Chapter Text

The City of Water 

The thundering fireworks outside was clearly a sign for Blaze to stop hiding in the cabin of the Royal River Boat. A sign by the gods that she must face the crowd, whose joyous cheers were all in anticipation of her stepping onto the deck above. To behold their Majesty on the night where the gods showed their greatest favour to them. Yet, here she was, keeping to herself in this wooden box dimly lit by the two candles placed on the red velvet stand before her. 

She’d done this so many times after all, right? She’d participated in many celebrations, hosted glorious events championing the greatest servants and warriors in her kingdom, and yet for some reason, she’d cowered herself into this cramped space?

Blaze had initially stated to her servants and the Sunguard she’d needed space to herself. A request they gladly accepted – albeit with a little sense of pity – after witnessing her throw up before the vessel set sail from her palace down to the radiant rivers of her kingdom.

Her fingers trembled in her gloves. Each tremor matched the erratic dance of the candles flames beaming their amber glare across her shiny, lavender fur. Her ears twitched with every groan that ricocheted across the boat’s surface, and it croaked as it moved through the heavy waters under her feet. The sound of the river splashing against the hull, no thanks to her rowers, was doing no favours for this unexpected desire for complete and utter isolation.

Solaris, grant me strength.

Ironic she would call upon the sun god, the life giver of her world – the Sol Dimension – when he was also beckoning her right now to step out of this self-imposed prison she’d placed herself in. 

A loud knock on the door. Blaze stiffened.

She looked over her shoulders. Her golden feline eyes shot to the floor and stared at the veiled outline of a figure flittering behind the cabin door’s sweep.

“Princess Blaze?” called out a soft, concerned voice through the blasting chaos outside.

She knew that voice anywhere.

With a gentle sigh, Blaze replied, “I’ll be out shortly --”

“The people cannot wait any long --”

“Hestia…”

The slight edge in her tone was enough for the silhouette outside her door to step back a little. “My apologies, Your Highness.”

Blaze cringed, pursing her lips. It was just a typical form addressed to anyone in her status, she kept telling herself. She was no longer at school when people would use “Your Highness” derisively. The burden of taking her parents duty bestowed upon her a lot of responsibilities. Unfortunately, it included being called that every now and then.

Outside, fireworks continued booming.

The crowd’s cheers bleared into a monotonous droning to her heightened hearing.

Blaze stared at the fires prancing on the two candles alighting her temporary haven that was this cabin. Nausea churned in her stomach, and the heat stirring inside of her – her flames, the gift from her father – rattled under the violet tailcoat designed to keep them at bay. As much as she wanted to stay in this enclosed space, unlike everyone else, she doesn’t get to hide.

Not now, not ever.

Blaze waved a dismissive hand, and the candle flames vanished. Darkness enclosed the walls, leaving only a shred of light to creep through the bottom of the door. Even so, she didn’t need anything to see through the blackness. Her enhanced vision was enough. Her red ankle-boots clopped across the wooden floorboards as Blaze made her way to the door. After a deep breath, her hand tight around the knob, she finally opened it.

Light salved her eyes from the umbra surrounding her. Blaze stepped onto the deck, her fur and garments flittering with the wind, the warm evening breeze kissing every part of her as she beheld her radiant kingdom, Soleanna. The City of Water.

Blaze thought her ancestors were suck-ups for naming their realm after their sun-god.

Solaris – please, forgive her – was vain enough as it was. He quite literally called their universe “Sol”. He didn’t even try. He wasn’t just arrogant, he was lazy too.

Gods already had inflated egos. Her ancestors didn’t need to biggen them anymore.

In reaction to herself, Blaze held back the building smirk.

Regardless, she couldn’t help but marvel at their efforts, their toiling, their sacrifice.

The Royal River Boat was one of such many endeavours. Its slick structure was carved after the shape of an elegant swan, outfitted with metallic wings gleaming on either side of its stern. Carefully strolling towards the bow, Blaze noted the idle forms of her Sunguard, forming a precise wall around her in perfect parallel on the boat’s boat and starboard. Their gleaming golden armours were embellished with black pipelines that ran down their shoulders, their arms before converging into a large symbol imprinted on their chests: a black bird with flared-wings, and a large circle hovering over their heads.

Signet of Solaris.

Blaze tried her best not to bow every-time she saw that symbol. Instead, she reared back her focus, and looked onward to the dancers spinning across the deck. Their layered amber dresses, adorned with refined silver jewellery, flowed with their graceful twirls. All moved as one, neither crashed into the other nor the Sunguard surrounding them.

Rockets ignited the night sky into a glorious cacophony of colours. Like Solaris himself was spreading his grandeur with each streak of the rainbow. Each bright flash illuminated the riotous crowd gathered on the riverports, the causeways arching over the waters, and atop the varnished buildings alit with outdoor string lights.

Despite the lingering fitfulness clawing at her mind, Blaze smiled. She waved at each of her subjects as she reached the bow and stood next to the slender figure watching her with a lamentable smile. Hestia the Crane’s feathers were of the brightest white, even though most of her frame was covered in a brown hooded robe. Like Blaze, her six plumes of golden hair were tied up by a red bobble, displaying the black tips which fluttered with the warm breeze.

She observed Blaze with her violet eyes. “I see the Princess’s spirits are finally lifted,” Hestia remarked dryly. “Took her long enough.” Blaze gave her advisor a long look, garnering a little chuckle that escaped the crane’s elongated beak.

“I will go back inside just as quickly if you keep this up,” Blaze replied.

Hestia let out a haughty chuckle that heated Blaze’s cheeks. “My dear, you never could abandon a race even if you wanted to. I remember the little girl who’d sprained her ankle when the other kids were already far ahead. The cries you used to let out – just like you did when your mother first held you in her arms…” Blaze’s answering growl drew her advisor up-short whose humourous expression softened. “Even when you had every opportunity to give up – and it was well within your right – you refused to give up the race.”

Blaze huffed, folding her arms, and looked onwards to the island within the centre of the approaching bowl of water: the Altar of Light.

“The other kids wouldn’t have let me live it down,” she said, sighing. “I didn’t want to give them another reason to come after me. Not that it stopped them anyway. They kept talking about it for weeks.” The fire inside her veins braised under her faith. She clenched her fists and closed her eyes, steering the rising ire to the simple reality that always dumbfounded her to this day: her former tormentors were her subjects too. The same individuals who hounded her for her powers now sought her protection. What a sick twisted fate of irony that was.

She sensed Hestia watching her intently who reached out to her and placed her hand gently on her shoulders. “The point is, Blaze, you’re not so easily spooked. I’ve seen you accomplish things any child your age would dream of. You’re the guardian of the Sol Emeralds, our one true protector, and yet the moment you stepped out your palace today –”

“By the Emeralds,” Blaze groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Can we not --”

“You were sick right in front of everyone --”

“I had too much Turkish Delight --”

“And you spent the rest of the voyage inside there.” Hestia pointed back to the cabin at the far back of the boat. “I could smell the anxiety seeping from you. You still reek of it now.”

“Wow, thank you. I really needed that.”

Blaze ground her teeth together as the boat stopped by the port of the island.

Hestia watched her long and hard. Blaze didn’t look back at her. She trained her focus down to the two cloaked figures and a priest standing on the centre of the island. The fireworks and cheers persisted in the slowly fading backdrop.

Through it all, Hestia’s voice was clear as ever. “Your Majesty, what’s happening?”

The Altar of Light was at the heart of Soleanna. Built in the core of the city’s six rivers conjoining into the vast circular canal. Representing the six streams, six bridges stood atop the shimmering waters and thronged toward a platform holding up an enormous caldron boasting the signet of Solaris. Surrounding the cauldron was an immense sculpture of wings attached to a fire pit stacked with coal at the base of the altar.

It wasn’t the ecstatic crowd that had her tensing. It wasn’t the fireworks, nor the sudden cold drifting through the warm air to prick at her fur. Standing before her on either side of the Altar were two giant bronze statues of two cats outfitted in the royal regalia Blaze now donned today. At the bottom of each of the sculptures, were two names that had Blaze’s eyes warming, and a small lump lodging in her throat: Zeal and Luna of Soleanna.

Blaze’s breaths lightened once she stared at the looming idols of her parents. She forced down the slight whimper creeping to her lips, her heart straining as her mind trailed back to the soft caresses of her mother’s hands brushing through her fur, and her father’s rough yet careful fingers strumming his guitar every time she’d wake up screaming. Her ears twitched, as if they could still hear the phantom melody drifting through the wind.

At the first touch of Hestia’s hand on the arch of her back, Blaze marched onto the slate floors of the altar. The metallic footsteps of her Sunguard stepping onto the platform sounded behind her, while she and Hestia walked to the unlit fire pit placed between the hooded shapes – her Ladies-in-Waiting. Amongst them, the priest – a short and stocky red panda – bowed at Blaze, and stepped aside, gesturing to the coals awaiting to be ignited within the fire pit.

With a deep breath, Blaze called to the power inside her. Heat pulsed out her core, down her arms, and ignited into balls of flames between her palms.  

The crowds’ cheers slowly faded into silence.

Fireworks halted their explosive symphony.

Even the air seemingly stilled, as if the entire world – all of existence – quietened down. Waiting in unison. For her.

Yet, everything was still loud. Nothing was truly silent.

The drumming of Blaze’s racing heart loudened with each thump beneath her chest.

A high-pitched ringing pierced through the discord, swallowing it, drowning out every thought and every emotion that had consumed her seconds ago.

She stared at her balls of fire, the manifestation of her will, crackling amidst her fingers. Enchanted by its lively splendour. Its radiant orange glare, and silent roar pressed Blaze to the spot, taking her in, cusping to her sanity and pulling her towards its hypnotic dance like a moth to a flame.

The muffled howls of the flares thrummed through the passages of her thoughts.

Blaze found herself staring up at an infernal storm spiralling through the six streams of Soleanna. It swooped through the streets in a riptide of raging light. It devoured the buildings around her, shredding through the struts, silencing the cries of her terrified people incinerated under its merciless rush.

Within seconds, the world around was engulfed in fire.

The Altar of Light had melted before her very eyes.

The burning tempest surrounded Blaze and spiralled into the air in a violent tornado of pain and torment. Her feet suddenly left the splitting ground. Blaze was hauled off into the air, tugged by the might of the swirling flames infesting the dark clouds above. The wind bayed in her ears as she was forced to behold the furnace scorch her kingdom, her people.

Everyone around her was either a charred steaming husk or had been obliterated by the intense heat.

Blaze wasn’t fazed, however.

There was no fear. No horror. No disgust. No grief.

She just stared and stared at the ever-spreading searing. An unstoppable whirlwind that sought no end to its destruction. Through it all, lurked a humongous shadow, rising from the fiery pits smouldering the city. Its glowing green eyes leered at her amidst the spiralling flames, a nightmarish sight that knocked against the distant barriers of her locked memories. It strung her mind back to hurried feet rushing through stony corridors; panicked cries sounding across the shrinking walls, and a cloud of darkness enveloping everything it touched. 

Looking down upon herself, Blaze watched her own balls of fire, now tendrils of violet light, streaming down into the inferno. Feeding into the beast which let out a thundering roar.

“Your Highness?”

Blaze blinked and found herself still standing before the Altar of Light. Untouched by the hellish combustion that haunted her thoughts seconds ago.

Silence weighed over the city like an inescapable blanket.

Right, everyone was waiting for her.

She tried not to look around herself. She could only guess how long she’d stood there and could only imagine the thoughts everyone was probably having right now.

Blaze turned to Hestia who watched her with worried eyes. “I’m fine,” she said softly, bowing gently. Though they were behind her, Blaze felt the presence of her parents' statues, as if their spirits from beyond were inhabiting their metallic shells, and watching over her. Patiently waiting alongside the rest of the kingdom. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

I can do this. I can do this.

She had to. For them.

After bowing again to the priest, Blaze trotted to the fire-pit standing below her. And in a loud, strong voice, she recited, “We give thanks for the blessed flames. May we always continue to have peace.” Blaze looked up at the Cauldron, gazing at the signet of their god, and raised her hands up to it. “Sun of Soleanna, guide and watch over us with your eternal light.”

Stepping further to the pit, Blaze gently lit the coals stacked to each other with her own embers. In a bright flash, the flares of wild light ignited the fire-pit and spread onto the winged-sculptures surrounding the altar. In a rapid blaze, the flames rushed to the cauldron and a radiant eruption of orange and white beaconed across the entire city.

Fireworks burst across the night sky.

The crowd arose into deafening cheers.

Blaze turned to them all, a wide smile curving across her mouth. She waved and waved, drinking in their joy and laughter whilst their loud choral blasted into their sky.

Her fur suddenly pricked up.

A biting chill glazed within her chest, like a spear of ice had plunged into her heart.

Blaze gasped, staggering back, her hand reaching for her torso until she felt its warm – too warm – aura simmer over her garments.

Her flames hadn’t gone out. She couldn’t put them out.

Blaze gaped at the unyielding flames pulsating between her clawed fingers.

The crowd’s cheers once again hushed into faint murmurs.

Everyone around her – Hestia, the Sunguard, her maidens – all watched her strain with effort. What was once a soothing warmth in the palm of her hands bloomed to an intense glow. One she couldn’t stop. The heat kindled against her gloves, prickled at her fur and skin beneath. Grimacing, Blaze tried willing her embers out like she’d always done. She veered to basics too, her father’s voice ringing down her mind: “Your flames are an extension of you, my sweet. It is by your will that you can shine them brighter than sun. And it is by your will –”

A stinging pain surged out of her gloves and up her arms.

The flames magnified, bursting out into two torches of blustering fire.

The panicked crowd shrieked over the booming fireworks.

Blaze yelped, doubling over, her knees buckling.

“Blaze!” Hestia bayed, lurching towards her with the Sunguard. But as Blaze crumbled onto all fours, the embers igniting her fingers spilled all over the floor. An infernal wall stripped across from one end of the altar to the other. It blocked Hestia’s and the Sunguard’s paths who stumbled back, cursing over the hysteric masses watching from the side-lines. “Blaze!” Hestia cried beyond the crackling flames. Her silhouette was obscured behind the hedge of orange and red. Nothing more than a lanky shadow to Blaze’s blurred vision.

Nausea riddled down her throat from the stench of smoke drilling down her nostrils.

She could barely make out the Sunguard shouting orders to one another.

“What’s happening to me?” she grated out, almost whimpering, gritting her teeth.

Blaze pushed herself back up to her knees. She balled her hands into tight fists, hoping it would do something. Such a futile hope, and a useless one. She ground her teeth as another glacial chill pulsed through her chest, knocking the air out of her. The flames continued to grow before her. And Blaze stared in horror at their magnifying size and intense swelter bathing her face and the air.

The cold in her torso spread. Like a parasite, it infected every inch of her, surged to her arms. Her uncontrollable fires sputtered and sparked as the searing chill reached her fingertips, clashing together with the fiendish fervour.

This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening!

Then her embers turned violet.

Dread doused the tepidity inside her. And Blaze screamed, messy sobs spilling out of her as she hove to her feet. Horrified gasps tangled with the panicked cries from the multitude gathered around the river. Blaze looked around her and over the barrier of flame separating her from her advisor and guardsmen. Desperate for someone – anyone – to help. To provide some miracle answer to her problem that surged brighter and hotter.

It was hopeless. The only ones who could stop this, who would have a solution to it all, were nothing more than gilded statues fronting the burning altar, with their backs turned to her.

Suddenly, Blaze’s ears twitched. Her enhanced hearing sifted the alarmed mumbles and whispers circulating around her, even as her flames expanded and broiled with every second.

More frightened yelps tolled in the distance, ricocheting further out into the clamouring mob. With her heightened vision, Blaze peered through the wall of fire, and noted her people’s terrified eyes. None were directed at her anymore. Instead, they were looking all around them.

To every dark corner lingering behind each building or hidden space they could find. To the last of the fireworks fizzling out on the all-too-black sky. To the fog of smoke seeping out the shadows and swivelling under their feet. Not smoke, Blaze soon realised through the heat of her fiery fence. But Darkness. Shapeless, living darkness.

By Solaris, what is that?

Chapter Text

The City of Flames 

The dark vapour trickled across the tiled grounds of the riversides. It leaked everywhere from all corners of the canal, trailing down the building-walls, leaking out of the umbra spaces.

Blaze’s panicked people, screaming and yelling, tried to scamper from the moving penumbra. Their shills clashed with the blustering crackles of the flame barrier caging her. A horrendous clang of noise to the ears. But through the chaos, her people crashed into each other, some pushing the other aside, while others were knocked into the river, all in a frantic attempt to escape the dark mists spilling into the six streams surrounding the Altar of Light.

All of them were heading for Blaze. Each and every one of them.

“Protect the princess!” bayed one of the Sunguard.

The twelve royal guardsmen tightly gripped their spears. The symbols etched onto their surfaces suddenly charged with a vibrant amber, and their tips ignited into flames.

Blaze drew herself further back, curling her burning hands close to her, as the wave of darkness rumbled over the waters. It closed in on the Altar. The violet flames alighting Blaze’s fingers roared. Fear seized her body. As if her own power sung back to the enclosing shadows.

She sensed the terror from everyone around her. Her maidens and the priest cowered to the large burning cauldron above them. Hestia stepped back with a horrified gasp, glancing at Blaze with worried eyes, trying not to touch the fiery shield barricading her. But her Sunguard? Despite their terror, stood firm on their feet. Gripping their kindling spears at the approaching mass which swallowed any light it touched and drowned out the screams of Blaze’s people.

Suddenly, the fog shot up into the sky, blocking every star. Towering over the Altar, it branched out into a humongous cordon cutting across one side of the river to the other. And in the depths of its chasmic space were two eyes. Vibrant green eyes, leering at Blaze, hungrily.

The air punched out of her, her mind flashing back to the horrifying vision earlier.

Her voice trembling, she uttered out a single word, “…run.” The cloud of darkness spun for the Altar with a windy howl. “Run!” Blaze screamed to all around her.

In a blink, she dove aside as the black funnel crashed into the Altar, concrete and sparks flying everywhere. Blaze grunted as she hit the trembling ground, pain ringing down her sides, and she sprayed some of her violet embers into the water.

Hestia and the Sunguard were flung into the air. Blaze’s advisor crashed into one of the tumbling statues of her parents. And Blaze cried her name. Her royal guardsmen pinwheeled over the floor, and rolled off the Altar, their cries swallowed by the water below.

Screams girdled around Blaze. Her bleary eyes widened at the sight of her maidens and the priest clamouring away from the cauldron teering on its shaky stands.

Soaring around them like a shark to a school of fish was the black cloud.

Blaze ground her teeth together. She pushed herself up to her knees, her hands igniting the floor below. The dark mass circled around the Altar, its shape curling back to face her like a snake, as if preparing to strike again. To hell with that.

With a fierce cry, Blaze shot out two streams of purple flames from her hands. The dark cloud broke apart before the fiery jets could strike, letting them rocket it into the void of night. Then the cloud clustered back together and speared sharp tendrils of darkness right for Blaze.

Jolted by panic, Blaze tried to leap back. But the spires struck the floor before she could move, hurling her into the air, faster than she could’ve thought. The world spun. Her own cries followed her as she plummeted for the river, drowning out Hestia’s trailing screams.

A torrential chill swathed through every inch of her body, seeping into her clothes, her fur, filling her nostrils and mouth with an unbearable burn. Darkness creeped around her. The light of the world above dimmed the further she sunk into the river’s depths. But her flames, still in their purple glow, continued to kindle, despite the cold waters trying to put them out.

Her lungs screamed in agony as she strived to hold in as much air as she could.

The currents below tickled at her feet the farther she sank to its cavernous bottom.

The garbled cries echoed into her muffled ears. Her fuzzy eyes looked up at the surface, at the bright lights flaring across the starry sky.

Solaris, grant me strength.

Only her god permitted her final breaths, and it sure wouldn’t be like this.

A new fire alit inside Blaze.

Her throat and nostrils singed, but for the sake of her people, for herself, she kept the building air from escaping. Feeding the flames in her grip, Blaze blasted upwards like a rocket. She breached out the river, relief washing over as she took her first breath, and twirled through the gelid air for the nearest riverside. The people below gawked wide-eyed as she landed on her feet, the cobblestones splitting with incandescent cracks beneath her heels.

“Get out of here!” Blaze ordered to the petrified masses, forcing herself not to shudder from the cold bleeding into her soaked clothes and pelt.

As her people heeded her orders, Blaze spun back to the Altar of Light, where streams of bolts volleyed through the sky.

Some of the Sunguard had climbed back onto the Altar, shooting their flaming spears at the circling shadowy cloud. But the spectre took their blows as if they were pricks. It lunged at them, knocking aside a few, then violently burrowing its essence into the armours of the rest until they all exploded. Their final screams silenced in a burst of shadows and golden slivers.

The shapeless tempest barged into the Altar’s burning cauldron. Timbering with a loud creak, it crashed into the main structure of the dais where Blaze’s maidens and priests stood, taking them down with it into the river with a humongous crash.

Horror clutched Blaze’s chest. The sounds of their yelps were dragged into the depths of the water below. She wanted to cry out. But the grief was soon hampered at the sight of the beast turning its attention to Hestia, the last one standing on the severed remains of the Altar.

Her elder – her caretaker since her parents’ demise – was on the ground near the cleaved remnants of the sculptures dangling on the edges of the Altar. Gawking at the looming shadow, Hestia raised her hand up to her face as if to block the fiend from sight. And as she screamed, fury fuelled Blaze’s body.

She bounded for the Altar of Light, lunging over the river. Fire glazed around her shoes. With a shout, she widely swung her leg out, releasing a massive arch of violet embers for the cloud of darkness. As the flames struck and separated the entity, Blaze slipped through the hole she’d made, directing her fall to a nearby flat building on the other side of the riverbank.

Blaze fluidly gyrated mid-fall and tumbled over the rooftop. She swerved herself into a half-crouch, not letting her flaming hands touch the slatey ground. She turned to the reforming black cloud, and its low windy growls rumbled into her chest.

“Come on!” she shouted, the fireballs flaring in her fingers.

She didn’t know what this thing was or why it was here. There’d be no more lives taken today, not while she was still standing. Solaris, forbid it.

The cloud of darkness hovered towards her, tipping its humongous form like a curious animal. The green glowing eyes within looked directly at her. But Blaze didn’t allow herself to be taken in by its hypnotic glare. She was unyielding and answered with a hiss of her own.

Then, the spectre turned its colossal form away from her. Seemingly toward the far side of the city, pointing at a gleaming purple building standing atop of a hill looking over Soleanna, and its town. The gilded points of its dome spires gave it way, and Blaze’s stomach lurched.

The Imperial Palace.

Fearful confusion gored into her as she looked between the beast and her family’s home.

“You’re not here for me, are you?” she muttered aloud, almost to herself.

Then what was it? Hadn’t it come to kill her? Wasn’t that the reason for all of this? For all this destruction? Suddenly, as if she’d been doused with fresh icy water, one answer crossed her mind to this creature’s potential true intentions. To the one thing her home possessed and had protected long before she’d came into power. The prize many of her foes had sought after.

The Sol Emeralds.

By Solaris –

As if it heard her thoughts, the dark whirlwind inclined its form in her direction. Amidst its swirling mass, the green eyes inside its shapeless barrier peered at her. Their gleaming shine, it was if this thing was smiling at her, taunting her.

Then it hurtled for the Imperial Palace with a violent roar.

Blaze raised her arms to her face, crying out from the gust of wind pushing her back.

Windows shattered, and concrete ruptured from the buildings the cyclone razed past, hailing it all down onto the civilians below.

Snarling, Blaze bounded after it. And Hestia’s trailing cries vanished into the noise of the wind filling her ears. Her fur bristled with the cold air streaming through each follicle. Her feet were on-and-off the ground as she raced from rooftop to rooftop, her sight locked onto the howling vortex storming between buildings, and spilling debris onto the packed canals.

Anger and shame clashed inside Blaze at the distorted screams of her people clamouring for safety across the river causeways and riverfronts. But she kept going. She had to.

Her legs worked, sailing her through the blurring night, every muscle charging with vigour like the purple flames that refused to fizzle out of her hands.

Within seconds, she noted the buildings growing sparser. The city grew greener as trees dotted around the streets below thickened in number. The Palace’s shape largened with each hurried breath. And the black cloud remained ahead, its shrieking form a stain on the night.

Hopping onto another roof, Blaze launched a fiery spear at the black cloud, striking an approaching building’s corner to cut-off its path. But she immediately regretted it. For instead of drawing its attention, the cloud sharply steered from the Imperial Palace, and plummeted for the main city.

“No, no, no, no!” Blaze skidded on the roof, swerving after the formless monstrosity.

The cyclone dove for the streets packed with traffic, flittering bystanders, and patrolling royal guardsmen, all of whom were unprepared for the tempest gunning for them. A slipstream of shattered glass and rubble shadowed the spiralling umbra in its descent, their only warning before screams sounded out of their mouths.

Agony clawed inside Blaze’s chest as the first of her people were swept by the cloud’s strike. She plunged down to the main roads. Swiftly rolling on the concrete, she pounced onto her feet, and dashed ahead with a grunt. Her soles searing as she sprinted.

Blaze blitzed between cars, winded past lampposts, slid under upchucked debris flung back by the cloudy mass pillaging through the roadways ahead of her.

Flares of flame flashed around her vision.

The Sunguard patrollers that were not taken out by the harrowing gale shot balls of fire out their spears from the sidewalks and the building ridges. Her people, however, were helpless. In the seconds Blaze blitzed them, they’d either narrowly escaped death or were swallowed up by the vortex and its entrails of debris.

Blaze was the fastest thing in this world – this universe. Unmatched. Yet here she was, struggling to keep up with a dark cloud that weaved through her city’s boulevards, bashed into building sides, ploughed through roads and sidewalks. As if it deliberately targeted anyone and anything it could find amidst its hasty retreat.

Up ahead, a cluster of civilians huddled under a large bronze statue of Solaris atop of a roundabout. Despite the line of the surviving Sunguard shielding them, their fearful eyes beheld their coming doom. An umbra wind of chaos, surging towards them in a howling field of dust and debris. Solaris, what had Blaze wrought?

Enough! Shut up and keep moving!

With a cry, Blaze struck the shadowy cyclone with two purple beams out her palms. It broke apart before it could reach the screaming crowd, but it spiralled up into the air, reforming again. Using her momentum, Blaze yanked the approaching statue of Solaris, swerving round the bystanders, flinging herself up into the sky. Her gut sank at how high she soared. The plazas, the frantic streets, and the glimmering canals below all blurred under her.

Blaze dove for the white suspension bridge aimed in the direction of her palace. Sparks sprayed under her high heels as she landed and grinded down its humongous cable. Her fur and hair fluttered with the wind. Her narrowed eyes locked on the formless mass zooming over the apogee circling Soleanna’s borders. Trees ripped out the ground beneath it.

If Blaze survived this, the reparations for the property damage alone would give Hestia a heart attack. Her caretaker’s last cries suddenly caromed down her mind. But she shook it all off. The guilt, the pain rocking within her chest – she had no choice. This wasn’t the time.

Blaze leaped off the suspension cable and right into the shadow of the crumbling woods. Upturned soil and pinwheeling trees jetted around her. Her feet and legs worked as one, steering her from side to side. Though her throat dried with each heavy puff; nausea clawed at her racing heart; her body didn’t fail her. No branches, leaves or strips of earth coming her way stuck her.

The forest thinned within seconds. And before she knew it, the jade maze distorted into the open night air, and Blaze was now gliding across the grass plains leading to her palace. The moonlight shimmered over the adjacent river that meandered from her home to the main city. But a humongous shadow loomed over it, sucking out the radiant moon’s light, and parted the waters in time to Blaze’s hurried pace.

The black cloud flew alongside Blaze, still dragging a vortex of destruction behind it.

Anger gnashed with her determination.

The Sol Emeralds would not be taken by anyone today. Not again.

The palace drew closer and closer.

Blaze’s legs and feet singed as she put in an extra burst of speed. Her blood roaring into her flopped ears. But the black cloud kept up with her. The green eyes within shone with glee.

Guarding the palace’s doors, the four Sunguard spotted them. Their panic a strong scent even from Blaze’s encroaching distance.

“Princess!” one of them shouted, and they all ignited their flaming spears. “Quickly!

“Inside now! Guard the Emeralds!” Blaze bayed, the palace’s forthcoming silhouette shrouding her. Her home was several feet ahead, a mere blink for Blaze.

She drew out her hand, ready to fling out a ball of fire.

Then the shadowy cloud shot upwards, rocketing right up into the sky.

“No!” Blaze snapped. “You’re not getting away!”

 Jets of fire erupted from her hands and feet, boosting her into the air. She sprinted up the palace’s wall, gunning for the first spire, a tail of flame streaking behind.

The dark cloud was high in the sky. Blaze had no choice but to keep her eyes on it. One glimpse at the ground below, and it would be over. She reached the top of the first tower and clung to the sharp spire atop of its dome roof. Her strained as her eyes briefly glanced down at the distant floor below. But something else caught her attention. Something that seized the air within her throat.

The shadowy cloud above her shrank and compacted, reformed into a tall, gaunt shape. The new figure hovering in the air splayed its incandescent claws. The starry night glimmered down its obsidian crystalline skin, marked with streaks in the same violet shade as the fires in Blaze’s hands. Beaming out of its triangular head was a red eye with a flaring emerald pupil.

Blaze only had a moment to gasp before the thing blasted down for her like a missile.

Growling, she launched herself up to meet its descent.

Her flaming hands curled into fists.

The air howled into her ears. Her snarl grew while she rocketed for the creature. But as they swung out at each other, a burst of pain and a bright flash of light blinded Blaze’s sight.

Her vision bleared into flares of white and black.

She felt nothing. Nothing but the evening draft flapping in her hair; the flames torching her hands; nor the world turning around her. Nothing but –

Blaze blinked, finding herself spinning. Plummeting uncontrollably.

The starry night, and the ground below winked in and out of sight at a noise some speed.

The palace grew larger in her fall, approaching fast, the world gyrating quicker than she could breathe.

Panic riddled through her in her attempt to clasp for something – anything.

The pointed tower spires glinted under the moonlight.

Blaze’s heart jumped to her throat.

“The Skewered Princess” would not be how she was going to be remembered.

Power surged through her limbs. Fire jetted out of her boots, and Blaze’s careened aside from one of the nearby tower turrets. But it wasn’t enough to slow her descent.

Agony swallowed Blaze as she crashed through one of the towers’ domes, crying out.

In a blink, she met the silvery marble palace floors, and her brain rocked when her head struck the ground. Dizziness swam over her mind, and her sight blurred, pain – an unwelcome yet familiar visitor – coursing through her bones. Her breaths rattled, and her body throbbed as the ground shuddered below her. While she laid on the floor, surrounded in pieces of the ruined dome tower, she felt the cold air leaking through the giant hole above her. Where the wind, like a faint voice, called to her.

She was the empire’s protector, but tonight, she’d shown to everyone – shown her god, her parents – that she couldn’t protect any of them when it counted.

The muted cries of her guardsmen were muffled under a faint but persistent thrumming in her clogged ears. It matched the tempo of her heartbeat.

Its presence was enough for Blaze to turn her head over to the source of its direction, even though fatigue pressed down onto her body like an anvil. Its shudders intensified into her hearing. Upon looking to her left, where the throbbing came from, Blaze’s sight was smothered with seven bright lights dancing around in a vibrant circle of colours: red, white, yellow, green, purple, and light and dark blue.

The Sol Emeralds.

Blaze’s vision instantly cleared, and new vigour gushed through her aching limbs.

The glowing octagonal gems hovered over a red dais near the golden throne at the far end of the hall. Their joint power was felt even from where Blaze laid, drumming as one across the vast room and between the grey and purple walls.

The floor vibrated in sync to Blaze’s strained breaths. Curling herself up, she managed to roll onto her knees, and the pulsing emeralds thrummed louder, a new song to her enflamed soul. The fires in her hands refused to go out. But she didn’t care.

Not when that thing was still out there.

“Your Highness!” she heard the Sunguard cry out behind her, their voices much clearer to her hearing.

Just as Blaze turned to them, a pillar of darkness slammed onto the marble floor.

Her Sunguard were blasted aside in a choral of screams. Blaze was knocked down onto the rumbling ground, landing on her rump, squealing. But she was quickly up on her one knee as the gaunt creature stood in the ring of shattered smooth limestone.

The Sol Emeralds hissed behind Blaze.

The creature’s one eye flickered between them and herself.

Blaze didn’t give it a chance to take its first step forward. She fired rays of violet heat at the creature, her roar of fury quaking the walls. But a barrier of shadows blocked them as the thing raised its outstretched hand. The darkness expanded outwards, beyond the reaches of Blaze’s flames. She poured her might, energy, and fury into the funnels of fire that had ceased to go out tonight.  She sensed herself sliding back against the ground. Her high heels dug deep in her attempt to keep herself firm. But it was not enough.

Everything she had done tonight was not enough.

Suddenly, the shadows parted her flames like a ship barraging through ice.

Blaze’s eyes widened as they rammed her into the air, twirling, pain singing her nostrils. But before she could fly towards the throne, cold tendrils seized her arms and legs.

The Sol Emeralds spun fast while Blaze was suspended over the dais and held up whips of shadows protruding out the one-eyed creature. They turned her around to face the fiend, and though she struggled to break free, even trying to use her flames to loosen their grip, it was all in vain. Blaze helplessly gawked at the thing unsheathing a crystalline blade from its palm.

When she stared into its cold green eye, she swore she’d heard it laugh, a low, throaty chuckle that sent a fluid gelidness into her bones.

Solaris, she was going to die. She was going to die like this.

Dread buoyed through her blood, and her heart jumped and pounded, her eyes locked on the creature’s slow, deliberate steps towards her. Her breaths quickened and sweat beaded under her fur. The thrumming from the Sol Emeralds magnified. Nausea curdled up her throat. Her heart’s beating persisted, drumming hard, on the verge of bursting.

If she was going to die, she was not going to die screaming. She was not going to give this thing the satisfaction of her fear, of her desperation.

The creature lunged for her, aiming its blade for her heart.

Blaze roared, and heat smothered her fur as her whole body ignited. Flares of violet and orange flames crackled around her, obscuring her vision into a haze of burnt sienna.

A burst of light flashed behind Blaze.

A mighty jet of wind howled and knocked the creature off its feet. It hooked its clawed fingers into the ground as an invisible force tried to drag it toward her. The gale tugged at Blaze as well, who had a moment to look over her shoulder and behold the wide-open hole of light surrounded by a ring of spinning colours. The colours of the Sol Emeralds.

A portal. To where? She didn’t know. Right now, she didn’t care.

She was damned either way.

Blaze spun back to the creature rolling itself onto its knees. Amidst the turbulent gale, she heard it hiss with rage. With a fierce yell, Blaze released one last blast of fire, breaking free from the thing’s shadowy binds.

The powerful winds gripped and pulled her into the portal where she was blinded by its whiteness, her screams garbled into its bright abyss, and her every being warped through space. Leaving the Sol Emeralds, her world, her people behind.

Solaris, forgive me.

Chapter Text

Infiltration (Part I)

If sighing was his response to being bombarded with explosions these days, then maybe it was a sign for Sonic to slow down…just a little.

Easier said than done when streams of lasers weren’t shooting at him this very second, alighting the moonlit sky settling over the woodlands surrounding the incoming fortress.

The wind streaked down his blue quills. His red-white shoes surged with heat while he zipped past the bursts of soil erupting from the blurring ground below.

Dodging the cannons atop the base’s walls was as easy as his steady breathing.

Tree bark and leaves burst around him. Stones flew before his green eyes which picked out the trees and cannon-fire that came for him at a vehement velocity. But he weaved through each hurdle as quick as blinking, not striking one.

The silhouette of the mountain beyond separating the forest from the nearest metropolis grew closer. The banner on the fortresses’ metal doors, the same one he’d seen every day – the giant head with a wide-toothed smile and moustache – enlarged as he picked up the pace. 

Sonic smirked.

He put on more speed. He rammed his shoulder into the heart of the banner’s smile.

The metal gates flung out their hinges, barrelling over the enflamed floor. The concrete cracked beneath his gloved hands upon landing into a half-crouch. He looked up at the chaos ensuing between the immense barriers bulwarking the vast courtyard.

Shattered metal and fizzling circuitry were strewn everywhere. Splintered crates were toppled all over the riotous space and fronting another metal wall, this time stretching from one side of the quad to the other. The stench of smoke smothered his nostrils. And not even the moon was bright enough to dull the salvo strobing his sight.

Huh, I’m later than usual.

Dozens and dozens of badniks – the robotic forces of Doctor Eggman, their creator – swarmed the quad. Flying in red, blue or white armour, the machines poured streams of bullets out their built-in-guns, a futile effort to hit the blurs whirling around them in circles – one red, and the other black. Knuckles and Shadow.

And they got here before me too? Shad, I get but Knux too?

Was he getting slower? Chaos forbid Shadow hearing him say that.

An orange flash, and a gruff yell drew Sonic to the crimson figure hurtling away from an explosion, pinwheeling through the air uncontrollably.

Knuckles crashed and rolled into a heap on the ground, grunting. However, he quickly, used the spikes on his gloved fists to push himself onto his knees, his purple eyes narrowed at the two white badniks descending for him. Egg-Gunners, Tails had debriefed them earlier. The simple recollection reminded him of the radio-band around his and his others’ wrists.

The kid would go on a new one if they broke them.

As the badniks aimed the guns at Knuckles, Sonic lunged with a yell.

His fist smashed the first Gunner’s head off into the distant night. The following blast by his feet reared his focus to the second Gunner now locked onto him. In a blur, Sonic slipped under its two digitigrade legs before it could fire again. And with a slick twist, he grabbed the robot’s three-hooked toes, and hurled the Gunner into a blue badnik hovering over Shadow to his right – an Egg Lancer. The black hedgehog staggered away from the two machines erupting into balls of shards and flame. He spun to Sonic with a snarl, his red eyes blazing.

As always when it came to Shadow, Sonic grinned before whirling to Knuckles, ready to help him up. But Knuckles was on his feet. The ground split under his red-yellow shoes, and he vaulted back into the swarm of Gunners and Lancers coming for them with a roar.

Sonic had fought many of Eggman’s machines, and these ones were no different. But they were not the animal-types he usually dealt with. Slim framed and busty triangular torsos; digitigrade legs, and twin propulsion jets on their backs; these were more humanoid this time.

Why the design change now, Robotnik?

Sonic knew better than to question that madman’s ever-changing aesthetics. He fought animals for crying-out loud. Frickin animals.

“I vanish for five minutes, and you already started the party without me?” Sonic teased Shadow who scowled, clenching his fists, and flashing the golden rings cuffed onto his gloves.

“You’re late,” Shadow curtly retorted.

Behind him, a red-and-black badnik – a Stinger – fired a rocket at them.

Alarm fluttered within Sonic, but he curled back, ready to spring, his smile widening.

Suddenly, Shadow vanished in a burst of blue-light and re-appeared in the air, catching the projectile mid-flight. He tossed it back at the Stinger with a swift twirl and landed on the ground. Then he turned to Sonic with that same disinterested expression, not reacting once to the explosion behind him, his red-streaked quills flittering against the gusting wind.

Ignoring his flicker of awe, Sonic replied to Shadow, shrugging, “You’re not one for punctuality either.”

Something moved at the corner of Sonic’s vision.

Four Egg-Gunners jetted from his left and surged for the two hedgehogs.

Huffing, Sonic curled up into a ball and spun in place like a revving tire. Gyrating faster and faster, the ground roared beneath his quills, the scent of heated concrete fogging all around him. And he slingshot for the four machines. Like a pinball, he bashed into each one, bursting chassis and circuitry like confetti. Then he landed in front of Shadow and dusted his hands.

“I figured I’d take a page outta your book,” Sonic added.

Shadow grumped. “In more ways than one I hope.” His plain visage tracked past Sonic who looked over his shoulder to Knuckles ramming his fist through a Lancer’s chest.

“Twenty-five!” he yelled, blasting the machine away in a spray of shards.

Two more Lancers and a Gunner raced for him with their roaring thrusters.

But Knuckles was faster. He leaped up into the air, slamming a fist down the Gunner’s cranium, caving-in its frame from the head down.

A thunderous uppercut to the chest smashed the next Lancer in two, flipping its top half over the base’s walls. Its legs fell into Knuckles’ grip who then lobbed it at the second Lancer, slicing it down by the knees. Before it could get up, Knuckles drove his massive hands down onto its head, pulverising it into fiery smithereens.

“Twenty-eight!” he shouted.

Shadow’s chuff and the feral gleam in Knuckles’ eyes was all Sonic needed to know what was happening.

However, the coarse hiss of jet-engines pealed into Sonic’s ears.

He and Shadow spun to the six Gunners diving for them from the high wall at the edge of the courtyard. Both exchanged knowing looks. And yet, before they could move, Knuckles jumped in front of them with a yell and punched the ground.

A mighty tremor sent Sonic and Shadow stumbling.

The booming blow erupted a large shockwave of rubble for the Gunners, milling them in one fell swoop. Once the grating crunch of wasted metal was drowned under the steady hum of crackling embers, Knuckles looked over his shoulder at Shadow and grinned.

“Thirty-four,” he bragged. Shadow rolled his eyes. “I hope you’re still keeping score.”

“A competition too?” Sonic mockingly gasped. “Guys, I’m hurt.”

“That’s what happens when you’re too busy cleaning your shoes.” Sonic raised a brow, and Knuckles proudly folded his arms, snickering. “If you came sooner, maybe there would’ve been enough for you to join in.”

Sonic surveyed the remains of Eggman’s guards laying on the ground in a field of debris and fire. And he’d be lying if the wrenching tug of his own disappointment didn’t flutter within his stomach a little. Just as quick, hope washed it away when he spotted seven Lancers hovering up in the air over the wall cutting through the courtyard. They plunged for the trio in a line, and Sonic geared himself to jump right for them.

A green chaos emerald suddenly appeared in Shadow’s hand. A surge of gold, crackling like lighting, tided from one end of his body to the other. Sonic’s glint of hope died just as fast as the golden spear of light shot out of Shadow’s hand and speared through the line of Lancers.

Sonic gave Shadow a look whom he knew deliberately did that to ruin his mood.

The light shine of amusement in the black hedgehog’s eyes told it all, and Sonic pulled himself from growling. “Forty,” Shadow said to Knuckles, then he scolded both him and Sonic, “I said to be covert.”

Before Sonic opened his mouth, a young yet raspy voice cackled out the comm-bands on their wrists, “Ha! You three are as subtle as Big when he’s snoring.” Tails.

Good to know there was someone still watching them, even if they were doing so from the comfort of their own home. But based on the hardened mask that came over Shadow, Sonic supposed it was for the best Tails stayed where he was. Something else was rummaging through his head, and the last thing anyone needed tonight was Shadow deciding to go in on this alone.

That always worked well for everybody. Just ask Black Doom.

Sonic shuddered, rearing his mind back from the memories of that invasion.

Goodness, that also happened, didn’t it? And that was only last year too, right? Damn.

Earth can’t catch a break, can it?

The simple notion of everything that happened slowly weighed in on his head, and for a moment, Sonic sensed his knees wobble – just a little bit.

“Leave Big out of this,” Knuckles answered Tails into his band, bringing Sonic’s focus back. “You know how Shadow gets when you compare him to anyone he thinks is inferior.”

A frown creased Shadow’s features. “Who the hell is Big?”

“Ah, just someone who can possibly do a better job at taking down these bots than you,” Sonic jeered, resting an elbow on Shadow’s shoulder. “You got lazy with that Chaos Emerald there,” Sonic glanced at the pulsing gem in Shadow’s hand, “Big could finish the job with just his fishing rod.”

“…A fishing rod,” Shadow echoed plainly.

Knuckles chimed in, “Oh yeah, don’t underestimate that thing. Even Eggman fears it.”

Sonic and Knuckles snicker between each other.

Shadow grumped, swatting Sonic’s arm off him. “Why do I ever bother with you two?”

Another one of Tails’ giggles crackled out of their radios before he said, “But Shadow’s right. When I gave the coordinates to Eggman’s base, I didn’t mean set-off all the defences.”

“We could’ve put Rouge in danger,” Shadow added.

Sonic raised his brows and turned to Knuckles doing the same, his features twisted with more worry and anger. Okay, this was clearly news to them both then. Rouge was here too?

“Omega intercepted a G.U.N transmission which said they’d lost contact with her twenty-four hours ago,” Shadow added, “I had Tails triangulate her signal which led us here.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me?” Knuckles snapped, flustering. When Shadow raised a brow, Knuckles cheeks flushed, his anger magnifying, “I-I-I mean us sooner?”

Oh brother.

Sonic stopped himself from rolling his eyes. “Nicely done, Knux,” he patted Knuckles on the shoulder, and ignored scowl. He then asked Shadow, “You’re working for GUN now?”

A dark cloud passed over the black hedgehog’s face. “Hell no!”

Knuckles added, “Heh, that would’ve been awkward.”

Shadow narrowed his eyes at him, but Sonic quickly stepped in, feeling the air between them growing colder. “Tails said there are two Chaos Emeralds in here,” he dipped his chin to the wall ahead separating them from the rest of the base. “Do you think that’s what Rouge was after?” Knuckles tensed beside him, but Shadow responded with a little shrug.

Brilliant.

Leave it to Rouge to get in trouble hunting for the Emeralds herself. Nothing new about that. Besides, it made hunting for them a lot easier whenever they lost their hands on them after every big battle…which was also starting to get on Sonic’s nerves. The only Emerald they ever seemed to have consistently with them was the green one, and no one was allowed to use it. Shadow hoarded it like a dragon to gold. It practically was his emotional-support Emerald.

“Why do you think I wanted you to be careful?” Tails said. “It was bound to be heavily guarded!” That went without saying.

Rouge finding the Emeralds would’ve been an easier conclusion to draw if there wasn’t a lingering hole puncturing it: G.U.N had sent her. Not that Sonic had anything against them.

The G.U.N – the Guardian Unit of Nations – had been more help to them lately despite their…differences – to put it shortly – in tracking down Eggman’s movements across the world. But Sonic aired on the side of caution with them, especially when it came to their intentions with his friends. And them sending Rouge here wasn’t doing any favours of his tentative trust.

Give them the benefit of a doubt, man. They want the same thing as you do.

Which was what exactly? By the Emeralds, he’ll deal with that existential issue later.

Pacing leisurely, Sonic looked around at the destroyed machinery littering the floor. He answered Tails, “Relax, it’s nothing we’ve never done before.” He stopped by one of the many Gunners laying in pieces before him and kicked at its splintered toros, smirking. “Besides, these guys are breaking too easily now. I think Egghead’s losing his touch.”

If only.

Suddenly, three massive shadows vaulted over the wall ahead of them. And the ground crunched beneath their wide feet as they landed in front of the trio. Their armour adorned with white and gold panels, the towering badniks surveyed them all with golden eyes pulsing out of their flat heads. Their thick arms boasted clawed black fingers and miniguns strapped around their wrists. The power-cores on their torsos spun as wild and bright as the sun, and a uniformed mechanical groan rumbled out of them with every movement.

Egg-Guardians.

Maybe he spoke to soon.

Sonic turned to Knuckles glowering at him and sheepishly shrugged.

The Guardians aimed their arms at them and fired out their clawed hands.

“Take’em out!” Shadow ordered.

He blasted for the metallic behemoths, ducking under their fingers rocketing over him.

Sonic and Knuckles rushed after him. The air whooshed through the former’s quills as he swiftly closed the distance between him and the nearest Guardian. Knuckles, racing nearby, lunged forward and spiralled through the night like a corkscrew. His pointed fists speared into the Guardian’s left knee, crippling it instantly.

Before it could fall, Sonic leaped up and rammed through its chest feet-first. Metal and sparking circuitry flew into his vision. He burst out the other side, landing and skidding for the second Gunner quicker than it notice him. He swept its feet off the ground with one leg, and as it fell backwards, he kick-flipped the machine up into the air with a thunderous bag.

Knuckles launched into the sky to meet the ascending Guardian. He smashed his fists down onto its chest, plunging it down into the ground, splintering the concrete into large cracks.

The air rippled against Sonic’s ears, and he turned to Shadow skating past him. Hopping off the second Guardian’s remains, Shadow flew for the clouds, and like golden lightning dove for the last Guardian with a cry, obliterating the machine into flames with a single punch.

Sonic raised his arms up against the flying metal slivers and smoke smearing his sight. He found Shadow standing amidst the fiery wreckage, and Knuckles came to Sonic’s side once again, frowning at his impish grin.

“See?” Sonic jeered. “Too easy?”

Grumping was Knuckles’ only answer while Shadow rejoined with them.

Tails’ voice sounded out their radios again. “Shadow, there’s a heat signature located at the base’s supply chain.”

“Understood,” Shadow gruffly replied.

“And Sonic? There’s a strong spike of energy being emitted from the lower levels.”

“The Emeralds?” Knuckles asked.

“It’s gotta be,” Sonic breathed. He hoped they were at least. They’ve been in circles for too long this month. He then said into his radio, “Is Eggman here too?”

“I’m only picking up the one heat signature, Sonic. It could be him, Rouge, or anyone,” Tails admitted.

Shadow pointed out, “I doubt he’d leave two Emeralds lying around unsupervised.”

“You think it’s a trap?” Knuckles asked.

“Isn’t it always?” Sonic said, a wry smile crossing his lips. “Eggman’s bots have been moving a whole train of supplies from one base to another. Ten times in three days – like he can’t stay in one place anymore. If he’s moving every chance he gets, then there’s something he doesn’t want us to find…Whatever that is.”

He’d be lying to himself if he didn’t feel a certain blandness weighing him down at the mere thought of facing Eggman again. When Tails showed them all to this location – a fortress situated in a jade vale, with the nearest populated area being Central City – Sonic was tempted to leave this alone.

He thought they’d be close to figuring out the endgame, or something close to it, but it was the same dead-ends over and over. Honestly, despite the possibility of finding two Chaos Emeralds here, Sonic doubted anything would change. Clearly the mad doctor wasn’t going to.

And for some reason, this was starting to bother him.

Shadow and Knuckles were observing him and glanced at his clenched fists.

Sonic relaxed and smirked. Yet, he sensed their concern oozing out of their otherwise deadpan expressions. Trying to lighten the mood, he said to Shadow, “Don’t be late.”

The black hedgehog raised a brow. After a droning pause, he scoffed, “Same to you.”

Then Shadow vanished in a bolt of blue light, warping into the night.

Sonic’s stare lingered on the empty space where Shadow had stood then met Knuckles’ gaze, noticing a flicker of worry rippling on his friend’s purple eyes. But Sonic feigned another grin and jerked his head in the direction of the wall separating them from the rest of the fortress.

For a moment, Knuckles kept his focus on Sonic before a heavy sigh rasped out of him. And together, the duo dashed and leaped over the barrier, where danger awaited their arrival.