Pieces of Solaris

You Can't Forget It

It was around midnight when Sonic woke to a rather terrible sound- like a cat dying from underneath a bus full of passengers. Investigating a bit further, Sonic found that it was Elise who was thrashing around as if she was having a seizure. In panic and fear, Sonic rushed to Elise's side and started to wake her up.

"Elise! Wake up! Elise wake up, it's just a dream!" Sonic frantically said as he shook her. Slowly, Elise started to stir, and her body relaxed as she came out of her nightmare. She mumbled some incoherent words before turning to look at Sonic lazily.

"Silver...?" Elise said to Sonic in a drowsy tone, "I want to go home..."

For a moment, Sonic wasn't sure what to say. Didn't Silver mention earlier that her home was destroyed?

"Elise, my name is Sonic, remember?" the blue hedgehog said as he carefully pushed a small strand of hair out of her face. Elise blinked a little when she felt more awake.

"I know that." she told him carefully. "But... but Silver is here, isn't he?"

Sonic nodded, to which Elise let out a sigh of relief.

"Do you need to see him?" Sonic asked, feeling concerned for the human. Elise shook her head slowly.

"No... I would worry him." she said. "I worried you, didn't I?"

"You sounded like a dying cat, how could I not be worried?"

Elise smiled and let out a rather uneasy chuckle. Sonic watched her as she laid back and tried to close her eyes again. But it was difficult for her to go back to sleep, and she soon sat up again with her fingers massaging her temples as if she were in pain. Sonic started to raise his hand so he could give her some support, but decided against it at last moment and put his hand back down at his side.

"Fire... People... People on fire..." she mumbled in pain, "Why can I, but can't...?"

Admittedly, Sonic had no idea what to do for her or how to make her better. For now all he could do was sit there and hope his mere presence was enough to calm her down. It wasn't, so Sonic came up with another idea. Without warning, Sonic scooped Elise up and started to bolt out the door.

"What are you doing?!" Elise asked as Sonic started to reach his top speed. He didn't answer her, but gave her a little wouldn't-you-like-to-know smirk and kept going. Elise braced herself by holding on to him tighter, finding that she had no other choice but to trust where he was going.

. . .

"How can you just forget what happened?" Silver asked himself as he sat by the shore. "All those people..."

It was very late, and Silver couldn't go to sleep- almost for the same reason why Elise woke up. Unknown to him, Sticks was coming over to him looking mildly sour and holding something awfully familiar. Unceremoniously, the badger dropped the object on Silver, which almost made him go on defensive to launch her into the air. One wild look at Sticks, then at what she dropped on him, Silver almost had the urge to kiss her feet in gratitude: Sticks had given Silver the Scepter of Darkness back.

"Where did you find this?" Silver asked- partially in demand, the other in sheer relief. Sticks only gave Silver a hard stare and did not answer. At least, not directly.

"Kill it." she demanded. Silver looked at the Scepter of Darkness, then looked back at Sticks with a rather confused face. The sight made Sticks growl in frustration.

"Use the magicky wand to kill the demon!" Sticks demanded, this time with more anger.

"What demon?" Silver asked in a moment of pure stupidity. Sticks growled again, this time taking Silver's head and almost snapping it in the direction of Sonic's hut.

"That one!" Sticks told Silver in a completely irritable tone. Silver had to think about it for a moment, but when the revelation came to him he nearly smacked himself on the forehead.

"The Scepter of Darkness wasn't made for Iblis." Silver said, almost about to laugh. Stick's frustration almost instantly melted away, but became confusion in its stead.

"Explain." Sticks told Silver as she plopped down beside him.

"Well..." Silver started to say, "I don't know how you're able to guess it, but you are right- the Scepter of Darkness is for a demon, but not for Iblis, who is inside Elise right now. No, the Scepter of Darkness is meant to trap Mephiles the Dark, Iblis's brother of sorts. They were once the same entity -an immortal being the citizens of Soleanna called Solaris- but they were forced apart by Elise's father, who died shortly thereafter for his meddling. We were able to contain Iblis inside Elise's soul, but Mephiles got away before we could trap him within the Scepter. Are you... following all this...?"

"In and out." Sticks admitted, looking as if she was enjoying a good story. "Continue."

Silver looked back at Sticks warily, but continued nonetheless.

"A few days ago, Mephiles decided to return to public view. An hour later, the citizens of Soleanna where on fire and in a panic. I found Elise and we were able to successfully make it out alive... but the others..."

Silver stopped himself as he shivered from the mere thought of trying to remember what had happened. Sticks looked at him patiently, yet rather methodically.

"He's following you." Sticks said in a dark tone. Silver looked at Sticks with a confused glare. Wordlessly, the badger pointed down at the ground, that was when Silver realized that something was wrong; although a full moon was out without a cloud in sight, Silver did not have a shadow. Suddenly, Silver's vision swam in darkness as he started to feel dizzy and sick all at once.

"No...!"

. . .

"Wow..." Elise said in wonder as she and Sonic stared up at the night sky.

"Amy liked it too," Sonic told her simply enough. "Dunno why though. Must be a girl thing or something."

Elise turned her head to look at Sonic with a small, playful smile. Sonic happened to look over at her and a sudden chill ran down his back seeing her smile at him like that. In a way, for a moment, he entertained the idea that he, maybe, loved her.

Meanwhile, behind a tree and hidden in the shadows, Mephiles watched the couple with great and sinister interest.

"Good work brother," he said to no one in particular, "Blocking her memories and securing your eventual rebirth. I will help you of course, but time is of the essence- no one must know of our plan to burn this island to the ground. Wait just a little longer Iblis, soon you will be free..."