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The rage inside of her was blisteringly cold and the world seemed to match, ice-blue flames slowly chewing through the remainder of the ship she had just tore her way through. They were slower than usual, but unrelenting- and Blaze herself would be the same. Wood, metal, flesh- it didn't matter. She would destroy whatever she had to in order to reach her goal.
The ship was sinking, but Blaze remained at the helm, eyes locked on the setting sun. The remaining crew members had fled in lifeboats long ago, and she wondered whether she should finish what she'd started, but decided against it. She'd gotten what she wanted. She would cut off the head of the snake, and come back for the rest of the cowards later. She tensed her legs, preparing to jump- only to be stopped by the squeak of a heel behind her. She whipped around, flames bursting to life in her palm, only to stop a split second before releasing them, when she saw who it was.
"Sonic," she breathed.
"Your Highness," he greeted, miming a tip of a hat. "Gotta say, I'm a fan of the new look, but something tells me it isn't actually all that good."
She let her fire die down, just a bit- it wasn't for him. "What are you doing here?"
"Marine called," Sonic said, and she winced at the name. "She seemed a bit… distressed."
"Of course she was distressed. She almost died."
"Yeah, she wasn't exactly worried about herself."
There was silence between them, before Sonic let out a small, shaky breath. "You killed anyone yet?"
"Regrettably, no," Blaze said, a bit of a growl entering her voice.
"That's something, at the very least," Sonic said, a weary smile crossing his face for a couple seconds, before it fell into a frown. "Blaze, it's time to come back home."
"No."
"I'm not exactly asking."
"I am not going back to Marine until her attackers pay."
"And I'm not leaving until you do," he said, dropping down from where he had been perched on the railing. He landed in the growing puddle that was spreading across the desk, a small expression of unease on his face. "Blaze, come back home with me." He was holding a hand out to her, like he had when they had first met, so long ago. "Please."
In response, blue fire danced across her palm, and he sighed, dropping his hand.
"I would much prefer to not hurt a friend," Blaze said coldly.
"Me too," Sonic said, and she saw how he subtly shifted his weight- ready to take off at full speed at a moment's notice. "But I will if I have to. And I can't let you hurt anyone."
"They hurt Marine," she hissed.
"I get that. I really do. If I were in your shoes- if it was Tails- I'd probably do the same thing. I'd also be glad to have friends who could pull me back from that."
"You're going to lose this fight," Blaze warned.
"Yeah, probably. But what kind of friend would I be if I let something small like that stop me?"
A couple seconds passed between them, before Sonic took a small, cautious step forward. "Blaze-"
She lunged, and his eyes snapped open, form blurring and disappearing a split second later- even in this form, she was still slower than him- and less than a microsecond after that flames tore loose from her palm and consumed the area he had been standing, ripping a hole straight through wood and nails and bolts and steel and gold until it reached the water underneath, making it go up in steam and smoke alike. The entire ship lurched, and she had to use her flames to steady herself, floating above the now rapidly sinking ship- but a foot collided with her skull, and she screamed out of fury, using her fire to lash out where he had come from, but he was already gone, balancing on the bow of the ship.
"Blaze, come on! Don't do this!" Sonic yelled, eyes flicking rapidly between her and the encroaching water underneath the two of them. "I get that you're stubborn about emotional stuff, but-"
Blaze didn't let him finish that sentence, and Sonic was forced to drop from the bow, dashing across the water as ice-blue fire shot out towards him, and when he jumped onto the deck again she was already there, catching him in the face with a punch engulfed in flame. He spun to the floor from his and her momentum combined, and before he had time to move Blaze had kicked his stomach, sending him crashing into one of the wooden walls of the ship with a strangled yell of pain.
She abated for the moment, watching as Sonic almost slumped to the ground before he found his footing again, standing up. Blaze had to give him- if it weren't for the fact that she could see the burn on his cheek where she had punched him, and the fact that she was the one who had put it there, she wouldn't have even known that he was hurt. His expression was calm, steady, and focused, without even a hint of pain.
"Surrender," was all she said, flatly, her hands wreathed in flames once again. "This is your last chance before I go all out."
"You weren't going all out before?" Sonic half-joked, half-asked seriously, before he shook his head. "Sorry, Blaze. Not a chance."
"So be it," she said, gathering a fireball in her hands and aiming at Sonic, but as predicted he was gone already, only he had moved so fast that she hadn't even seen the motion and now had no idea where he was. She didn't even have a second to look for him however- a kick slammed into her side, and while she couldn't be hurt in this state it still knocked her off balance, heels slipping in the water, and by the time she'd turned to face him he'd already vanished. The next blow came even faster than the last, from the other side, aimed directly at her head, and she couldn't block it, and he was gone again by the time she turned around. She almost shrieked out of frustration, even in her normal form she could usually track him if not keep up with him, where in Sol was he- and then she saw movement on the horizon a split second before his foot slammed into her stomach, though of course he wasn't there anymore by the time she could retaliate.
Smiling grimly, Blaze surrounded herself in flames- Sonic had been using pure momentum to his advantage, as well as risking going out on the water to avoid having to slow down while turning around in close quarters- essentially trapping her in a series of hit-and-runs. But he couldn't hit her while she was covered in fire, or at least that was what she thought- a heartbeat later a wave of water crashed over the boat, turning both fire and liquid into steam, and then she slammed into the boat deck as Sonic swiped her feet out from under her, skidding to a stop on the other side of the boat as he panted hard, one hand on his chest while he leaned against the still-smoldering railing.
"You're normally a better fighter than this," he taunted as Blaze struggled to her feet, her own breath coming in pants as she struggled to remind herself that Sonic was a friend, and she didn't want to seriously hurt him- "All that anger doesn't look like its helping much after all."
Blaze screamed, fire spilling from her mouth as she turned and blasted a wave of flame at Sonic. She could just barely see his eyes widen behind the wall of fire, and then she heard the familiar boom-CRACK of him shattering the sound barrier, every remaining part of the ship being destroyed under the power of their dual forces of nature. But Blaze barely cared about that, leaping off the ship as she left its remains to be either incinerated or consumed by the ocean, she didn't care which- she could see Sonic on the horizon, blue form dancing across the water, and she wasn't going to let him get away. The power the fake Sol Emeralds had given her allowed her to hover above the waves, untouched by the forces of physics or nature alike.
She gave chase.
There was no catching up the fastest thing alive, not even in this state, but she wasn't losing him either. Either she had managed to seriously hurt him already, or he had already exerted himself enough during their fight to slow down. She almost smiled. That was one advantage she had over him, no matter what- Sonic was a mortal being, running on mortal limitations. Blaze currently didn't have any such weaknesses. She wouldn't slow down, wouldn't stop, wouldn't get hurt, wouldn't feel anything aside from the boiling hate inside of her.
Eventually, she spotted his goal- an island far off in the distance. The instant Sonic's feet hit the sandy beach instead of deadly water, he skidded to a stop, turning around, and even from this distance she could see the expression that crossed his face when he realized just how close she was. He was just barely able to bring his hands up to defend himself before she slammed into him, simultaneously bringing up a wall of flames to surround the entire island- nowhere else for him to run. He was trying to grapple with her, powerful legs shoved into the ground below, but in this state she was so, so much stronger than he was, and soon he was forced to his knees, glaring stubbornly up at her.
"R-really, Blaze?" he coughed out, clearly having inhaled some smoke from the fire all around them. "I th-thought you said you were going to go a-all out, this is n-nothing."
She grinned at him, and then lit her hands- and his- on fire. Sonic screamed, letting go of her hands on instinct, and she took the opportunity to shove him face down into the dirt. He had his face turned to the side, one emerald green eye glaring stubbornly up at her, and she snarled, her claws cutting into his skin roughly and making him bleed.
"Bla-aze," he managed to get out, before his form was wracked by a series of coughs. "S-stop, you d-don't want to do this!"
"Don't I?!" she hissed, and her hands, one holding Sonic's head where it was and the other holding his scorched hands by the wrist, both heated up warningly. Sonic sucked in air through his teeth, ears flattening against his skull, eyes closing from the pain. "Surrender, now."
"Y-you'll have to k-kill me."
"No, Sonic," she said, a savage grin crawling across her face. "I just have to put you to sleep."
He blinked up at her, the smallest expression of confusion crossing his face- before it turned into panic. He inhaled, or at least tried to, legs lashing out on instinct, and clawed fingers curling into the palms of his hands, so she let him go, watched him struggle to breathe.
Fire consumed. Fire consumed all. And while ordinarily there wasn't enough of it, not enough to cause this particular issue, this entire island was wreathed in fire, covering every bit of vegetation and blocking out the sky. Fire consumed all, and that included the oxygen one needed to breathe. Blaze was safe from this, running off of pure Sol energy as she was, but Sonic-
Sonic was suffocating on empty air.
"I'll give you back air as soon as you pass out," she said, watching him writhe around on the dirt. "Despite you getting in my way, I'm not going to kill you."
Sonic just let out a broken, desperate wheeze of pure pain, and Blaze wasn't even sure if he had heard her. But no matter. He was going to be unconscious soon, and after making sure that he was alright, she would hunt down the bastards who had hurt Marine.
And yet, against all the odds, she watched as Sonic struggled to his feet. Any small breaths he was able to take were coming out as increasingly ragged coughs and wheezes, but he was still standing.
"Stubborn," she hissed, gathering up more fire in her hands to strike him down- but then the fire died in her hands.
She had never seen Sonic look scared, she realized. She had never seen him cry either. But his face was full of nothing but terror and agony, and there were tear marks cutting through the soot and ash clinging to his fur.
Blaze, he mouthed. Please.
And then he collapsed, and the fire around the island did as well, letting the air flow back in. The power the fake Sol Emeralds had given her leeched away as well as her rage turned to horror, her snow-white cost and hollow eyes turning back to their normal lavender and gold.
Blaze barely managed to catch Sonic before he hit the sand, hands curling protectively around him as she drew him closer to her chest. Sonic's breath sounded like a hollow rattle in his throat, but the fact that he was breathing at all was a relief to her.
"Don't move," Blaze told him as he curled into her slightly, one scorched palm coming up to her shoulder. "Sonic, you're hurt." She had hurt him. "Please don't move."
Sonic relaxed slightly when she spoke, and green eyes flickered open to meet hers. "Blaze?" he coughed out, his voice hoarse and ragged. "You're back?"
"I- y-yes, I'm back," Blaze said.
"That's good," Sonic said, a weary smile crossing his face. "You feeling okay?"
"Am- am I okay?" Blaze asked, some part of her glad that Sonic didn't hate her even after everything she had done to him- and most of her just horrified by what she had done. "I almost killed you!"
"Eh, that just means I've fulfilled my daily quota of near-death experiences." He tried to laugh, but it came out as a wheeze instead. "Seriously, though, dealing with fake Sol energy for that amount of time can't feel great."
She blinked. "How did you…"
"Had my own experience with something like this a while back. Had to get dragged out of it by Eggman, of all people. It… wasn't great." The hand that had been holding her shoulder came down to cover her hand, squeezing it gently, like he was trying to comfort her. "Probably feels worse for you, you were in it for longer than I was."
Blaze closed her eyes for a couple seconds. All of that, and Sonic was still prioritizing her above himself.
"Blaze? You good?"
"I'm sorry," she said, the words tasting like ashes in her throat, all bitter and burned up. It was nowhere near enough. "You're hurt, all because I couldn't handle- I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Blaze."
"It's not okay."
"Well, even if it isn't okay now, it will be soon, I promise."
She let out a choked sob, and he squeezed her hand again, holding it gently like it would make everything better. It wouldn't, but…
"Let's go home, okay?" Sonic said. "Marine's waiting for you. And Tails is probably starting to worry about me."
"Okay," Blaze said, weakly. "I can carry you back to my palace, and you can get a doctor there."
Sonic nodded, and Blaze scooped him up in her arms, taking care to not brush over the wounds she had so carelessly inflicted on him. He adjusted himself to make the journey back easier.
The journey back home.