Chapter Text
A streak of blue cuts through the thick green foliage of the immense jungle. Following shortly behind is a barrage of flames. Despite Blaze being the only one with a navigation system, Sonic jolts on ahead seeming to know the jungle like the back of his hand. He weaves between colossal trees and swings from the many dangling vines from the leafed roof above. It was hard not to enjoy oneself while traveling with Sonic. He always managed to find the most eccentric ways of getting from one place to another, and Blaze quite enjoyed the challenge of keeping up with the blue blur.
An enjoyment that was unable to be appreciated fully, as Blaze felt the full weight of the task at hand. This wasn’t just some fun adventure, they had to retrieve the Sol Emeralds. The thought of them getting into the hands of that thing made Blaze feel ill.
“Hey Blaze ya keeping up over there?!” Sonic called out from atop a tall branch just a few meters ahead of where Blaze was. Having been pulled out of thought, she propelled herself up in a plume of flames to meet Sonic on the branch.
“You travel around this jungle quite agilely, are you familiar with this place?” Blaze tried to match the same casual tone, but found that it came out stifling. A fact that she had no doubt Sonic picked up on. How he was able to be so cool in the most dire of circumstances was always a mystery to her.
“Well ya never know where a run might take you, so I’ve found myself here once or twice before.” he replied with a carefree smile and shrug. “What can I say? I’m a worldly guy.” upon saying that Sonic leans back off the branch falling to the ground below.
Blaze jumps forward to try to help her falling friend, but before she can make a move, she sees him bounce upwards from the plethora of flora below to meet her at eye level. He gives her a smirk and a little salute before grabbing onto a nearby vine and swinging onward into the forest.
“Haha Gotcha!! You were always so jumpy around heights!” Blaze gives a stern look at that and a heavy sigh before being again consumed by flames and launched forward to keep up.
“I must admit, you really are impressive. I hardly know the immediate area around my kingdom, much less beyond.”
“Well what’s stopping you?” replies Sonic as he flies off the vine landing on a large leaf. He gracefully jumps from the many colossal leaves in the area as he makes his way forward. Blaze follows shortly behind, scoffing to herself.
“Well as the Imperial Princess of the Sol Kingdom I have certain duties that must be fulfilled, One in such a position cannot just go about the world at their leisure.” At this Sonic turns around to give Blaze a sour look before scaling up a large fallen tree.
“I have traveled across hundreds of miles in a matter of minutes, and yet somehow just a minute of what you're describing sounds so much more exhausting.” He makes a quick leap onto the ground managing to slide under a small gap between the sprouting root of a grand tree and the ground. Blaze flies herself over the root to meet him on the other side. From there Sonic scales the large tree to try to gain some altitude, Blaze follows closely behind.
“Besides, how are you supposed to care for your kingdom if you don’t even know anything about it? What do you know about the people or the scenery or… Well there's a bunch of things! If you don’t live life to experience all it has to offer, what's the point?” Sonic can practically hear the eye roll Blaze gives him, but her lack of response tells him that she knows he has a point.
“Can’t you at least have someone to help you pick up the slack a bit in the Kingdom so you can get out there a bit?” Blaze shakes her head and hurries her pace so she is almost running side by side with the blue hedgehog. “It’s not that easy for me to just… put so much faith into others.” They have finally reached the great canopy of leaves and now quickly jump between them traveling large ground in seconds.
“Sonic, I don’t know how you do it. All of you here are all so trusting of each other.” She jumps onto a particularly large leaf which propels her upwards to the next one. “I mean you let both Amy and Tails go search for a Sol Emerald without you accompanying them. How can you trust that they’ll succeed at the task? How can you be so sure of them?” Sonic looks as though he's genuinely contemplating Blaze’s question and a much smaller, more genuine smile comes to his face as he hops from leaf to leaf.
“If I’m being honest? It’s not easy to let my friends go into danger without me at their side. But they’re my friends and I’ve seen them grow so much. I know that they can handle this. They’ve never let me down before. If I were to not trust them after all this time that would make me a pretty bad friend huh?” As he says this Sonic lands from a leaf to a large wooden shelf. Blaze follows suit, but her contemplation on Sonic’s words causes her to miss the ledge just slightly. As her feet miss the ledge she feels herself plummet downwards.
But before Blaze can react she realizes she has suddenly stopped in her descent. She looks up to see a familiar gloved hand pull her upwards by the wrist. She helps launch herself back up with a burst of flames and meets Sonic's eyes with a sigh of relief.
“See? It’s all about trust!” Sonic puts both of his hands on his hips and stands quite smug. After Blaze catches her breath she can feel her face run hot “I apologize I was-” but before Blaze can continue Sonic holds his hand up to stop her.
“Don’t even worry about it, that’s what friends are for. Now! How close are we to the Sol Emerald?” Blaze swallows her pride and looks down at the watch-gadget-thing that Tails had given her.
“It should be straight ahead. We’re close.”
“Perfect, I'll race ya there!” and in a flash they’re off, but it only takes a minute before they come to a clearing in the Jungle. In the clearing is a small lake littered with lily pads and stone pillars jutting out from the surface. They clearly used to be structures of some kind, but now all that remains are the dismal ruins of what once was. Each being held together by a thick layer of moss. The sight would have been fairly beautiful to Blaze if it wasn’t for the fact that they were not the only ones enjoying the sight. The entire lake seemed to be crawling with a variety of mechanical beasts. Sonic grimaces.
“Ugh, not only did there have to be water, but Eggman’s bots are here too?! They really know how to welcome a guy huh?” Blaze scans the area. Her eyes rest on a stone pillar in the middle of the lake. It towers over the scene. If Blaze’s senses were right, and they always were, then that's where the Sol Emerald resided.
“There, on top of that pillar! I’m sure that's where it is. I don’t know why Eggman’s forces are here, but clearly we need to get to that Emerald before them.” Sonic chuckles to himself, quickly stretching his arms. “Okay easy! Just destroy those badniks, get the emerald and be out before Eggman even notices we’ve wrecked his little patrol.”
Just as Sonic takes his first step forward he is immediately intercepted, and in a blue flash crashes into the lily pads below. He is held down by a pair of metal claws. Sonic grabs hold of the arms that are pushing him down and with the help of a swift kick, is able to fling the metal being behind his head into the water. He scrambles to his feet.
“And of course it couldn’t be a real party without you Metal. Just when I was worried it would be too easy.” As the words leave his mouth the lily pad shoots upwards causing him to stumble back and just barely make his way to another. Metal Sonic hovers before him having flung the other lily pad well across the lake. Its cold lifeless eyes stare holes through Sonic before jetting towards him.
“Sonic what is that?!” shouts Blaze as she makes her way towards the two battling blue figures. “Blaze don’t worry about me! I can handle this bucket of bolts. Just focus on grabbing the Sol Emerald!” The comment clearly enraged the metal mimic as his punches seem to get faster and Sonic gets a clear cut to the stomach causing him to fall backwards. He gets up just as quickly however, meeting metal with a quick spin dash. Blaze takes a short breath giving Sonic a nod of her head as she makes her way to the large pillar, crashing through whatever badnik has the misfortune of crossing her path.
Finally she reaches the base of it. Using a combination of foot hold from the decaying stone and bursts of flames she is able to scale the monument. Sounds of the struggle between Sonic and Metal are heard below. Upon trying to get a glimpse of the brawl all she can see is scattered blue blurs and the exhaust from whatever engine propels the metallic monstrosity. Blaze averts her gaze from the scene below, as with the height she was currently at it wasn’t exactly a comfort to look down. She had to have confidence that her ally could handle himself.
The top of the pillar is small and unstable; the green of the flora comfortably decorates the top with a thick carpet of green. Once Blaze gets her footing she takes a deep breath, and attempts to channel the Sol Energy and locate the emerald. At once she is drawn to a particularly thick patch of greenery in front of her. She digs into the thick moss clawing away at the mess of vines that curl around what Blaze is searching for. At last she claws something free. The emerald is heavy in her hands and, despite the layer of dirt on it from the encroaching nature that had surrounded it, it shimmers a brilliant green. Before Blaze can think of what to do next, her attention is ripped away by a booming voice.
“Iblis Trigger! I’ve finally found you, and I will not let you use that stone to bring about the end.” The source of the voice hovers in a cyan light his stare is unwavering and filled with determination. Blaze instinctively pulls the Sol Emerald into her chest and fully turns to the gray hedgehog before her.
“For the future of the world, I will destroy you!” and at that he flicks his hands forward and debris from the other crumbling pillars is flung towards her. She is able to narrowly avoid the projectiles by diving off the side of the pillar. Slowing her descent with a cloud of flames. She launches herself to the nearest pillar.
“I am the Imperial Princess of the Sol Dimension! You must misunderstand, I have no desire to destroy your world!” Despite her cry she is only met with another bombardment of debris. This time she uses a burst of flames to divert them off course. The boy in front of her remains focused on her, his stare unbroken.
“You will not trick me Blaze the Cat, I know what you really are!” At this the pillar below Blaze’s feet glows and shifts. She is knocked off balance and the green Sol Emerald just barely leaves her grasp before it’s submerged in that same cyan glow and flung to the opposite side of the lake. Blaze shoots towards it in a plume of flames before she is hit again by an onslaught of rocky projectiles. She lands on a lily pad below, and can hear Sonic call her name before being muffled by what sounds to be a metallic punch to the jaw. She jolts up, and now meets the eyes above her with a similar fury.
“I have no idea what you are talking about, but now you are wasting my time. And that is unacceptable.” The hedgehog reacts to the words as if he’d been gut punched. “Wasting your time? My time has been destroyed because of you, and I will not stop until the future is saved.”
“BLAZE! WATCH OUT!” shouts a far away Sonic as he tries and fails to get past the wall that is Metal Sonic. Blaze looks around to her side only to notice that the pillar she was previously on is now plummeting towards her at a shocking speed. She now runs from lily pad to lily pad towards where the Sol Emerald was thrown as the pillars start falling all around her. The words of the psychic echo in her head. He must be confused, misled. But that name he used sounded so… familiar.
On Blaze’s next leap she finds that her feet don't reach her destination. In fact she isn’t moving at all. She is frozen in the cyan light, and before she can fully process the situation is thrown into a large tree bordering the lake. When she opens her eyes the gray hedgehog is right in front of her, just a hint of exhaustion on his face. Who was this guy?
“Blaze the Cat.” he went on to say. But Blaze could hardly focus over the harsh pounding in her head from the impact. She reaches for the Sol emerald in her pocket, but finds that it isn’t there. Panic colors her face, panic that the other picks up on immediately a slight smile comes to his face. “Please, you really think I’d let you keep that one you? I know what you need these for, and I will do anything to ensure that doesn’t come to fruition.” The silver hedgehog reveals the red jewel from his grasp. Blaze recoils in shock, how could she have not even noticed he had-
“You are the Iblis Trigger, my time has been destroyed by Iblis. Your flames and ruin are all I have ever known, and I am going to make sure that no one else will ever have to suffer that fate.” The words sink into Blaze and she is hit with a jolt of recognition. Her breath hitches in her throat as that word and all memories associated finally flood her mind. She freezes, a look of horror in her eyes.
“Goodbye Iblis Trigger” At that the hedgehog extends his hand forward and a large piece of debris is launched from behind him. Blaze shuts her eyes tight and braces herself for the impact.
But instead she hears a crash several feet ahead of her followed by the sound of rock hitting the water. She opens her eyes to see a figure in front of her. He looked almost identical to the one that had brought her here in the first place. He was a hedgehog with large black quills, but something about him was far different from the thing she had fought before. Nonetheless she finally found the energy to get back to her feet, keeping her focus on him.
“Mephilas!? B-Why would you do that? I- I was so close” the exhaustion could now clearly be heard in the gray hedgehog’s voice. He lowered himself to a lily pad below, his legs buckled under his weight, but only for a moment. Looking at him now, Blaze couldn’t help but feel an immense pity for the person who had just tried to kill her near seconds ago. He looked young, and very tired.
“My name is not Mephilas. And you have something I want.” The voice that came from the uncannily familiar hedgehog in front of Blaze was low and had a distinctive bitterness. Far different than the voice she had heard before.
“SHADES! Aw thanks for the save man!! I’m a little busy over here-” Sonic quietly ducks under a punch from Metal “-but if you could help me out with that psycho over there that would be-” before Sonic can properly finish that thought he is again shoved by Metal and falls into the lake. He’ll probably be fine. This is what Blaze repeats to herself as she switches her focus to the scene in front of her. Clearly Sonic was friendly with this man, so it couldn’t possibly be the thing from before… right?
“Of course you’re here Faker.” He practically spits the last word and Blaze had to revise her previous assumption that Sonic was allied with this guy. “I’m not here to get involved in whatever fight you’ve started here.”
The gray hedgehog looked hopelessly between the two other hedgehogs before finally snapping back to the one in front of Blaze. “Who even are yo- Ugh Never mind! That doesn’t matter. Get out of my way and let me destroy the Iblis Trigger!”
The black and red hedgehog shifts his weight and scoffs before shouting a phrase that Blaze couldn’t quite catch. In a flash he disappeared entirely. Both Blaze and the opposing hedgehog share a look of confusion, a look that is cut short as the gray hedgehog gets a swift kick to the back of the head and is downed immediately. The, now re-appeared, black and red hedgehog looms above the other who is seemingly knocked out cold.
“I’ll be taking this. And you’re coming with me.” he grabs the red Sol Emerald from next to Silver and examines it for a moment. “What do you think you’re doing with that?!” shouts a very disoriented Blaze. Instead of answering her the hedgehog darts his eyes towards Sonic and his struggle against Metal.
“You guys look to have it covered here.” for a moment Blaze could have sworn she saw a look of amusement as the other watched Metal toss Sonic across the water. Blaze finally found her footing and propelled herself towards the other hedgehog, but by the time she landed both of the unknown hedgehogs along with the Sol Emerald were gone. Blaze frantically looked for places where they could have gone, but couldn't find any sign of the two.
What she did find was a large ship now directly above the lake. How long it had been there Blaze couldn’t say, but she could see a small ship dismount from it. A shout from Sonic could be heard from only a little ways across the lake. Blaze made the dash towards it. A cloud of flames engulfed Metal before his sensors could even detect that she was there. They propelled him backwards, and his eyes seemed to glitch out for a moment.
“Haha! What? Cat fry your circuits Metal?!” a soaked Sonic called out as he pulled himself out of the water onto the lily pad Blaze was on. She offered him a hand up which he enthusiastically took. But before they could make another attack they heard a laugh from behind.
“Fantastic work Metal! You may retreat back now, you have done enough.” The Metal copy hovered for a moment, eyes locked on the other blue hedgehog before finally returning to the large ship above.
“Eggman! What are you doing all the way out here? Can’t you play with your toys somewhere else? Seriously Eggy, leaving all these badniks out here can’t be good for them. Who knows, someone might even come around and break em’.” Eggman’s smile didn’t falter as he sat atop his tiny ship. Blaze did not miss seeing that face.
“Well at least I don’t leave my precious Emeralds just lying about for anyone to take.” At this he raised up his hand, holding the Green Sol Emerald. Blaze’s heart sank, how could she have been so careless? She had almost forgotten that the Emerald she came here for had gotten jostled from her during the previous confrontation.
“What do you even want with that Eggman? It doesn’t even have any Chaos Energy!” Eggman just cackled at this, slowly rising up to his larger ship. “You will find out all in good time Hedgehog. All in good time.”
“What do we do? W-we can’t chase after him. Even with my power I don’t think I could get up to that height, let alone keep up with his ship.” Blaze sounded truly defeated. Sonic crossed his arms with an annoyed look on his face as he watched the egg ship shoot off across the sky. He let out a sigh and turned to face Blaze.
“Admittedly, that could have gone…. better.”
“Better? Sonic. Not only did Eggman retrieve the Sol Emerald that we were trying to get, but I also lost the only Sol Emerald that we did have to some random disappearing man who, may I just say, looks shockingly like the same thing that started this mess in the first place. On top of that, we ran into that hedgehog Amy warned us about that wants to kill me. Who is now also nowhere to be seen. And if that wasn’t enough-” Blaze lets out a shaky breath trying to reign herself back in. Sonic cringes slightly at Blaze’s words, but lets her compose herself before interjecting.
“Sonic… he called me the ‘Iblis Trigger’ and at first I didn’t know what it meant, but now I- I remember I’ve heard that name before… And if what he says is really true than…” Blaze puts her face in her hands and lets out a sigh of defeat.
“Hey! So that was rough! But we aren’t completely without hope.” Sonic puts a reassuring hand on Blaze’s shoulder in hopes that it would come off as comforting. “That other guy was Shadow, and he’s very…” Sonic trails off looking for the right words before settling on “... well he's not very helpful, but he isn’t a bad guy. And he’ll make sure that Emerald stays in the right- er well at least capable hands.” at that Blaze removes her hands from her face and gives Sonic a look. “Okay look, I understand that doesn’t exactly inspire confidence but it’ll work out. And I don’t know about any ‘Iblis Trigger’ stuff, but whatever it is we’ll figure it out together.” Blaze nods but keeps her gaze downwards, clearly contemplating something. Sonic lets out an exhausted sigh and attempts to shake the excess water from his quills.
“I just hope that Amy and Tails are having a better time than we are right now…”