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.
Exalt 12.7
Blaze's body was in pain. But however much she tried to ignore it, it didn't seem to matter. Every time Lightning hit her all the pain just flared up again. She was, for lack of a better term, getting utterly trounced by the ascended form of Lightning. Her fur was covered in sand, bruises, and more than a few minor cuts that hurt a lot more due to the sand.
And she once said she liked the ocean. When this is all over, no matter what, she was going to hate the ocean. Or maybe just deserts, the ocean was fine but the beach can just go away. Anything with sand. She'd already not liked the desert, but this was just starting to be a bit much.
Lightning was playing with them, and it didn't matter how much Blaze hit him with any amount or type of fire, he just ignored it. Which, she knew why. Ascended forms, like Lightning currently was, are almost invincible. There were maybe three things that could hurt them. Drowning, which Blaze thought wasn't likely. Crushing, which Blaze also thought wasn't likely. And getting hit really, really hard which now that she thought about it was more about being crushed against the air.
Of course, the definition of 'really, really hard' was somewhat of beyond the capability of the pyrokinetic cat at the moment. Regardless of what she thought of or used.
Glassed sand being made into a spear, no effect. The tiny reeds that dotted the dunes that she was being forced to run through that actually did more damage to her than she ever did to him, no effect.
Admittedly, Blaze didn't honestly think they would, but she had to do something to buy enough time for Tails to either get to the Blooming Tides and figure out how to end it, or for the Tides to make sure she could get a re-do. Even if it was one that she didn't know about or remember.
Lightning's fist brought her back to the present as he knocked the wind out of her, following up with a spin kick that was more style than substance. Not that it needed the help, as she was still sent flying, her back hitting the top of a dune and ending with a quaint little spin. Face down into the sand again, she reached out for the Sol Emeralds, trying to feel her connection again. She contained the Fire Primordial, right? Would it really just let her get kicked around like this?
The heat generated from around her body said that no, it wouldn't, but it also really wouldn't help her. "Ow," she murmured. There was still the connection to the Sol Emeralds, to her home world, but again, there was no energy. They weren't being charged.
Or at least, if they were, she wasn't able to feel it. That thought actually hurt her more than anything Lightning did. Did the Tides essentially remove her as Guardian, or would the Sol Emeralds be forever powerless, their Guardian stuck in time loops a world over?
Lightning appeared and grabbed her arm, pulling her up. "And here I thought you'd make a good first trial. Instead, I find you here whimpering like a dog."
She smashed a rapier of fire into his neck with her other hand, and coated her feet with fire as she attempted to kick him below the belt. He tossed her aside, sending sand flying as she rolled to a stop. "I suppose it is only a trial, after all," Lightning commented. "Without the Stones I have no doubt you'd give me a decent fight. Now though...no, I don't think you'd be enough."
He flexed his power again, and Blaze felt as the world started to shift. Her fur stood on end, and she tried to roll backwards as lightning came from the ground to strike Lightning, an aura of charge and energy surrounding him. "No, I don't think you'd be enough," he repeated.
Spark appeared out of one the dunes, sending a small charge at the panther. She grabbed a knife, sending it hurtling towards him.
The knife bounced off, and the charge was only added to the aura surrounding Lightning. He turned his head towards her. "Was that...intended to do something?" he asked, tilting his head. He smirked as Spark threw another knife, this one bouncing off of his head. There was no movement, nothing to indicate any momentum had been transferred.
In other words, it had done nothing. Blaze wasn't surprised. He was invincible, at the moment. But he couldn't keep it up forever; she had a unique tie in to the Sol Emeralds, so she could.
Once she could actually connect with them. That was an important step in her plan of 'try not to die.'
Lightning rushed over to the vixen, grabbing her by the neck without a care for her. He held her up, slowly strangling her as her hands wrapped around his wrist, trying, futilely, to get him to let go. Sparks jumped and weaved their way out of her hands into his, trying to shock him or do anything.
Blaze saw red. She called forth the flames, surging forward at near mach one. This would probably hurt, but it would almost definitely get him to drop her. She didn't bother attacking with claws or weapons, instead ramming herself into him as fast and hard as she could.
A knife carried little momentum. Blaze, on the other hand, when going as fast as she could? Carried a lot.
He was shoved back, going through a few dunes of sand with Blaze pushing into him, unable to feel half of her body from slamming into an unbreakable wall. His hands were empty, the cat noticed, so at least he'd dropped Spark.
"I actually felt that!" Lightning grinned, an aura of electricity arcing over and around his body. Small bits of rock and earth joined it. Blaze jumped to the left as a large rock erupted from the sand, but she hadn't gone quite far enough. The left side of her body was still in pain, and now her legs weren't working altogether all that well either. Her back landed in sand a few feet away, her body telling her to cut out whatever it was she was doing. And to never try to run mach one at Lightning again.
He appeared in front of her. "Maybe I was wrong. But you aren't...good enough, just yet. You could be a good trial. And if I kill you, then I know the other Exception was also a waste of time. I'll kill him too, then follow it up with the traitors of Ikan'Thoa."
Spark came up from another dune, her neck purple with bruises already. She was breathing hard. Electricity flooded around her, jumping from hand to hand and foot to torso, similar to the Elder's own aura.
"You did only react when something happened to the channeler. To Spark. I wonder then, could I repeat-" Lightning started to say.
Spark's eyes flashed blue and white as electricity charged from her body to his. Bolt upon bolt of lightning and power surged from her into him. Where she got that kind of power, Blaze wasn't sure, but it definitely looked like a once per lifetime thing.
Her eyes were heavy and half-lidded when she finally stopped. Her breathing was rough and ragged. Lightning's own eyes lit up even brighter as he watched her.
"I felt that one too! I didn't think it was possible for a channeler to affect me through this," Lightning said. He was grinning, showing his teeth. "And yet...that was the Tempest, wasn't it? Oh little one...trying so hard to hurt me, and that was your best bet. And you couldn't even do that," Lightning sneered.
Blaze growled, surging forward. Lightning's ears flicked, and he sidestepped almost as quick as Blaze could move, tripping her as she ran past. She'd cut out the flames fast enough, but her ankle, the same one she'd rolled when they first came into the world, was protesting as she landed face first into the sand. Now was a really bad time for it to hate on her. Spark let out her own growl, barely awake. Blaze smelled fear on her, fear and pain, and the fear of the inevitable failures in front of them.
Lightning stared at her. "You've both done beyond everything I'd imagined. But the Stones demand more pain, more suffering," he said slowly, softly. He send a small surge of electricity into Spark's body. "And a suicide attack isn't going to work. Not when I watched how the other Exception did it last time."
Spark cried out softly, a blackened burn mark on her chest where Lightning had struck her. He appeared in front of them, as if he hadn't moved at all, backhanding Spark into the dunes. The sand swallowed her up instantly, and the panther's attention turned to Blaze. "If attacking her gets you worked up, then I wonder. If your pain and agony, felt second hand, would charge the Stones more?" Lightning asked, as if asking how the weather was.
Blaze lost her breath as Lightning hit her stomach, forcing the wind out of her lungs. She dropped to one knee, barely able to breath.
Spark jumped out of the dunes, her red eyes filled with fury and hatred. She had her sword in her right hand, already charged with her own energy. Whether that would do anything, Blaze didn't know, but she doubted it. Lightning had shrugged off everything else at this point.
"Even through all that you have seen, and still you fight? If you were loyal, you could be even greater than you are," Lightning said softly. "But as it is..."
He flashed one silver eye towards Blaze, still on the ground, before he rushed towards Spark. The vixen raised her blade, intent on at least trying her best before she went. She would not go quietly.
Lightning's claws glowed a brilliant yellow, the same type that was from the sword. The sword was swung, and the panther caught it easily in one hand.
Then his other hand swiped out, aiming not for Spark's neck or chest as Blaze thought he would, but for the shoulder of the arm that was holding the blade.
Spark let out a disturbing cry, rough and filled with something that Blaze couldn't identify. It wasn't just pain or agony, but loss. It was mirrored by the thunder caused by the storm, hovering over a single mountain.
Blaze couldn't do anything. She was downed, half of her body ignoring her calls to fight. Her ankle was on the verge of breaking, and her mind was on the verge of breaking down.
She felt for the Sol Emeralds, hoping, beyond hope, that something had changed. Something would change.
But she was disappointed. Nothing had changed; she still couldn't reach them, and now Spark was grieving, and dying. And it was all...her...fault.
The Stones and idols around Lightning flashed brighter, and the panther laughed. "Yes! This is what I need! More suffering, more pain!"
Blaze's mind flashed. He wanted pain? Suffering?
Lightning flashed from the storm, heading straight downwards into the mountain.
A pillar of light erupted from half a world away, visible to all eyes as it shot straight up. Even through the curve of the world, it was plainly visible.
A world away, she felt the Sol Emeralds glow.
She dived into her mind, heading straight past the Flames of Destruction, feeling them start to burn her as she went past, straight to her connection to the Sol Emeralds.
Her lavender fur turned a light purple, almost pink. She felt the flames call to her, rather than her calling to the flames.
Her body stopped telling her it was in pain, instead flooding her with different signs. Signs of 'kick his ass'.
There was no movement required. She was suddenly right next to him, Spark down below, with her right arm on the ground next to her. Her left hand covering the shoulder. His silver eyes widened for just a moment before she kicked him, sending him straight back.
"You wanted pain? Then remember Fern, and all the others you led here to die. Remember them all, and burn," Burning Blaze said, her connection to the Sol Emeralds fully restored.
-Side T-
Tails threw everything he had at the Tides, again and again and again. Everything the storm tried to strike him with, he pushed it downwards, forcing it into the Tides.
Bolt after bolt, hundreds of thousands of volts of lightning and electricity, millions of amperes, thrown into the Tides. It struck every part of it, every flower was instantly decimated by the onslaught. The silver water steamed instantly as the bolts struck it. The crystal in the middle was destroyed almost the instant it was out of the water. Bolt after bolt finished whatever part was left. A storm of thousands of collective years dropped in the middle of a moment.
The storm didn't dissipate instantly, but Tails breathed hard as the lightning stopped, and the rain started. It was normal rain, clear rain, but Tails felt it like bullets hitting his skin. He dropped below, landing on the viewing platform. The silver water was gone, destroyed and steamed by the lightning storm. The flowers weren't just blacked charred husks; they were nothing but ash.
The crystal lay in the center, where once a burning sterling silver, now a messy green rock without any innate glow, cracked into thousands of pieces.
There was only one flower that still was visible; his own. The yellow flower with blue fractals stood tall, having lost all of its petals. The last petal floated downwards, hitting the cold dark rock, burned beyond belief from the storm and the assault.
It landed, and Tails stood where he was, breathing hard. Was...was it over? Had he finished it? Was that it!?
He crashed onto the ground, his body finally giving out. He felt a small pulse came out of the rock, the remains of the crystal. At first he thought he was going to be tossed through time again, but as it washed over him, instead he felt...freedom.
A pillar of light erupted from the ground, nearly half a world away. Tails stood up, shaking off his head. He spun his tails, trying to head up to higher ground to see where it was from.
Far off in the distance, barely visible even from where he was, he saw it. It reached up towards the heavens, towards the stars themselves. It was impossible to tell exactly where it came from, the distance was too vast for that, but he had an idea it was probably around the Elemental Mountain...Rock, he thought its name was?
He looked around the top of the mountain, the storm above rapidly dissipating. There was no lightning now, just small drops of rain that were hitting him. The storm clouds reached out for miles, and he saw the clouds lighten up from the dark grey that they were. The sun started to reach out to caress his face.
He pulled the Miles Electric, letting it gain its first part of charging in far too long. Almost since landfall on the continent. He let it sit there for a moment or two, getting to only one percent charge, but enough to turn on. He felt naked without it on, even though he technically was.
He flew to the sides and edges of the lonely mountain, looking over the different biomes that he and the other ran through. Where were they? He hadn't had the time to stop and wait for them, but now that he'd...hopefully...done it, they should be okay now.
They were starting to disappear, he noticed. Large chunks of each one would flash with a dull white, almost silver, before disappearing before his eyes. Had they actually been transported here from the various locales? And why had it been locations that they knew of?
A large flash of light blinded him from a small island off the coast of the biomes. It would take a long time to get there, even if he was heading straight. And yet...it seemed like it would only take minutes.
It had taken hours to get from the biomes to the lonely mountain, but it honestly seemed they were right next to each other. Did that mean that either space had been extended for that region, although it hadn't felt like it, or that he'd gotten smaller?
"Tails," Zephyr's voice called into his ear. "The locks have broken. You did it. You succeeded."
"But where's Blaze, and Spark? I don't see them down there, and I don't have any energy for a flare. And what's the giant pillar, far over there?" Tails asked.
"I can help bring you there. It would be my last action on this world. We may have found Sol and Bolt, but we still must continue our own journey," Zephyr said.
"To them, or to the light?"
"The light is just a crossing. Already Rock has told me of a being much like myself, but mixed with Bolt, coming from there. It won't take them long to arrive here."
Dread filled Tails' heart. Was there another enemy, one right on the horizon? One right before they could try to get home? "Take me to Blaze, and Spark, then. We'll try to find our way to the light from there," Tails said. "I won't leave here without them."
"Of course not, Bringer of Chaos," Zephyr called out. The wind circled around Tails, small leaves that didn't exist before filling an invisible path in front of him. Another of the Sky Roads. Had this always been here, or was this purely Zephyr's doing? Petals of the flowers from the Blooming Tides, the ones that survived his initial wrath, slowly fell on the wind. Tails bolted before any of them could touch him. He couldn't afford the time to get lost in memories of things that may or may not happen, now.
It was an age-old question. What happened at the end of a time loop? Did all of them collapse into a single workable timeline, somehow? Or was it just the most recent loop that ended things be the actual ending? Were all of them accurate, or was it just this one?
He remembered the possibilities that had existed prior to this loop. Katia, Spark, and Blaze. Riot in another one. Blaze with Loca, or with Fern. He hadn't realized their names when he'd seen them, because he hadn't met them in this timeline. And yet...Riot remembered. So it must have happened, to some degree. Because memories don't just come out of nowhere, they have to be made.
Although he did subscribe to the idea that the brain was capable of generating memories that didn't exist, he didn't think it was likely to happen in multiple sapients at once. Which meant that it must have happened, unless the wall was just messing with him, which was an unfortunate possibility.
The world may not have been alive, but it certainly felt like it at times. The Lost Jungle, the primordial mountain, the leviathans...everything was trying to either kill them or move them along. The ewing, the rosuvel, Reveniah, everything was intended for a reason.
Did...that mean that the Tides pushed them towards a certain path? Was it a primordial, as Zephyr and all of them actually thought, or was it an artifact? The crystal at the middle of the pool, surrounded by pillars in an obvious place of worship suggested the latter, but its power suggested the former. Was it a thing? Could it die?
The island came closer and closer within view, and the scent of blood hit his nose hard, blindsiding him. Someone, somewhere, had lost a lot of blood here. He stood over Loca, blood in his mouth.
The Sky Road was taking him to a small circular glassed platform, with what looked like similar signs of terrakinesis around it. Blood was easily visible covering most of it, and it was only the clear portions that told him how much of it was blood versus how much was color from the glass.
The sand covered his feet softly as he landed gently on the ocean's edge. There was no sign of Blaze, Spark, or anyone else around. But Zephyr wouldn't lie; especially because the air primordial knew that he could just fly out of here. Maybe to waste time, but there was no reason to waste time anymore. And even that had only been if he'd been on the Tides side to begin with, which it was evident, to Tails' mind, that he wasn't.
No, Blaze and Spark were here on the island somewhere. He took a deep breath, focusing on the different smells. He tried to filter out blood, filter out the stink of fear and death. It was light in the air, the light musk of both Spark and Blaze. It was faint at best, nigh indiscernible at worst.
There was no singular direction that he could find, except all around him. They'd been here, then. He stepped off the platform, staring into the sand dunes that lay at the center of the island. It hadn't been large that he could see, but the Sky Road had taken him in low and fast. He hadn't really been able to find a good overlook.
There was a twist to a sense though, one that he didn't think he had. It felt like his electrokinesis, but as more of a passive thing. Similar to what sharks had, he would have figured. Proprioception?
Curious, he followed it. At first he walked, and then the feeling get stronger. He started running. The feeling was even stronger now, a similar feeling to the power running over him most of the time. He recognized it, not from something of this world, but of something that he had a lot of experience from his own. The feeling of an ascended form.
And there was only one sapient he knew that had an ascended form on the entire planet. Blaze.
He rushed forward, spinning his tails faster and faster. Sand was launched behind him, his tails creating a tall wind that blew the stuff everywhere. The scents got stronger now, too. The scent of blood as well. He narrowed his eyes; what had happened here while he was gone? What had these two gone through!?
Admittedly, he'd gone through a lot too, so maybe that wasn't exactly unusual. He stood over Loca, the wolf already dead. His blood trails long and painful. Blood was in his mouth.
He poured on the speed as he toppled over a dune, seeing Spark in the distance. Her body was low to the ground, and she seemed oddly lopsided, but Tails didn't see why until he got closer.
She was missing her right arm. It had been cleaved almost clean through at the shoulder, precise and exact. He could make a similar cut, if he wanted to, but he'd never do that on purpose to an actual sapient!
"Spark! You alright?" He announced as he landed next to her. The vixen's red eyes were even redder, large and slightly puffy. One hand covered over the missing shoulder, kneeling on the ground. Spark glared at him. "Right, not okay. Sorry," he said softly. "What happened? I just got here!"
He wasn't ready for the one-armed hug as Spark tossed herself onto him. "Lightning," she answered just as quietly. "Something's happened. At first he was taunting us, then something happened to Blaze, she suddenly turned a bright pink-"
"Burning," Tails identified. He'd only seen it a few times in action, but he knew that was something that she could do with the Sol Emeralds. But that meant her connection with them had been restored to full.
Which meant that now...she and he could just...step out. Walk back to the Sol Empire as if on a daily stroll.
"Is that what it's called? She's kicking Lightning's ass, that's for sure," Spark said, looking up quietly at the large streams of flame and lightning in the air. "But Lightning...a similar thing happened to him. He was powerful...almost invincible-"
"Huh. He ascended then. Not a worry," Tails said. "Come on, we'll try to find her. Something's on its way, and I only hope that whatever is, its friendly. Zephyr warned me," Tails answered. "And...we'll handle it. Your arm."
"You'll 'hand'le it?" Spark glared. "I should slap you with that," she said, her head nodding towards one of the sand dunes. Presumably where her arm lay.
"It's just a phrase! It means that we can work something out!"
Tails wasn't sure if her glares could turn sand to glass or not, but he wasn't willing to find out, because he sure felt like she would do it. Spark sniffed the air around him. "You smell of blood. Are you alright?" she asked, her eyes narrowing as if confirming something.
He felt Loca's hands on his legs, trying to get him to stop. Claw after claw, blood after blood. He tasted blood in his mouth.
"I'm fine. Come on, we have to help Blaze!" Tails lied.
Fun fact! If you're wondering why Spark's not dead, it's because the arm was cauterized as it went through! Electricity, when visible, gives off all kinds of radiation. Including infrared, such as heat. And with a lot of heat, comes cauterization. Also painful.
Also Spark rolled a nat 2 for this arc. Yes, a nat 1 would have her killed right there.
I also thought about copy-pasting half of the previous arcs in the previous chapter, with different titles (Incursion, Inhibition, Imbibe, and Inertia for those wondering!) but I decided against it. I didn't want to be that type of writer, thematic though it would have been.
Until Next Time.