Pieces of Solaris

Survivor's Failure

Soleanna was on fire. Elise sat on the deck of the small ship feeling numb and lacking any senses- it was like this was all a dream, a bad one, and she was going to wake up any moment now. But she knew all too well that it wasn't, and the screams of her friends left behind on Soleanna haunted her as she just sat there and stared.

Silver was purposely trying not to look at the city's destruction. Anything on the small ship he could adjust or redirect, he did it just so he did could ignore what was going on behind them. The screams from the men, women, and children back on Soleanna could not be drowned out as easily, and it led Silver to shiver when one would reach an apex from being burned alive.

"I failed." Elise softly said, her voice cracking a little from the smoke she and Silver had to fight through before getting on the boat. Silver stopped busying himself to turn to look at her. "They're all dead... and it's all my fault."

"There was nothing we could do." Silver told her. Elise didn't seem to respond to him and only looked back at the destruction.

"I was their Princess, I could have saved them. It was my job to save them! And I failed... all of them... I failed..."

Silver bit his lower lip, unsure of what to say to make her feel better. He had a vague feeling that whatever he could say wouldn't make her better, so it was almost useless to even try to pull her out of her depression. He had to though, if Mephiles found her in this state, then their deaths would be a lot more horrifying than what the citizens of Soleanna were experiencing.

"Elise," Silver started to say as he went to sit in front of her. "Elise, look at me."

The Princess refused to look at the hedgehog, so carefully he put a finger under her chin and made her look at him. Her face was red and puffy, almost as if she had been crying but there were no tears on her face, nor was there any indication that any had been there.

"I should have died, not them." Elise told him, "I could have saved them! My friends should be here and I should be there burning to death!"

"Elise, if you died back there it wouldn't have mattered if the others made it out of the city or not." Silver told her, not quite sure if he was being reassuring or not. "I know you understand that. I know you understand that this was the only choice we had. Are you hearing me Elise? I need to know that you're listening to me right now."

Elise chose to make her eyes focus on him. She gave him a blank stare- she wanted so much to cry and let the universe have at it with what came after.

"Do you think you failed her?" the Princess asked Silver in a toneless voice. Silver wanted to be surprised at her question, but found that he was asking himself the same question. The hedgehog put a hand on her head and started to softly stroke her hair with a shaking hand.

"Yes."

. . .

"My lair!" Eggman bemoaned as Solaris's true form ripped through the steel lair like it was tissue paper.

"We fell from a ridiculously high height, some how survived, now a sun god is restored to his true form, and you're worried about your lair?!" Sticks demanded in fury, nearly leaping on top of the mad doctor in rage.

"Everyone has their priorities." Eggman said with a shrug of indifference. Sticks uttered a low growl before attempting to maul him, but was stopped in mid-jump from Knuckles. In his grip, Sticks struggled and kicked like a child in the middle of a horrendous tantrum.

Tails shook his head, unsure of what to do, and looked back at Eggman's lair. A distinct blue streak of light came from out of Eggman's lair and headed toward them at a great speed.

"Sonic!" Tails exclaimed with surprise as said hedgehog came to a dead stop in front of him. Sonic then looked around at the rest of the group with a pale face and nearly relieved expression.

"You guys are alive!" Sonic said in so much surprise that it almost sounded like a question. Before anyone could answer him, Sonic gave Amy a hug then soon after pulled Tails in as well.

"Sonic," Amy said kindly as she and Tails tried to get away from Sonic's rather awkward hug, "I love hugging as much as the next hedgehog, but what's going on?"

"Yeah," Tails agreed, "Where's Silver and Elise?"

Sonic backed off of them and hesitantly looked back toward Eggman's lair. Solaris was slowly starting to open a black hole in the sky. The black hole was going to suck the entire universe into it piece by piece until Solaris had the wasteland he wanted to start over again and recreate the world in flames. Sonic went pale looking at it, then turned to his friends and Eggman again.

"I need your help." Sonic told them all.

"Would you like this?" Sticks spoke up, holding up that remarkable blue gem that Elise had brought in with her just a day before. "It might help a little, or something. You know, in case the demon plans on taking our souls next."

Sonic looked at Sticks with a side glance as he carefully took the gem from her. Once in contact with his hands, the gem started to glow brighter and felt warm to his touch. It almost felt as if the gem had chose him to harness its power, but that's ridiculous... isn't it?

"Go fight the bad guy," Eggman then said, skipping a lot of dialog the writer wanted to put in before he spoke up. "Not no way, not no how I'm going back up there."

"Fine." Sonic told his long time enemy coldly. "Stay here. I don't care what you do. But if we fail, then there will be nothing left. And by now, I think it's safe to say that Solaris isn't going to let anyone live after what he has planned."

Eggman took a glance up at the black hole Solaris had made as it started to grow in size. The mad doc flinched to think of what could be on the other side, and he sure as heck didn't want to find out either.

"I'm coming along." Eggman then decided. "To help Foxy operate his... whatever-it-is-he-has."

"It's Tails." the two-tailed fox told the doc tonelessly.

"That's what I said!" Eggman claimed. Tails folded his arms, obviously not buying it. But this wasn't the time for minor arguments- Solaris had to be stopped. Now.