Chapter Text
Our world is filled with all kinds of stories. So many tales to tell. Perhaps too many. But out of all these stories and legends whispered throughout the world, there is one I have had the honor of seeing with my own eyes.
But the true question should be where to start with this particular tale. It’s not for the faint of heart after all.
Hmm…well. It may be best to start at the beginning then.
Once upon a time, there lived two wise and just rulers. King Inferno, an Elemental born with the power of flame. And Queen Asha, a swordswoman who could slash into the fiercest of foes. Together, these two made it their sworn duty to protect their kingdom and the treasures it withheld. Treasures that could decide the very fate of the planet..
The Sol Emeralds. Seven mystical jewels with no known origin that wield tremendous power beyond anyone’s wildest fantasies.
And The Jeweled Scepter. An ancient staff with The Power of Stars, a magic that keeps not only the planet, but entire dimensions intact.
Protecting these cosmic gifts was a heavy burden, but Inferno and Asha carried it with pride. Their people meant more to them than their own lives…until one day, the king and queen decided it was time to grant the world a new miracle.
A princess.
The Sol Empire rejoiced when it was announced that their princess would soon be coming. Well wishes were sent, celebrations were held, and the townsfolk couldn’t help but ask questions. But the most excited of all were the king and queen themselves. They couldn’t wait to raise their little one in the world they loved so, so much.
…but tragedy struck…Asha’s strength was not enough to keep her alive. Her life was lost just as her daughter’s began.
Inferno, mournful over the loss of his wife, gave himself a new mission. Protect their child at any cost. A child he would name…Blaze.
Blaze, even with no mother, grew up a happy child with a promising future. Even before she could speak, her father was sure to let her know that he loved her more than anything else in the world. Even more than the treasures that she would one day protect.
Hope was beginning to burn within the kingdom once more…until fate decided to test them with its cruelty yet again.
Inferno, having succumbed to unnoticed wounds, had been taken from the world. Blaze had lost her father and thus her smile. Even with her personal guards continuing to care for her, it could not fill the aching void left within the young princess’s heart. Things only seemed to get worse when she inherited her birthright: the power of flames.
But without her father to guide her, this power was not a gift. It was a curse. With something as small as a tantrum, entire buildings would become engulfed in fire. This power, having never been displayed in such destructive capacity, terrified the people of The Sol Empire.
The guards who had promised the king to watch over her didn’t know what to do. The people Blaze would rule over fled from her flames. The other nobles of the world were not keen on their princess’s lack of control. And Blaze herself had no parents to turn to.
Even when others were there, Blaze felt…alone.
The princess, having grown in this solitude, inherited the throne and had managed to tame the wildfire within her own soul. Her people’s terror had finally started to subside. It was now her solemn duty to protect The Sol Emeralds and The Jeweled Scepter from those who worshipped evil’s might.
And one such worshipper arrived one day. A mustached madman known as ‘Eggman Nega’. Despite his strange name, his thirst for power and his robotic armada were nothing to laugh at. Blaze and the mad doctor battled time and time again until one day, he and an ally had successfully stolen The Sol Emeralds from our world.
Resolute and desperate, Blaze gave chase into an entirely different dimension and began gathering The Sol Emeralds one by one…but while retrieving them and destroying her foe’s machines was simple enough, our princess had run into something unexpected. Or rather, someone.
A young girl by the name of Cream The Rabbit, who had become her guide to this new dimension. It was the first time in a long time that Blaze had actually met someone new outside of her palace. It was almost too good to be true when Cream’s eyes widened with astonishment instead of terror at the sight of Blaze’s flames.
And Cream was not the only one Blaze had crossed paths with on her journey. Nor was she the only one to insist that Blaze’s mission did not have to be done alone. One particularly persistent warrior was a speedster named Sonic The Hedgehog, a hero who could rival Blaze in almost every way. It was his own enemy, Dr. Eggman, who had allied himself with Eggman Nega to steal The Sol Emeralds in the first place.
No matter how many times Blaze objected to their offers of help or even friendship, all of them refused to give up on her. It was as if each of them could see the solitude Blaze had grown up in.
And eventually…their efforts succeeded. For the first time in years, Blaze had let down her walls. These people had become her allies. Her friends. Even when she inevitably returned home, she found herself hoping that she would see them again one day.
For once, fate decided to reward the princess. The Sol Emeralds and their dimensional counterparts, The Chaos Emeralds, transported Sonic and a boy by the name of Miles Prower into our world to help prevent a catastrophe: the theft of The Jeweled Scepter at the hands of one of Eggman Nega’s machines. And much to Blaze’s shock, they were not the only ones pulled into this adventure.
A young girl by the name of Marine The Raccoon had also joined them. She was young and rambunctious, having dreams of sailing the planet’s endless oceans as a fierce pirate. And while her excitement proved to be more of an obstacle than an asset, Blaze had decided to take the little one under her wing once their journey had ended and Sonic and Miles returned home.
And as the two began their own adventures, Blaze discovered that she and Marine were more similar to each other than at first glance. Marine was an Elemental. Just like her. And knowing all too what having untamed power at a young age was like, Blaze had become more than just her mentor.
She had become…her sister.
…but then? A brand new adventure began for Blaze. Something that not even she could have ever predicted. And something that still somewhat baffles her to this very day.
The Sol Emeralds had transported Blaze into the future…but not her future. Not even the future of our world. But rather, a different time that had been completely ravaged by a power known as The Flames of Disaster. She had found herself combatting an unstoppable monster wielding the power over and over again.
But in this fight for survival in a world that was not her own, Blaze had made yet another ally. A psychokinetic warrior named Silver The Hedgehog, a young man whose sense of hope burned brighter than the stars themselves. Even when his home was a wasteland, Blaze would often hear him speak of hopes and dreams. Dreams of a prosperous world filled with smiling people instead of boiling lava. Hopes of the sun shining through the dark clouds after years of nothing but gray.
Silver had been alone for a long time. Perhaps even longer than Blaze had been. But while she at least had those her father assigned to protect her, Silver had no one. Despite worrying constantly for the safety of her own home, she knew that The Sol Emeralds had brought her to this disastrous place for a reason. And even without that knowledge, she couldn’t simply abandon the hedgehog who was barely clinging onto his hope of a brighter tomorrow.
The two had become partners. Fighting against the monstrous Iblis for what felt like an eternity. Protecting and saving the few people that had been surviving in Crisis City. But it was a losing battle for Iblis could never truly be defeated.
…or…so they thought. A chance at victory was suddenly offered to them by a strange being who introduced himself as Mephiles. He had proposed that the solution to Iblis was to destroy the one who had released him. The ‘Iblis Trigger’.
One that he had claimed was none other than…Sonic.
Blaze had very little time to process that her closest friend was the supposed cause of a horrible future. But Silver, believing The Iblis Trigger to be some kind of monstrous villain, was all too eager to save his world. Mephiles transported them back in time…but the strange being had no plans to save the future. He wanted to cement his own.
Mephiles was revealed to be the other half of Iblis. A demon who thrived on pain and destruction and would manipulate the young and naive to achieve his twisted goals into merging with his other half and allowing an all-powerful god called Solaris to live again.
Blaze and Silver had realized this and swiftly made amends with the ones Mephiles had attempted to convince them were their enemies. Silver had discovered that there was another way to stop Iblis and returned to the future with Blaze at his side. This method was to seal the beast within his own soul with the power of Chaos.
…however…Iblis did not accept him. He fought back against every attempt Silver made, keeping the world in destruction.
But Blaze could also not accept this. Taking The Emeralds from her friend, she offered herself as the beast’s new vessel. Even in a world that wasn’t her own, Blaze simply refused to let anyone innocent suffer. Let alone Silver, who she believed deserved a happy ending more than anyone. Despite Silver’s desperate pleas, Blaze was successful and then proceeded to seal herself and thus Iblis in between space and time, bidding her trusted friend one last goodbye.
Blaze had prepared herself to eternally struggle with the flaming beast, who had swiftly proved himself to be much harder to control than she believed. However, it wasn’t until The Sol Emeralds arrived did Iblis finally meet his end. Their cosmic power destroyed the beast’s consciousness and merged his destructive power with Blaze’s already fiery soul.
And then, in a brilliant flash of light, Blaze had returned to our world as if nothing had happened. As if her endless battles by Silver’s side were nothing more than a dream.
Why? It seemed that her and Silver’s efforts to save the future were not nearly as concrete as they had hoped. Mephiles had survived and enacted his last scheme, taking the life of Sonic The Hedgehog and thus releasing the past Iblis from his vessel. Solaris had returned, ready to consume all of time itself…but even with his unrivaled control over space and time, the god met defeat at the hands of not only Silver, but a resurrected Sonic and The Ultimate Lifeform himself.
Solaris had been erased from existence…thus, so had Blaze’s adventures with Silver. Neither of them had remembered the things they had gone through together.
…but even so, they met each other again. It was under new circumstances and forged over new memories, but their bond had proven to be far too great to simply be forgotten. Blaze had even decided to take Silver to our world to give him a proper home since his current living situation was…complicated. He had quickly become acquainted with the excitable Marine and the three of them decided to form their very own team.
But that, however, seemed to be the key to regaining what was once thought lost. When Silver had been shown the light of The Sol Emeralds, they had decided to restore their memories of their lost timeline. Their lost story.
They had also revealed to their guardian that Iblis’s power was now hers to command. A concept that Blaze had attempted to deny out of fear. Out of fear for what she would turn into when accessing The Flames of Disaster. Out of fear of the destruction she could cause. Out of fear of what her people would think.
…out of fear of what Silver would think.
So, she kept it hidden. She hid this power away from even herself.
But one day, she couldn’t hide it any longer. Thanks to the villainous efforts of an illusion-casting jackal and a vengeful alien, Mephiles had returned and demanded that Blaze release her new power so that he and Iblis would become Solaris yet again. Even when Silver and Marine arrived to help their friend combat the demon, Mephiles was adamant in his mission.
…until it was proven to be hopeless. Blaze unleashed her new monstrous form and demonstrated her complete control over The Flames of Disaster. Iblis was no more. His power was now just another weapon in Blaze’s arsenal.
And once Mephiles retreated, Blaze’s fears of being seen as a monster yet again…were swiftly put to the side. Silver did not see the beast that destroyed his future. He simply saw his friend in need of reassurance.
…well…if you could call his strong feelings for her ‘friendship’.
Needless to say though, Mephiles was forever imprisoned within non-existence alongside his allies. The world had been saved and so our heroes returned to our world yet again to relax. Our Sol Dimension.
But after so many adventures, so many battles, and so many struggles…what’s next? What awaits our princes-
“What are you doing, Gardon?” A voice suddenly asked, snapping the koala out of his focus and forcing his hand to mindlessly drift his pen across the page, thus staining it and all of his writing in ink.
Gardon slowly looked back down at his page and allowed his mind to process that his many paragraphs were now unreadable.
And the one who had called his name was none other than Blaze, who seemed to swiftly realize what she had done. “Oh, err, I…I’m terribly sorry.”
Gardon sighed. “No need to apologize. I suppose it was getting a bit lengthy anyway…”
Blaze then tilted her head. “If I may, what were you writing about?”
Gardon suddenly smiled a bit. “Oh, I think it’s something you’re very familiar with, your highness.”
Blaze’s eyes narrowed, but a slightly amused smile formed across her face. “Gardon, how many times have I asked you not to call me that?”
“Old habits die hard.” Gardon laughed. “Was there something you needed?”
“I was wondering if you had anything to report.” Blaze said. “I want to be certain that The Empire isn’t in any kind of danger.”
Gardon smiled. “Then I’m pleased to say that you have nothing to worry about.”
Blaze returned the smile and nodded. “That is a relief. But I must admit, I am surprised. The Chaos Dimension can’t seem to go a single day without some kind of threat or nuisance.”
Gardon hummed, standing from his seat. “I’d consider it a blessing. From what you’ve told me, Sonic’s gallery of rogues is much greater than ours.”
“Which currently sits at…well…none.” Blaze said, scratching her chin. She didn’t truly believe her own words. “Captain Whisker and his crew have retreated to parts unknown and we haven’t seen the likes of Eggman Nega in…years.”
“With a name like that, I wouldn’t want to show myself either.” Gardon playfully quipped.
Blaze couldn’t help but start laughing and her personal guard followed soon after…until suddenly?
A rumble suddenly rang throughout the air, causing both The Sol Princess and the swordsman to immediately freeze. Gardon even put his hand on the handle of his blade, looking ready to free it from its scabbard.
Blaze began to look around. “...what was that?”
“I…I don’t know.” Gardon admitted.
Blaze then looked out the window…only for her eyes to widen at the sight of robots suddenly flying across the air, firing various lasers and blasts and forcing the townsfolk to run and hide.
Gardon followed her gaze and gasped, swiftly pulling out his sword.
Blaze, however, just felt flames begin to lick at her fingertips. “It seems you spoke too soon. Gardon, alert Captain Lance and The Royal Guard to protect the people. I’ll deal with these machines and whoever sent them.”
Gardon just nodded and quickly ran off, sheathing his sword yet again.
Blaze, using her flames and enhanced speed to propel herself forward, made a mad dash for the palace’s exit and was outside within mere moments.
She had been itching for a fight anyway.