Elemental Flames | Preview -rewritten-

Elemental Flames 

A flame.

Just one little burning flame in a glass. The significance of this burning life form is far more important and precious than anything else in this universe, and no one realises it. Because it is the root for all living things in this dimension. In several dimensions. The signature of life itself is inside this never ending burning flame, whose power can bring so much wealth and hope to the world and yet so much destructive energy lies within it could end it. Since time began, this living flame of hope and destruction has been kept in secret and guarded by humans from generation to generation, decade after decade, millennium after millennium, to keep it alive and protected from any who might misuse it.

The flame was unearthly, it bound the world together as one unity, yet, despite this unfathomable, divine power, the flame could be blown out if anyone ever dared to attempt such an action. Although many found hope in the flame's beauty, some found the key to power and domination, and would try to use it for their own goal; the flame was a link between the past, present and future. However, the flame was not capable of doing anything but to bring hope to people in its flickering state of warmness. No evil could emerge from the pure, burning heart of the Flames of Hope; it chose to bring happiness and peace to land and allowed no monsters to distort it's blazing power. If left to follow Nature's course the flames would always symbolise peace and prosperity, a future filled with love and life and eternal hope.

You see, within the flame is two parallel powers that keeps it together. The most part of the time, the hopeful side of it shines from it and brings happiness and love to humans and mobians. However, another side of it is pure dark and evil. But this side has two individual parts and they stay together like brothers. Within this part of the flame lies what we call the Flames of Disaster, the destructive and terrorising side of the eternal sun god of Solaris. The rage of raw and uncontrollable energy would bring the world to ashes without knowledge of what it was doing; like a fire in the forest. It has no control of where to go and what to destroy; the wind has this power. And just as the wind controls the direction of the flames, so does the second part of the dark side of the flame. The pure dark mind of intelligence, strategy and manipulation is always there to guide the Flames of Disaster.

Those two sides benefits the world together and becomes one with each other, creating perfect balance and stability to the world. They are at harmony. They are Yin and Yang themselves.

-Yet the powers of time the flame contained tempted the Duke of Soleanna and it nearly caused a worldwide catastrophe.  In his sorrow of losing his wife, the Duke wanted to change the past and prevent the queen from her horrifying death that occurred shortly after the birth of their daughter, Elise-

The Solaris Project was started long before the accident happened. His intention was only meant to do good and help not only his wife, but also his people and rescue the sick. But destiny had other plans. When the flame was brought into the chamber, it was split into three parts which was supposed to stay together. The manipulative black substance that had been united with its brother was for itself while the Flames of Disaster was fighting against the good and protective part of Solaris. The chaotic inferno that occurred when the Duke and his men's efforts to create a rift in time caused them all to perish, the darkness within Solaris lashing out with it's fiery wrath, dispensing fatal injuries which warned of it's future path as the feared fire demon Iblis and another even greater evil which would plague the hearts and minds of men and Mobians alike.

The hope that once was in the flame was gone and the destructive power was released into the world, both the uncontrollable rage of Solaris and the master mind to wield them set out to destroy. Hadn't it been for two heroic hedgehogs the world would have been doomed. While the Flames of Disaster was sealed inside the Duke's daughter, the dark manipulating substance, that got the name Mephiles, was sealed inside a scepter to keep it away from the princess. But even this separation couldn't last forever.

-The Flame of Hope princess Elise carried had become vulnerable. One single teardrop would cause the rage within her soul to emerge out of her being and destroy everything in its path. And so it happened-

Ten years later, Doctor Eggman decided to obtain the Flames of Disaster from her and in his quest of doing so, he had accidently released Mephiles the Dark, the intelligent mind behind his brother half Iblis, the flaming destructive Solaris himself.

-By killing the blue wind, the fastest thing alive, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mephiles triggered the tears to release from the princess and he reunited with Iblis; together without any good soul to keep them apart, they became Solaris and began their quest of erasing time itself-

The end of the world was near, the eternal Sun God that once brought peace and justice to us all had turned against them and was on the rampage of destroying any form of life. Then the most unexpected happened; a miracle occurred.  The seven Gems of Hope, known as the Chaos Emeralds, revived Sonic and by the help of his friends, he defeated Solaris along with Silver, the time-traveller from far into the future, and Shadow, the world's Ultimate Lifeform. 

-The Flames were dangerous and had to disappear, yet this action could cause unknown disaster if it vanished-

Princess Elise, the only heir to Soleanna's throne, came to the conclusion that even though the flame was dangerous when it would be separated from its counterpart, it would be safest to keep it untouched and wait for the right time where it will be one and bind the worlds together as it is said to be.

He had been surprised to see her change her mind and place the small flickering flame back in the holder, and even more surprising was to watch her turn around and leave. 

"Elise," that was how the hedgehog had begun, "do you really think that putting your own wishes first is the best?" Sonic was concerned as he had reached his hand forward and had grabbed the pale princess' arm. The fight against the Eternal Sun God was no picnic and such an action Mephiles the Dark caused was something he and others never wanted to repeat again. "Solaris is eternal… and so is Mephiles. If he is ever to get out of his prison and free Iblis, then I don't think me and the others will then be able to save the world a second time."

The princess stared deeply into his emerald green eyes, her own sapphire blue growing bigger. She sighed as she slipped out of his grab and turned her back against him. "I know, Sonic. But as you've said yourself," she turned around and watched on in grief at the fastest thing alive, "Solaris is eternal. If he disappears then who knows what it will bring to the world. His flames has been here for as long as the humans themselves." She sighed again and began walking away. "I am sorry. But I can't let the world fall apart. We just have to wait until the right time comes so that Solaris can become one as he once was."

Darkness consumed the both of them and they were send through a hole in the space time rift and as predicted, they landed in the middle of the square. Even though the buildings were damaged from Doctor Eggman's attack two days ago, people helped each other to rise Soleanna to its glorious state of beauty. 

...

The crowd of people made it look like every other day in the capital Spagonia. Students went in and out of the buildings that belonged to the magnificent University; some were taking a break at the café while others ran to their classes. Yet another ordinary day to watch from the rooftops of the gorgeous city.

Gorgeous.

That's exactly how he would describe her. She was more beautiful than any other flower he had yet seen, her silky, smooth fur shining more than a million pieces of amethysts and that rare smile was imprinted in his mind forever. She was amazing, yet he knew she was gone for eternity. At least he thought so. But there was no way she could have survived. He saw her disappear, fade away in a golden light actually, right before his eyes and he had tried to stop her. But she was stubborn, just like him, telling the male that there was no other way out. But had he listened? No. But he couldn't do anything as the feline had vanished between the red clouds and made the light return to the earth. And you would think that this happiness and light would make him smile, but it didn't. Not even close to it. 

"Yo, Silver!"

His name made him snap back from daydreaming. Just twisting his head lightly to the left made him see the blue blur stand behind with crossed arms and with an unmistakable smirk across his peach muzzle. The time-traveller sighed out as he returned gazing out on the city. He didn't say a word as his head moved back to its position on his knees and his half-closed golden orbs switched attention to the navy blue boots he wore. The sound of footstep didn't change any of this. He just needed some alone time and people didn't seem to get that.

Sonic stood beside the white male and gazed out on the busy city as well. "Nice day, don't you think?" He was filled with joy, but of course, who wouldn't on a sunny day as this. Well, Silver wasn't, and he was even the cherish and optimistic guy, not the grumpy and depressed one. Shadow had that role, at least according to Sonic he had.

"Are you just going to keep ignoring him that way?"

Both hedgehogs stiffened in surprise of the immature young female voice belonging to none other than a certain pinky. Her large red boots moved over the rooftop's hard asphalt but she was, funny enough, not having her attention on her hero, more on the guy who had tried to kill him. The blue blur shuffled a bit away from her with nervousness and she, yeah, she just glared at him in sadness before sitting beside the white male who had remained silent. Day after day he would stay in the past and spend his time alone and away from his newly made friends. And it made Amy Rose worry.

Her eyes were filled with concern as she placed her hand on his shoulder. "Silver, please talk to me. What's wrong?" She started, but nothing came from the hedgehog. Instead he just shuffled his legs closer against his chest and stared right underneath him. The female sighed, thinking of a new way to start a conversation. "How is the future? Is it still destroyed?"

To her surprise, the male pulled out what could look like the old emerald radar but in reality, it was a holographic transmitting device, allowing Silver to see what was going on in a certain time at a certain place. And as he activated it, he saw countless of people working on reconstructing buildings and helping one another to draw the remaining biters, takers and giant walkers away and destroy them.

"Iblis is gone so people are coming out of hiding." He quietly said before tucking the small handheld device back in his quills. His eyes showed nothing but misery and hurt, a clear sign that he had lost something precious.

"Well, then what are you doing in the past? You should be helping the people you've protected all this time." The hedgehog had moved back to his pal, despite his biggest fan girl sitting right beside him. "Unless you never fought to protect them."

This statement made both Silver and Amy narrow their eyes before looking up at Sonic who was having his hands behind his head. "What are you talking about?"

The azure hedgehog smirked and stared deviously at Silver. "You know what I am talking about. You never fought to protect those folks, you fought to protect her." He placed his arms over each other and turned his body so that he faced the two other mammals, but his eyes were locked with Silver's. "You did it for Blaze, didn't you?"

His eyes widened at the sound of her name and he felt his heart beating as crazy that made him take to his chest before looking away. He groaned before returning his gaze to Sonic, slowly. "H-how do you…?"

"Ah, come on. You think she'd be suspicious when mentioning a blue hedgehog for nothin'?" He had a somewhat wide grin before walking towards the white male. "It's a long story, but to make things short, Eggman's dimensional counterpart and Eggman stole what's called the Sol Emeralds, she was transported into our dimension and fate decided that we should meet, and in the end both she and I defeated the two eggheads. The end!" Then he plumped down beside the white time-traveller while gazing out on the city once more. His grin disappeared however when he remembered her being with Silver. He sighed. "But… she acted so different with you. I mean, she was quite cold and anti-social when she and I first met and all…" He trailed off.

"But both you and Cream made her realise the meaning of friendship," Amy said and leaned over the edge of the building to have a glim of her favourite blue hero, "which must be why she became friends with Silver. Besides, who can't say no to such a sweet and cute guy like him?" She changed the tone of her voice at her ending sentence before pulling on his cheek. It made Silver blush as he wiped away her hand. Sonic became a bit annoyed as he watched the rosy rascal continuing to tease the white hog by moving her fingers in between his fur. "Your fur is so smooth. Makes me wanna lie on it." And she did. Literately. The sight made Sonic widen his eyes before he crossed his arms and turned away. Silver, on the other hand, was blushing like hell before removing Amy and jumping out into the air.

He covered his fur as his natural telekinetic flow covered his body, allowing him to levitate. "Please, Amy. You're embarrassing me." His eyes gazed away and a strong pinkish blush was visible across his peach muzzle. 

The sound of grumping made her turn away from Silver to Sonic. She couldn't see his expression but her sixth sense told her something very delightful. "Aww, Sonic. Don't be jealous;" she moved closer before gently wrapping her arms around him, "my heart will always belong to you." She pushed her face into his soft crystal blue fur with his rough spikes surrounding her closed vision. "My blue hero." Her whisper was so sweet and filled with care and innocence, it made Sonic blush and his heart beating a bit too fast for him to accept. 

He scoffed in what could be a nervous way, but Amy didn't notice. "Me, jealous? Pfft!" He shook himself free of the pink hedgehog's grip before jumping to his feet. "I'm not jealous. Why should I be? I'm the fastest thing alive! All I need is freedom and places where I can run to! As long as I have that, I'm good." His eyes closed and he had crossed his arms once more with a selfish grin placed on his face.

Amy rolled her eyes at his cockiness and childish attitude before turning to the center of all this: Silver. He was still embarrassed and had turned to giggle at the blue boy's slightly pinkish face as Sonic twisted his head to watch Amy stand up. "Never mind. How did you come to know Blaze, Silver? Last time I checked, she didn't live in our dimension."

The white male blushed lightly as he rubbed his arm. "It's… it's a long story. But I will try to tell you what happened before we came to the past." He inhaled deeply before beginning. "I just found her in Crisis City wandering around on her own. After seeing her blazing powers to control fire, everybody turned against her and feared her; they said she was part of Iblis." His glow dimmed before completely fading away once his feet came in contact with the rooftop's hard grey ground. He sighed deeply. "She never was. She didn't even know what they all were talking about. That was the first sign I spotted that she wasn't part of him nor could she have been from this world. She was drawn away by the remaining people of Crisis City, who either lived underground or in hiding on the surface. Me personally, I lived on the inside of the flaming city, but I had grown up at an orphanage on the outskirts." Slowly he sat down and tumbled his thumbs around with sadness and misery, yet anger and hatred, visible in his entire face expression. Amy sat down once again and placed a hand on his shoulder as a sign of continuing. "Blaze had fought against many of Iblis' henchmen, so I knew she was innocent. I was one of the very, very few who fought against Iblis but it was hopeless. We never could truly defeat him, not even push him back to the flames for a short amount of time. I was both desperate and worried at the same time. She never meant to come here in the first place and just got banished right away. So I set out to find her. I managed to do so, but she was badly hurt and under attack at the same time. So it's quite obvious what happened next. I saved her from Iblis, and in return, she was very grateful for my aid and offered me her friendship. That's how it all began. She joined our small rebellion and promised me that one day we would defeat him." By this point, Silver was holding back the tears and his aching heart was wrenching around in deep anger and sadness. He gritted his teeth against each other before forcing his eyes shut. A little second later, his vision was all blurry and he stared at the asphalt. "I just never thought it would end like this."

He had reached his limits. The tears burst forward but he still held back for the big howler. Still, sobs escaped the white mall and his hands turned into first and shook with danger. A flare of cyan colour surrounded him and it made his quills fly around as mad. "Why did she had to leave!?!" With tremendous power, Silver managed to rip off the smoke stack on the current roof the three hedgehogs were on. His anger made him blind as the piece of building construction hurled through the air and landed down on the street, crushing the motor of a car and horns were beeping everywhere as the traffic came to a stop.

"Wow, easy dude!" The blue hero rushed to Silver's side before shaking violently in him. "Pull yourself together! There's no need to be upset over so little!"

At his last word, Amy tensed up as she watched the pale male raising his head; his eyes squinted in anger and disbelief. "So little?" He whispered before pushing his comrade aside. "You don't have any idea of what happened, Sonic! Nothing!" The tears were streaming down his cheeks as he stood up with clenched fists and gritting teeth. His breath became laboured as he watched the mobian back away and gulping. "She sacrificed herself for something I should've done!" He took in deep breaths to calm himself before taking his hand to his heard. He felt a hand on his own shoulder and he turned around to see the caring greenish-blue eyes of Amy Rose.

"Silver, calm down. Shh." She said before hugging him around his shoulders. He sniffled into her shoulder without returning the hug. "It's gonna be okay, I promise." She broke away and smiled to him. Although it made her sad to see such a strong person as him cry, she was there to console him and make him feel better. He rubbed his eyes to get the water away, but for some reason it kept coming as his heart was wrenching inside and craving for something else. Craving to see Blaze again, craving to see her face and her ever so rare smile.

Sonic cleared his throat as he approached his friend. "Sorry man. I didn't know you and Blaze were so close." A small blush appeared on Silver's muzzle and small whisper of 'we were just friends' escaped his mouth. Sonic smirked. "'Just friends?' It looks like you like her a bit more than that, eh?" Silver crossed his arms and turned his back on Sonic before staring out on the mess he caused people down on the streets. "Listen, Silv," Sonic began and approached the albino hedgehog, "I know it's hard to lose someone that stands you really close, believe me, I've tried it myself. But you have to let go."

"You don't understand." He whispered as he whipped away a streaming tear. Sonic snapped his heard towards Silver and watched as the time-traveller stared out on the horizon. "I managed to figure out how to put an end to Iblis, but when I performed the ritual of sealing the flames inside me, I failed. They denied me as the vessel to the Flames of Disaster."He took a shaky deep breath in before continuing. "Blaze stepped in and took the two Chaos Emeralds I had gotten. The flames accepted her because of her pyrokinesis. But she couldn't hold the pain; the flames tried desperately to escape her soul. That's when she begged me to seal her away, but I couldn't… so she did it herself." His fists shook violently down his side, but this time he refused to show weakness. "I was supposed to perish, I deserved it. Not her."

"Perish?" Amy asked in confusion as she stepped beside Silver. He nodded.

"What else could have happened to her? She faded into the sky, all golden and transparent. She… she is most likely… dead." The words coughed up and his voice had become hoarse and tears were forming along his eyelids once more.

"Hey!" The cocky voice and the hand that swung over his neck made him shot his eyes open in surprise. "Why such a cry baby? Where's that Silver who was so headstrong and tough? Where's the guy who fought against me in Soleanna and almost killed me? Where is he? Where's my friend?" His smile was unmistakable. He was mocking Silver yet it was in a nice manner. He looked down at his feet as Sonic released him. "You worry too much, Silver. Blaze is probably out there waiting for you and not, I repeat, not dead." Silver looked up at his 15-years old friend who was rubbing his coal black nose. "She is not gone, dude; just lost. And I bet she misses you just as much as you miss her." His green eyes showed nothing but joy and confidence and then they turned to the setting sun. "Nothing starts until you take action, and I am sure you are an expert on that. If you have time to worry though, then run."

His gaze went to the orange light of the sun as well. It was beautiful, almost as much as her. Sonic's words made him smile and he felt reborn. Standing there on the edge of a rooftop in Spagonia, he felt himself staring right at her face and it seemed she would be staring back at him. The sun's illuminating light made it look like her amber eyes were locked with his own golden ones and it made him confident. 

'I'll find you, Blaze. I know that we will meet again. I just know it.'

Thank you for reading this and remember to comment. It really helps me a ton.

Property to Astral-Blaze. Please, do not copy without permission.