looking at me in shock.
"WHOA! How'd you get here?! Moreover, where is here?" Charmy asked in concern.
"It's because of Mephiles. He made all of you travel into the distant future... and judging from the drastic changes of the place and from what the emeralds told me, he teleported us 400 years into the future," I said, Shadow gawking at that. "I'm going to use Chaos Control to take us back to our timeline, roughly 2 minutes after I time traveled," I said, them nodding at that.
"But what about this world? It looks like something bad happened in the past to have caused something like this," Rouge said as she pointed at the immensely burnt and fire-filled city in front of us.
"I have a feeling I know what it's about, but we'll need to go back in time to prevent it from happening. Now are you going to stand there and dawdle, or are you going to come back to our own timeline?" I asked, them then complying as they all then touched me at the same time and I then held the Chaos Emeralds in hand, the blue and yellow ones, and executed Chaos Control. Same area, two minutes after I left the first time. And just like that, we saw our scenery change to the snowy area in an instant, me looking at the others and them seeing that they were a bit weirded out.
"This time travel stuff is making me dizzy..." Charmy said with a small smile as he started to fly around in a daze.
"Yes, it is very weird, but it's a power that we must exercise with caution... but who is Mephiles and how did he gain my powers?" Shadow asked with seriousness.
"He's one half of a deity that belongs to another dimension. He wishes to join with his other half, Iblis, in order to seek vengeance against this world for when they were tortured. But the only way for them to join effectively is if the current vessel for Iblis cries tears of sadness," I said. At least it was a hell of a lot of a better rule than no crying in general.
"Then we'll need to find out where this vessel is at. Where do we go?" Mighty asked as he held onto his conjoiner ring with a frown.
"We go to the kingdom of Solenana. Ask around for Princess Elise III. She's the current vessel. I would warp us to her directly, but Chaos Control doesn't work when two entities or more share the same body," I said, them nodding as we then rushed down the mountain towards the city in the distance. And when we finally got there, we saw that we were just in time for the Festival of the Sun. We saw the human girls dancing, which looked less realistic and more what the human characters would look like in Unleashed. But they still did look beautiful. And Elise? Even though she did look a little more cartoony, she still looked drop-dead gorgeous. She walked towards the pedestal with the torch in hand and I saw that she gasped slightly. But she regained her composure shortly after.
"Ahem... today we give thanks to the flames. Let us rejoice for the blessings of the sun shining down on us. May Solaris watch over us always," Elise said before then lighting the big, elaborate symbol of Soleanna. But shortly after, a deluge of wind completely blew out the flames as the place then had Egg Robos fall down from the sky as opposed to the normal robot enemies in the game. And shortly after, appearing from above us in his Eggmobile, none other than Eggman himself.
"A please to meet you, Princess of Soleanna. I am Doctor Eggman," he said as he looked at the princess with intrigue. And it was only then that I noticed that she had something on her neck... an emerald that I sensed had even more power than even my Chaos Emeralds.
"A... A super emerald..." Espio said for me when he sensed it before I did.
"I have come to demand the powers of the Flames of Disaster within you, as well as the tools I will need to make it a reality, like the Super Emerald around your neck!" he said as Elise then stiffened up and tightly gripped her necklace that had the emerald in it. I then decided to come in and make my presence known. I forced the wind to engulf the robots on the platform and have them fall into the water around the podium, me then arriving onto the platform afterwards with a smile.
"Well, looks like I've gotta be the hero to rescue the princess, huh?" I asked with a smug smirk. And when Elise saw me, she looked shocked.
"You?... It can't be..." she gawked, me frowning at her. Was she really mistaking me with Silver? Or perhaps Blaze? I then rushed in and grabbed onto Elise and started to rush down the streets as the people then scattered.
"Not you again! FIRE!" Eggman shouted as he then proceeded to send out missiles at us, me making sure that the citizens were protected by barriers of air and electricity so they didn't get hurt at all.
"Who are you?... And why are you helping me?" Elise asked me as I had managed to rush us towards the northern docks of Soleanna and that we'd lost Eggman's pursuit.
"Name's Cheryl Martinez. Secret Agent and world hero twice over... and I'm helping you because you have something inside of you that is very dangerous. The Flames of Disaster, Iblis," I said, her sighing and nodding.
"I know... I've known ever since I had that first nightmare," she said, me sighing and nodding at her.
"I need to find out from an expert on how to get Iblis out of you without it wreaking havoc, especially since it's other half, Mephiles, has been recently released," I said, her nodding at me.
"Okay... so you will protect me, then?" Elise asked, me nodding at her.
"Yes, I will," I said as I then tried to sense where Blaze was at. And I sensed that she was currently in the warehouse district in the area we were at. "I sense that Blaze is due north of us. Let's go," I smirked, us then going with both of us simply walking to the location. And on the way, Elise then asked me an important question.
"Why do you look a lot like the person I've seen in my dreams?... The one that sealed Iblis inside of me when I was just 9?" she asked, me looking at her with confusion.
"At least you didn't judge me by appearance... I don't know why that is the case, but I can tell you that I used to be just like you. A normal everyday human... and also just like you, something extremely convoluted happened that changed my life forever. For you it was getting a fiery monster sealed inside of your soul... and for me, I was warped from my dimension to this one, where I became a third human, a third Mobian, and a third Chao," I said, her smirking at me.
"And here I thought you were the first halfbreed of human and Mobian... but at least we share a bit in common... it makes it easier to talk," Elise said, me nodding as I kept my ears peeled for any kind of mech sound. I didn't want Elise to be captured a million times like Princess Peach. But I also had to hope she was a good person and not at all like at the end, where she would rather know Sonic instead of save the world. And when we got to the warehouses, we saw that Blaze was fighting the dark versions of the fire worms, all of them forged by Mephiles!
"Oh my! W-What are these things?!" Elise asked in fear... before she then forged a barrier around herself, which I recognized as being the one that happened during the Sonelise gameplay, as I called it. And Blaze only then saw us and looked annoyed.
"Minions of Mephiles. Blaze, tag out! You watch Elise, I'll handle these bastards!" I shouted, her then rushing towards me and her as I then proceeded into the battle fray to fight the dark enemies. I did this for roughly a minute, not stopping my slaughter once!... And then, once all of them were gone, I felt that I was being watched... watched by someone who had a mind's eye. And then, my compass went crazy, pointing up towards the sky! And it was another Super Emerald! I instinctively dodged out of the way of an attack of pure psyonic energy as the psychic hedgehog hovered down from the sky.
"I've been looking for you. You're the Iblis trigger! Your actions will condemn us all!" Silver said, me looking at him with seriousness as I noted that Blaze and Elise looked on in confusion.
"Apologies, but I think you've got the wrong girl. I'm trying to protect an innocent princess and stop a dark force from destroying the world. And I've already saved the world twice over, so tell me how I'd be an Iblis Trigger," I said. But Silver simply growled at me and then used his psychic attacks on me, me gasping as I felt my body feel like it was getting manipulated all over! I felt him trying to break my bones, but me fighting it was very hard! Eventually, I managed to grab the green emerald and I forced the wind to push him back against a giant container with such force that it caused him and the container to fly into the wall. But he was still kicking!
"Ugh... you are really dense... why attack someone you barely know? Especially considering you would've known my heroism if you've been around here for the past 3 months," I said in annoyance as I picked myself off the ground, feeling slightly winded... and I then heard a mech sound, me looking behind me and seeing that there was a group of robots from Eggman that Blaze was destroying whilst holding onto Elise. And Eggman was there, too!
"Keep her safe, Blaze! Don't let Eggman catch her!" I shouted. But I also turned away from Silver long enough for him to force me to the ground with a push of psychic energy, me gasping as I felt the air leave my body again!
"Don't you DARE turn your back on me! It's time I finally put an end to this!" Silver shouted... before I was rescued by someone.
"STOP!" shouted none other than Amy!
"Amy? Get out of my way, Amy!" Silver shouted.
"Absolutely NOT!" she shouted, me looking at her as I saw that Blaze had managed to keep Elise and she'd managed to make Eggman retreat... while also procuring another friggin' Super Emerald! And this one was the one that was red in color, as opposed to Elise's blue and Silver's... silver.
"Thanks, Amy... but why?" I asked, her then looking at me and then at Silver.
"Us girls have the stick together. Leave it to me," Amy said, me looking at Blaze and both of us then leaving... but I then decided to look at the scene that unfolded as we ran towards the jungle area of Soleanna.
"The person you were looking for was Cheryl?! Were you planning to kill her?" Amy asked in shock.
"Yes, she's responsible for destroying my world!" Silver said with annoyance.
"That's CRAZY! Cheryl would NEVER do that!" Amy shouted back.
"But it's true!" he shouted, me then going into his brain on my own to talk to him.
"Based on what, idiot?! An edgy gif of someone you saw inside of a jolly rancher?" I asked him, using a direct quote from an Everything Wrong With video on this game. And when he heard that, he gasped as he looked around and then Amy looked at him with a frown.
"I don't believe it. Besides, she's done so much for me and my friends! If I had to choose between the world and Cheryl, I would choose Cheryl," Amy said before running away... and I could then feel Silver's confusion, doubt, and even guilt going on in his head. I sighed at this and went into his head again.
"Tell me something, psychic boy. Who was the one that told you I was an Iblis Trigger? And if so, what proof did they give to incriminate me?" I asked him, Silver frowning and looking around again.
"Where are you?" he asked.
"As far away from you as I can get, since you tried to kill me. Now answer the question," I said. And what was his response?
"A guy called Mephiles told me. He showed me an image of you releasing Iblis to bring destruction upon the world!" he said, me frowning at that.
"And this same Mephiles is part two of Iblis. And combined they form an entity called Solaris. Don't believe me? Do research before you trust some stranger without a mouth," I said, him then gasping. "Yeah, didn't think about that, now did ya? How can he talk without a mouth? And how does he go between worlds so effortlessly to try and bring gullible assassins to do his dirty work? He doesn't want to save your world, he just wants to merge with Iblis. And the only way he can do that is by making Princess Elise cry tears of sadness. That's why we're protecting her, so she doesn't get hurt and doesn't cry. So, it's your choice. Which of the two strangers do you believe?" I asked him, Silver then simply closing his mind with his psychic powers so I couldn't talk to him anymore. And by this point, we'd emerged into the jungle area, us arriving at the big lake and us simply sitting down to rest from all the running.
"This place... I remember it," Elise said as she looked around and she saw the dilapidated castle in the distance. "That castle... it was where everything happened... the Solaris Project..." Elise sighed, Blaze looking at her with seriousness.
"What happened during this project?" she asked her.
"I remember it vividly. You two were there somehow... you, miss Blaze, were the one to seal Iblis inside of my body... and Mephiles was sealed in the scepter of darkness by you, Cheryl... but how could that happen... if you're here in this timeline?" she asked, me looking at Blaze with seriousness.
"I think I know what we have to do, but I don't like it one bit," I said, her nodding at me.
"Yes, we have to go back in time to make the events happen correctly," Blaze said. And it was then that Elise gave me the Super Emerald around her neck. Take this with you... it will allow you to seal Iblis within me... at least, that's how my dreams said you did it," she said. And it was then that I noted that the Super Emeralds were oval shaped as opposed to the normal gem shape of the Chaos Emeralds or the rectangular shape of the Sol Emeralds. And when I touched it, I gasped as I felt something happen to me... immense power flowing through me with the crashing of the most horrid of storms! I felt... powerful! But I also felt like I was one with the water itself! I then looked around me and I saw that the space around me was full of water to be seen, including the air around me, the ground beneath us, our sweat droplets, and the lake to our right.
"I... That emerald has a kick to it... I feel like I've become one with the element of water... this feels... amazing..." I said, Blaze smiling at me.
"Then I guess that you're also attuned with the Super Emeralds as well as your Chaos Emeralds... at least, that's just a guess," she said.
"Okay... we'll be back in roughly thirty seconds, Elise. So, hide in the bushes while we go to the past," I said, her nodding as she then hid amongst the foliage. I then held Blaze as I touched the Chaos Emeralds of yellow and purple together to go to the area of the past I wished. Old Soleanna Castle, the time of the Solaris Experiment's failure... and in an instant, the environment changed around us as we found we were in a hallway and we felt an immense heat coming from ahead of us as well as an eerie red light.
"My lord, it's too late! We've got to take shelter!" shouted one of the scientists.
"Why, Solaris?! Why do you refuse to listen to my voice?!" asked the Duke as I then heard another voice.
"Father! Look out!" shouted Elise's voice... and then, the explosion happened! And once we got into the room, we saw that it was much more bloody than the game allowed and that Solaris was only then proceeding to split apart into Iblis and Mephiles.
"I'll contain Iblis right now. You stop Mephiles," Blaze said as she grabbed the super emerald from my grasp. She then proceeded to grab hold of the fiery deity and I saw that the Scepter of Darkness was being held by the Duke... and that Elise was safe underneath him, though unconscious. I grabbed the scepter and rushed after the dark shadowy essence before then executing my ability.
"Chaos CONTROL!" I shouted, forcing my telportation powers on the black shadow of Mephiles as it started to speak.
"Rggh... Garggh..." he groaned as I then proceeded to send his energies into the scepter. "You... who are you?" he asked angrily.
"One that wishes for you to be good instead of evil... but for now, you must be sealed away," I said to him as I forced the essence to go inside the scepter.
"You... female creature... your death... certain... you... will DIE!" Mephiles said angrily as I finally finished sealing him away and then grabbed the scepter before it fell on the ground. I then went back to the main area and saw that Elise was starting to stir, but that she was otherwise unharmed other than her having a fiery demon inside of her. And Blaze was the one to speak to her.
"Be a good girl, little Elise... be brave... don't be sad... and don't cry, no matter what might happen... otherwise your tears will call forth the flames inside of you. Be a good ruler and make sure that the kingdom prospers... we'll meet with you again, I promise," Blaze said as I then held onto Blaze and she nodded. Elise was only barely opening her eyes, but she did speak afterwards.
"Thank you... so much..." she said as I held the emeralds in my grasp. "Promise me... when we meet again... we can bring her back... Solaris... she didn't... deserve this," she squeaked out, me smiling at that as I held the emeralds together and smiled at her.
"We shall keep that promise," I said as I then focused on going back to the area from before. The lake we left at, thirty seconds after the fact. And shortly after, we arrived... and we saw Elise was there and she looked at us with a smile.
"So... you want to tell me how to bring her back?" Elise asked, Blaze smiling at that being the first thing she asked.
"The only way to do so is to purify both of the parts of Iblis and Mephiles... Iblis is easy. All the vessel has to do is cry tears of joy, as opposed to sadness. But Mephiles is more... complicated. Normally, all that would need done is to expose him to holy light, but with the current status of him assuming the form of someone's shadow, we'll need to do something else," Blaze said, me looking at her with confusion.
"What would we need to do?" I asked her.
"We'll need to convince him to possess a host. Then, that host will need to have enough willpower to overpower his influence. If they can fight the influence, then they must expose themselves to direct sunlight. But if not... Mephiles will completely overpower them and take over their bodies. And he can freely corrupt Iblis once more and merge into an evil form of Solaris," Blaze said, me gulping at that. Someone who had enough willpower to fight Mephiles's control... and it was then that I felt that there could only be a single candidate.
"I'm willing to do it," I said, Elise gasping at that, and Blaze looked at me in seriousness.
"You're sure? You think you might have enough willpower?" the cat hybrid asked. I simply nodded.
"I've conquered my own personal demons before I came to this world. I think I could handle anything that Mephiles has to throw at me," I said... but then... something bad happened.
"Is that so?" asked the voice of the dark prophet himself! I then gasped as I felt a force of darkness completely envelop my entire being! "You will make a fine vessel! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!" Mephiles cackled... and then, I felt myself completely coated in darkness.