Pieces of Solaris

Mephiles Gains the Stage

To be honest, Eggman wasn't quite sure what he was going to do if Elise didn't obey him right away. It's not like Silver had warned him or anything that the girl was this stubborn- not that Eggman had asked to begin with, but that minor detail is best saved for later.

"Tell me how to free you from your demon." Eggman said sweetly in an attempt to coax Elise. She was not buying it, nor was she going to tell him much either.

"Do you even realize what you're saying?" Elise asked him with justified anger. "Iblis is dangerous- the only one he may listen to is Mephiles. What makes you think you can control him if he comes roaring out of my soul like a hungry lion?"

"As long as Sonic is destroyed, I really don't care." Eggman declared with a shrug and the smugness of a preppy rich girl. Elise rolled her eyes in disbelief.

"Idiot." she mumbled.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Eggman then declared, "I have a PhD!"

"Bought second hand at the black market, or earned from actual hard work?" Elise spat with distrust.

Eggman was about to answer her in a matter-of-fact way, but was interrupted by the alarms on the defense system. A nearby television came down to show that Sonic, his friends, and Silver were making their way through Eggman's lair at a rather fair speed. Most of it was due to Silver's telekenetic abilities, but either way they were coming at a rate that would have brought them into the room within a few minutes. Elise turned to look at Eggman with a satisfied little smirk.

"Ha." she declared smugly. Eggman growled at her and immediately called for several of his robots to attack her from hidden panels in the room. Quickly enough, Elise was surrounded as the robots prepared to fire.

"Ha." Eggman said back to her with an even more smug voice. As Eggman's robots fired at Elise, a sliver of light appeared near her that blinded Eggman for a moment, then went out to reveal that Elise was no longer within line of fire. Confused and angered, Eggman looked around for the girl to find that she and apparently Silver were not that far away, safe from the robots Eggman had sicked on Elise.

"So that's the reason I don't do that often..." Silver said, mostly to himself, while both he and Elise looked rather sick. "Severe head rush... yowza..."

Recovering fairly quickly, Silver helped Elise back on her feet as Sonic and team came through the door. One look at the situation and the Sonic Team were in full battle mode as they smashed Eggman's robots to bits and pieces. Among the natural chaos of the fight, no one noticed as Silver's shadow detached and started to twist and form itself into Mephiles.

The demon took a look around the room and let out a chuckle that sent a chill up everyone's spine before they turned to look at him.

"Enough of these childish games." Mephiles decreed as he gave a wave of his hand. Without much warning, Eggman's robots flew out of the room and out the window with a sickening crash and crunching of metal.

"Do you know how much those robots cost?!" Eggman hollered in rage. Mephiles slowly turned his head to look at the mad doc.

"We have no use for you now." Mephiles said in a low tone before giving a flick of his finger. Not a second later, Eggman was lifted off the ground and thrown out the window like his robots before him. Unlike the robots, there was no indication on whether he made a safe landing or not. Mephiles then turned to Amy, Tails, and Knuckles.

"All the world's stage, and we are all merely players," Mephiles told them in a rather bored way, "But you outlived your already limited screen time. Adieu."

With that, Mephiles then made another wave of his hand and the trio were also thrown out the window without so much a second glance. The demon's cold eyes then turned to face Sticks, who, unlike the others, made a stance to show she was going to fight.

"Ah, Cassandra of Troy, we meet in the flesh at last." Mephiles said to her in a different tone than before that was no less chilling. "It was quite interesting how you knew I was there, even when Silver could not. Remind me, if you are alive, to thank whoever cursed you. Without your stunning abilities to predict what others are too foolish to see, I would have been discovered much earlier than I wanted."

Sticks growled before she made a daring leap toward Mephiles. The demon was not impressed and stopped her in midair. Sticks's eyes widened as Mephiles carelessly gave a flick of his wrist, which sent Sticks out the window as well. Now only Sonic, Silver, and Elise remained with the demon. Taking a quick glance from Mephiles to Elise, Sonic prepared to go into a spin dash to attack Mephiles. Silver took the cue and started to use his powers to manipulate whatever was available in Eggman's lair to pummel Mephiles at higher speeds than Sonic could ever achieve. Laughing as he was being attacked, Mephiles slowly started to succumb to the attacks until he finally went down.

Taking a breath, Silver and Sonic turned to check on Elise at the same time. She was pale, her eyes were glossed over and looking to be staring off at something in the distance, and she certainly wasn't responding.

"Elise!" Silver and Sonic both exclaimed in a panic as they rushed over to her.

They're all dead...

"Elise!"

I could have saved them...

"Elise, answer me now!"

Be a strong queen, Elise. Always smile, and never cry...

In a moment that almost froze time, Mephiles started to laugh once again. Silver immediately started to get up and race toward Mephiles, while Sonic remained at Elise's side in panic. Mephiles laughed as he raised his hand to let a beam of light come out in the form of a saber. Silver saw it and almost immediately knew who it was aimed at. Out of the corner of his eye, Sonic also saw who Mephiles aimed at and closed his eyes in preparation.

A flash of light covered the room, and when it was gone the fate of the world had been decided.

"No!" Mephiles growled when he saw the outcome for himself.

Although Mephiles had aimed at Sonic, Silver had teleported to Sonic to get him out of harm's way and the two were now far from where Mephiles had aimed at. Sonic, who was almost sure he was going to get struck, looked around in confusion before looking at Silver.

"I... I could've died!" Sonic exclaimed in astonishment. Mephiles let out a low growl that became a threatening roar.

"No...!" Mephiles screamed. With another frustrated and deeply angered growl, Mephiles turned to Elise and practically screamed at her, "Iblis, you are strong enough now! Break that damned seal yourself!!"

Elise stared at Mephiles with a blank stare before she let out a screech of pain. Elise held to her head with a mass amount of pain as she fell to the floor like a stone dropping in water. The concerned shouts from Silver and Sonic went unheard in Elise's ears, and the world went dark into a black nothing.