Elise was in a cold room. Her vision only guided by the violet candle at the tip of the Dark Scepter. "Look into the fire, Elise," Blaze told her. Elise put her face closer to the candle, as it danced around eerily. As Blaze waved it to and fro slowly. "What do you see?" Elise squinted. The flame grew larger.
"I see… the future of Soleanna," Elise whispered, trying to take the scepter and hold it in her own two hands. Blaze looked to Silver from across the room as she stepped back. "We were always to become one with the Wastelands around us, you know. Our kingdom will be sent back to the very beginning by the guiding flame that led us to this point."
"What can we do to survive the Flames of Disaster?" Silver asked. "There has to be a way we can change the future!"
"Shh," Blaze hissed. "It's clear this isn't working… yet. We can continue later. For now, let's leave the princess be." Blaze stared down upon Elise. "She's been through a lot today." Blaze blew out the candle and left the princess in complete darkness. Alone with the extinguished scepter
She fell to her knees, clutching the Dark Scepter close to her chest. "You're a good girl, Elise…" a voice called out to her from the darkness. "Don't cry, no matter what happens. You must be a good and strong ruler, don't give in to the everyday troubles beneath you."
"Father?" Elise mumbled, her eyes beginning to close as her father appeared before her, blurry and stationary.
"Elise, you've been so brave. It's time to rest, now," her father told her. "Don't worry, I'll wake you up early in the morning." Elise fell asleep, alone with her dreams.
Sonic sped down Mount MPH, on a snowboard he had planned on using for dumb fun when he first arrived at Soleanna. However, it seemed an ordinary fireworks show leading into the perfect vacation was never in the cards. With an iron focus and light-speed reflexes, he slid down the most perilous mountain in all of Eurish on his mission to save Elise, obtain the Dark Scepter, and save the world once again. He kicked up snow, shoveling it behind him with every millisecond that passed as part of a stupid plan to gain speed on his board and break down the gate of White Acropolis. He had heard whispers that Elise was being kept in White Acropolis' greatest fortress and unofficial center for tourism. Unverifiable, sure, but Sonic had a gut feeling he could find her here.
On the opposite side of the mountains encircling the base, watchtowers caught sight of the Egg Carrier, fully functional once more and flying towards them. "That's right, baby! Fall! My magnificence shall be the last thing you lot ever see," Eggman exclaimed, doing donuts with the warship and raining hellfire upon the perimeter of the base. "A truly beautiful last sight if I do say so myself."
Sonic locked eyes onto the Egg Carrier, and then looked dead ahead. He smirked as he saw how big the snowball had gotten. He approached the gate, approached a slope… and jumped. Instead of him splattering into the gate, the gargantuan snowball went ahead and broke the gate down like a bowling pin. Sonic flipped through the air. His snowboard stabbed into the ground diagonally, allowing Sonic to spring off of one end and launch into one of the Egg Carrier's windows. He broke right through the glass, and waved at the Badniks inside. Before they could attack, he made his exit through the opposing window in Spinball form. He landed on solid ground for a single millisecond before again making his way to the skies by running up the impossibly tall Sun Spire. It ironically only reached halfway to the moon. The Egg Carrier blasted the fortress, trying to catch Sonic as his road crumbled underneath him.
Elise woke up with the room on its side, she was slammed to the walls as it fell down. She grabbed the Dark Scepter, clutching it close as the piece of fortress fell down a few miles. Sonic then ran into the room, picking her up and making a tornado around the falling floor they were in. "Sonic!" Elise cried, before the room crashed into the snow. Its descent had been slowed by the Sonic Wind, just enough to where the impact wouldn't hurt too badly.
"Miss me much?" Sonic laughed, casually walking back to the gate.
"Sonic? You're going so slow…" Elise said.
"Just making sure we don't miss this," Sonic chuckled, as the Sun Spire's remains crashed down onto the Egg Carrier, causing it to get buried under the rubble. Elise giggled, before breaking out into full-on laughter. Sonic went along with it. The two sped off out of harm's way, not exactly sure where they were going.
Eggman tried to get the Egg Carrier running, trapped under hundreds of pounds worth of rubble in a powered-down engine room. "Grah… come on! Fly already! FLY!" Eggman shouted. Suddenly, he heard a slinking sound from behind him. He spun around meekly, his mustache drooping as he saw nothing of note behind him. Only darkness. He went back to work on reigniting the engines. Something began to sneak up from behind him, some kind of silhouette, until the rubble began to clear away in a cyan light. The shadow disappeared, Eggman looked out the broken window as Silver and Blaze stepped inside. "Of all the— who are you two?!"
"Eggman! I'm here to make you PAY for what you did to the Castle Town and its people!" Silver shouted, fastening his gloves and approaching Eggman. Then, Blaze put a hand on his shoulder. Silver froze.
"Silver, may we have a moment?" Blaze asked. She tugged Silver's arm gently in the direction of the Egg Carrier's hallway. Silver walked her way, seeing a makeshift candle on the tip of her finger.
"What is it, Blaze?" Silver asked. Blaze had her back turned to him, guided along by the gradually growing flame within the deep dark warship. "Blaze?" Silver kept following Blaze as she seemed to speed up with every inch the flame spread along her finger. "Blaze!" Silver put the air around the cat in stasis. Blaze gasped. "Your hand…" Blaze shook her hand free of his telekinesis, flecking fire in every direction from her burnt palm.
"Fine, I'm… I'm fine," Blaze grumbled, holding her smoking and charred claw as her glove peeled away. "Was there something you needed? Why were you following me?" Silver turned around. The ship looked smaller from the outside. The hallway behind them stretched eternally into the dark.
"You told me to come with you," Silver said, turning back around to face her. But she wasn't there. Just more darkness. "BLAZE!" Silver yelped, using his powers to glow enough to barely illuminate the hallway. He ran, past purple eyes and strange growls. Howls. Rumblings of demonic stomachs.
"The young one runs. And he glows. But how long can his glow last?" The scratchy voices asked, circling around him. Silver's wrists pulsated as he heard snickering. "We've been under his bed, we've hidden in his closet. Inside drawers and cabinets. But unlike the rest, he can see creatures of the night plain as day." Silver's glow began to dim, his energy depleting and his focus dwindling until he arrived at Eggman's library. He grabbed onto the door handle with his hand. It was hot to the touch, so he telekinetically opened it and scurried inside. He shut it tightly behind him, the voices melting away in the tangerine light. Silver hyperventilated, backing up until he bumped into a chair.
"Is that you, Silver?" Blaze hummed, gently licking her finger and turning a page of the Book of Darkness.
"Why did you run off like that?" Silver asked. Blaze stared at him blankly, then cocked her head. "Maybe… did you see them too?" Blaze nodded.
"The Stalkers seem to like you too," Blaze said, shutting the huge bible and smiling at Silver. "Have they followed you your whole life as well?"
"I mean… yeah," Silver said. "I just assumed this type of thing happens to everybody." Blaze closed her eyes.
"If we get rid of Mephiles, the people of Soleanna will never have to worry about that becoming the case," Blaze stated. She picked up the book, stood up, and looked Silver in the eyes. "All we must do is kill the blue hedgehog. Quickly. The barrier between our realm and the Land of Darkness is thinning as we speak. Mephiles must die." Silver took a deep breath.
"I've been thinking… I know our mission is to eradicate Mephiles. But to kill someone to save the world…" Silver spoke loudly. "Is it right?" He mumbled the last part. Blaze shot a spire of flame through the ceiling of the library. She then leapt up onto the Egg Carrier's roof. Silver levitated after her, letting the snow fall on his face as he slowly lifted himself off the ground.
"That's a very hard question to answer," Blaze said, letting snow fall onto her hand and turn to water. Silver landed on the roof and took in the sight of the fallen military base. "All I know is that if Mephiles lives, this is how it will end for everybody. Everywhere." Blaze side-eyed Silver. "You know this, don't you?" Silver spat out the snowflakes he had been catching on his tongue.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Silver groaned, taking hold of Blaze's hand and hopping back into the Egg Carrier.
…
"Eggman."
Eggman turned around once more to see Silver and Blaze. "Oh, it's you two again," Eggman grumbled. "SWATBOTS! Exterminate these squatting roaches!"
"Wait, Eggman," Silver held up his hands in surrender. "We've come to a conclusion." Blaze held up the Book of Darkness. Silver was none the wiser as he gave Eggman an intense stare. "We think it is best if we join your hunt for Sonic and the Dark Scepter." Eggman stared deeper into the pages of the book, Blaze flipping to pages in a seemingly random sequence. Eggman then grinned.
"Well, why didn't you just ask sooner?" He cackled, walking off to the control room of the carrier. "Get this ship up and running, then we'll finally get rid of that horrid hedgehog and obtain the Dark Scepter!" The Egg Carrier took off into the distance.