"We should take you back to the castle," Sonic told Elise with a tired sigh, carrying her through Tropical Jungle Zone.
"Why's that?" Elise asked, cocking her head like a lost puppy.
"My arms are falling asleep," Sonic replied, his eyes set straight ahead at the path laid out in front of them.
"What about your legs?" Elise asked, smirking. Sonic glanced to her, his smile returning. He took a sudden sharp right, into deeper woods. Elise felt her heart flourish. The darkness from the leaves overhead began to thin out little by little as Sonic tore across the woods, until they eventually reached a clearing. Light shined down upon them from a huge dew-drenched cherry blossom tree in the middle of the lake. "Aah…" Sonic set Elise down onto her feet. She opened her arms and let the sunlight seep into her skin.
"You just can't beat a view like this," Sonic took a calm breath. Elise caught a cherry blossom in her hand. "The sky, the grass… it's enough to make anyone stop and relax for a moment— even me!" Sonic laughed. Elise giggled.
"You're not from around here, are you?" Elise asked, approaching Sonic with the cherry blossom. "You must come from the Wastelands. I wonder… do you see places like this a lot? Even out there?"
"Sure I do," Sonic reclined on the small hill. "Though 'Wastelands' is a bit much. There's a lot to love out there." Sonic looked to the clouds, seeing faces of his friends in the heavenly sky. A bitter sense of regret washed over him. It held a saccharine aftertaste. "I imagine being a princess is a bit of a snag when it comes to finding this type of feeling, though." Elise sat down next to him.
"It was, for a very long time," Elise looked to the sky, seeing the wicked faces of her past in the unknown depths above. "But now you're here. Sonic, thank you. During this adventure, throughout our time together, I've felt like… like…"
"Like royalty?" Sonic asked. Elise felt the cool breeze on her face, soothing the strange feeling burning inside her chest.
"No, somehow… different…" Elise suddenly felt her fingers lock with Sonic's. She pulled away as soon as she realized what happened. Sonic had hardly reacted. "Once this is over, you'll leave… won't you?" Sonic nodded, looking her in the eyes. "I understand. We all have our own responsibilities."
"Hey, don't be sad," Sonic got up. "Maybe you can come with me."
"Me? I… I mustn't! Soleanna needs me."
"You should, though! Don't you want to see the world? Drop all this nonsense holding you down?" Sonic bounced up and held out his hand for Elise. "Even if it's just for a little bit. I'll get you back here by sundown." Elise suddenly stood up. She looked away from Sonic, and stared into the lake. Down the river that led into the Soleanna Sea.
"I can't do that," Elise mumbled, looking down. She knew she couldn't cry. At all. "Do you want to know why, Sonic?" Sonic frowned in concern. Elise pulled out the Dark Scepter.
"Elise, are you…?"
"I want to show you why I can never leave. There's a reason why I can't come with you on your adventures," Elise whimpered, holding it out for Sonic. Sonic reached for it, confused. He carefully gripped the scepter, and then he saw it. Betrayal, cruelty, inhumanity… disaster.
…
"Your majesty, I am afraid you do not understand," a cloaked man whispered, deep within a cathedral. If one were to press their ear to the walls, they would hear the bubbling and gurgling of the deep ocean. "We are only following orders."
"I don't know what you're talking about!" A man covered in royal garb shouted. Sonic watched as a young girl fastened to a hospital bed was rolled down the dusty stone corridor of the dimly-lit Aquatic Base Zone. "I never told you to do this to my daughter!"
"You didn't. But the colorless hedgehog holding the royal scepter did," another cloaked man replied.
"I command you to stop! Right this instant!" The Duke of Soleanna shouted, reaching for his daughter only to be knocked down by some of the scientists. "How dare you do this to me? I am your duke!"
"Yes, but not our god. Go back to the surface, spread the good word of Solaris. We'll let you know when your successor is ready to be released." More cloaked men wrung the duke's neck and dragged him away, as he kicked and scratched to be released.
Sonic blinked, only to open his eyes on a wicked operation. The girl on the bed was being injected from multiple points with multiple concoctions. The tube connected to her right arm was full of some strange lava-like substance, while the left arm was being pumped full of strange red and black tar. It took a second to see in the darkness, but Sonic could notice that her eyes were open. Somehow, she wasn't crying.
"This synthesized Shadow Anomaly should do the trick…" one of the scientists said, turning around with a mask resembling the face of an owl. The child's eyes darted all around. "Fear not, princess. We'll apply anesthesia in the future. The royal funeral took a lot of money from us." He stirred a vial. "This cup is for your father."
Later, the Duke of Soleanna sat in his throne, sipping from a glass of black-speckled wine. "Remember, Elise. Don't cry. No matter what. You must be a strong and good leader…" The child sat with her head on his lap, staring off into nothing with her dead eyes. "... You can't let yourself be troubled by a world that exists only in memory…"
Sonic snapped out of the vision, stumbling backwards. Drool running down his chin, he attempted to throw the Dark Scepter to the ground, only to find he hadn't been holding it to begin with. He tried to steady his breathing.
Sonic looked at the cherry blossom tree, and took a deep breath. He wiped the saliva from his chin. The sun began to set, blanketing Soleanna in darkness.
"That vision you saw… you are aware of its true meaning, correct?" A voice asked. Sonic spun around. Nobody was there.
"Umm, hello?" Sonic asked. He was all alone. There were no eyes on him, nor the feeling of being watched. Just cold wind on his neck. "Wait, where's Elise?"
"She was a fool. Overconfident in her own power, she went off to fight Eggman on her own," the voice in Sonic's head recounted to him. His mind's eye presented faint, grainy photos of Elise running off with the scepter, leaving him alone. Staring mindlessly into nothing. His head pounded as each picture appeared. It almost looked like they were taken from the treetops. "She believed that with him out of the picture, you two would be free to travel the world like you promised. Will you go to rescue her before it's too late?" Sonic began to grunt, clutching his temples.
"Don't do it, Sonic," Sage told him from somewhere far away. "Disembodied voices are seldom trustworthy." Sonic shook his head, and smirked.
"Well, Elise won't be saving herself, will she?" Sonic began to run off as his flesh went cold. He wasn't able to realize it back in the mountains, but now he could tell that frigid feeling was coming from inside. Growing stronger under each Soleanna moon.