Notes:

This chapter was supposed to be more a collection of small snips than an actual chapter, but somehow the story got away from me. (Which is a rather good thing.) Consider it my corrected take on Sonic 06 and its consequences. That said, these is still part of the story missing. Part of it is me somehow unable to stop imagining this as a game, so all "gameplay phase" got out. Others is just me not seeing how to present said missing pieces, (since some of them would still be cinematics rather than gaming phases) and there is also the fact I didn't want to write more than one chapter, anyway, so… And yes, I sapped Elize for Blaze, making the cat live in the same universe as Sonic & Co. (Nothing against multiverse in stories, but I felt it was quite unneeded here, so…)

At first, the plan had been for Sonic to go solo to warn the world that Eggman was still out and about, but Bunny had insisted she and the rest of their small team of Freedom Fighters were perfectly able to organize reconstruction of the newly freed Acorn nation without Sally, and that as the leader of the Freedom Fighter, she should go with Sonic. As a result, the cowardly Antoine De LaRenardière would prove exceptionally adept at directing people on how to efficiently restore their home, but that's a story for another time.

Not that it was the first time part of the Freedom Fighters acted out of the country. A small band of rebellious teenagers wasn't enough to stop him from trying to expand his empire, as efficient as they were in foiling his plans. (And said teenagers had to do anything in their powers to stop him from expending his territories if they wanted any chance at liberating their own nation.)

It was decided the two unofficial ambassadors would go to the Soleanna principality first, it being one of the few nations where humans and mobians lived together, and the only one where they were doing more than tolerating each others. Not having much in transportation, the two lovers didn't have much choice beside using the Tornado, thankfully Sally was just as good a pilot than Tails, and Sonic had long become used to traveling on top of the iconic red plane's upper wings during what would soon be know as "the first Eggman war".

As soon as they landed the plane on the empty beach bellow and got out, a strange purple cat came to them flying, shrouded in flames. Being Chaos sensitive, Sonic could feel that "burning form" was something similar to his Super Sonic, which mean that cat must have access to all 7 of the local set of Chaos Emerald. The lite-purple cat slowly landed on the beach, before dissipating the flames around her, her red outfit turning a darker shade of purple than her fur. She looked furious. "Princess Alicia Acorn," she spat. "Can I know why you're here? No, let me guess. Now that you liberated your home from Eggman, you want to start a new war against the humans, like your ancestors before you, and hope the current ruler of this independent city, being mobian herself, would gladly help you. But what you are conveniently forgetting, nut breath, is the fact I was adopted and raised by humans! Namely the former rulers of the city, Princess Adriana & Prince Louis-Edward of Soleanna!"

Turning her back to the two visitors, the irate cat-princess briefly look at them over her shoulder to add "With the long flight from the Acorn Kingdom, and Since you came just in time for this year's Festival of the Sun, I'll let you stay tonight. But you're on your own to find a place to stay, and you better flee as the first lights touch the city tomorrow, so say Blaze of Soleanna." And on those words, the local sovereign waked back to her castle. She had a ceremony to participate in, after all.

Once Blaze couldn't be seen, Sonic looked at his own princess. Being compared to her garbage ancestors like that couldn't be easy, especially after what had become of her father. The first time Sally and him accessed the 'special zone' where the Chaos Emerald hide, they found a maddened King Maximilian Nigel Acorn, partially mutated. He got enraged about the fact she had lost her tail while fleeing to Knothole making her look like a chipmunk rather than the squirrel she is, going so far as saying she would have been better dead than disfigured like that, prompting an enraged Sally to scream "I hope to never see your sick noggin ever again, you old fart!" Not something a princess should say, as angry as she was. But the worst part was how the mutated King, after hearing this, looked at the pincers he now had instead of hands and said. "Hm… Nobody would recognize me as Maximilian Acorn anymore, and Sid Naugus is as good a name as any, I suppose… Thank you sweety" he said, before a evil grin split his face in two, almost literally, as he jumped in his daughter's direction. "Now, to make you become exactly like I'm doing!"

Sonic took the princess in a bridal carry and ran out of the Special Zone, but not before Naugus' pincer grazed her ear and the side of her face, causing the left side of her face to briefly become furless and covered in pustules, while the accompanying ear turned bat-like. Thankfully, a few seconds after coming back to Mobius, her face turned back to normal. After that, Sally feared so much to become anything like her father, be it before or after he ended in the Special Zone, she stayed far away from any access to it, letting Sonic and the other go in her stead, and swore to never sit on the Acornian throne. She was also sincerely hoping Naugus had only access to the Special Zone of the Acornian set of Chaos Emeralds…

Sally was brought back to the present when she felt a gloved hand on her shoulder. "You okay, Sal'?"

"I am now," she answered with a smile "thanks Sonic. Now we just need to find an hotel for the night."

"Then let's do it to it!" Enthusiastically shouted the blue hedgehog, happy to find a more peaceful use of his catchphrase.

Sally, exhausted from her nightmarish walk down memory lane, had stayed in their room. A shame thought Sonic, all those lights for the Sun Festival make for a very romantic scene.

Not that he was truly alone, since Nicole had insisted he took her with him, wanting to see the festival with her own optics. Honestly, Sonic was surprised Sal' gave her permission, since she never left her childhood-friend get out of grabbing distance, especially since it was discovered the computer used to be mobian.

He could see a Gondola slowly come from the Solean castle, the river apparently passing under it. As expected, Blaze was on it, having exchanged her purple vest from earlier for a white dress with golden stripes forming a 'x' on her chest. As the boat reached the part of the river bordered by two half arenas, it stopped, and a solemn-looking Blaze took a torch not unlike the ones you could see in picture about the Olympic Games of old, or the one still in the hands of the Statue of Liberty, before inching her head toward it in a reverent gesture. The round little red thing on her forehead glowed, causing a gigantic fire to burst out of the torch, briefly making Soleanna as bright as day, before the furnace turned into a far more manageable flame.

Naturally, that's when Snively came to ruin the fest, his uncle's robots taking Blaze.

Sonic put Nicole in the same mysterious place he hide all his rings, and ran after Eggman's fleet.

After many attempts to free the Princess of Soleanna from the round doctor, Sonic had finally succeed and was now bridal carrying her to safety, Eggman's troupes in hot pursuit for most of their escape. Some time after loosing their pursuers, Sonic saw what looked like an old tower overcome by vegetation, making it look almost like a giant three, some patch of walls seeming to float in the air, only maintained by roots and limbs of the threes growing in the structure.

Deciding it was good as any other place to stop, Sonic entered before delicately deposing the local princess on her feet. "So, do you know what Sputnik want with you?"

"Sputnik?" Wondered aloud the purple cat.

"You know, big round guy, don't do much beside lot of noise and polluting his universe…"

"Oh, you mean that Robotnik guy. You couldn't have brought us to a better place to discus it. This is what's left of the temple to the dead god Solaris."

"What a strange name for a god of death" commented Sonic.

Blaze shook her head. "Solaris isn't a god of death, he was a god, and he died."

"How can a god die?!"

"Legends say that an evil entity of pure malice known as Mephiles tempted to merge with him, coveting Solaris' powers to either conquer or destroy the world, the myths are a bit contradictory on that point. It resulted in the destruction of the god's physical body. What was left of it is an entity of raw power calling itself Iblis. So raw, that it couldn't control itself, causing billion of death against its will. It only stopped when the last survivor of Soleanna's ruling family, Princess Elize the 1th, trapped Iblis inside her own body. Since then, all future heir of the Solean crown learn to never, ever cry. Because during their ascension ceremony, Iblis get transferred into their body, and a single tear from them is all it would take to inadvertently release that deadly being."

"Ivo want to make you cry" deduced Sonic. After that time he liberated Chaos thinking he could control said water god, it made sense. (Eggman wasn't known to learn from his mistakes, quite the contrary.)

"He want to merge with Iblis and become the new Solaris" corrected Blaze, "and his snively assistant want to double-cross him and be the one to become a god."

"Great…" Lamented Sonic.

"By the way, thanks for saving me, Sonic the Hedgehog" said the purple princess, getting closer to her blue savior, who answered "Think nothing of it, it's just what I do." But when Blaze tried to kiss him, she found herself stopped by one of Sonic's gloved finger, like to shush her. "Sorry your highness, but my princess is in another castle!"

While the hero was all smile on the outside, mentally he couldn't help but frown, and not only because of Blaze apparent fondness of him. Iblis, Iblis… Didn't that gray porcupine call me 'Iblis Trigger?!'

Not far from there, a time traveler felt the inexplicable urge to scream how he belong to the hedgehog species.

Unable to find the Iblis trigger, Silver returned to Soleanna proper. Perched on the roofs, he searched if he couldn't find trace of that accursed blue guy, but beside a human trying to cosplay as him and pitifully failing, there was none.

What he saw was a bat and a robot in agitated discussion with what looked like a Mephiles lookalike and… Wait… Was that?

Rouge the Bat was the first to spot the black and red hedgehog everyone believed to be dead. While she could understand him not wanting to make his survival public, he could at least have let her know. And was that Sonic's #1 fangirl with him? The one native from Little Planet who believe her tarot cards can predict the future? Why was she in the know?! Rouge couldn't let that stand and decided to walk in their direction. Or rather stomp.

But the bat wasn't alone. E-123 Omega, a bot constructed by G.U.N. from the remains of E-102 Gamma, was wondering why his partner had suddenly decided to start imitating as best as she could his loud gait. Not that he had a problem with it, unlike the bat, Omega loved noise, any noise, even if is favorite was still the tender song of obliterating Eggman's armies.

Then he too spotted the red on black hedgehog and immediately switched his hands to gun-mode. "Identified: Shadow the Hedgehog. Last known affiliation: Eggman Empire. Request authorization to proceed with extermination."

Amy, for her part, had been about to interpose herself between Rouge and Shadow, but seeing how this Eggbot reacted to the other hedgehog, made her famous Piko-piko Hammer appear seemingly out of nowhere (probably the same place all mobians stock their rings) to force his hands/guns up. While saying "Update your files big-guy, because he's affiliated with me!"

Faced with this pink opponent, Omega searched for corresponding entry in his database, and found two entries. "Conflicting data: target know as both Rosy the Rascal, running champion of Little Planet's Fighting ring, and Amy Rose, ally and stalker of Sonic the Hedgehog."

"Oh, so you heard of my exploits on the ring, eh? Rosy is an alias I only use in tournaments. My name is Amy Rose, guardian of the Time-Stones. And you are?"

"Unit E-123 Omega of G.U.N., based on the remain of Eggbot E-102 Gamma."

The robot's high definition optics could see the girl's eyes mist slightly. "Happy to see good things came from my friend's sacrifice…"

"That's all well and good, but that don't explain why Shadow never bothered with letting me know he was alive!"

"He did sent you a letter, but as you know time is a bit wonky on Little Planet! Who know when it ended!"

"You don't have the slightest idea of how often we met her younger self…" Commented Shadow.

"A likely story, pinky…" snarked Rouge. "And why are you here?"

"Oh, it's our honeymoon," casual stated Amy "I was hoping to see the Festival of the Sun, but apparently even my powers as guardian of the Time-Stones didn't let me come in time."

Before Rouge's brain could finally digest what she had just heard, a silver missile tackled Amy screaming "Mommy!" Said missile was non other than Silver the Hedgehog, tears of joy making rivers on his face as he said "Oh mommy, I thought I would never see you ever again after the world started burning and the Time-Stones got destroyed!"

Silver didn't expect to see his mom go into fetal position, mumbling something about being a worst guardian than Knuckles. And the violent tap from behind the head given by the Mephiles look-alike was just as much of a surprise. "That's for reducing my wife to a mess."

"Bu… But I came from the future to change the past! Every thing will be alright once I kill the Iblis Trigger!"

At this Amy got up, glaring at her apparent future son. "Are you that much of a moron…" wondered Amy, her voice emotionless.

"Moron?! Wha…" But Silver couldn't finish before Amy added "An 'Iblis Trigger' is someone loved by Iblis' current host. Their death is the surest way to free said entity, engulfing the world in flames."

"That's not what…" For a few seconds, the gray hedgehog didn't say more, like he was suddenly realizing something. "Mephiles…" He suddenly said, full of hate. "HE USED ME!"

From the shadow, quite literally in this case, the evil entity grumbled. "Well… That was a bust. Thankfully I have a plan B, let's call the few cultists I have left."

Tails was terrified.

A few hours earlier he was helping with the reconstruction effort in Mobotropolis, the Acornian capital city not being far from Knothole. His biggest worry was how Nicole, Sally and Sonic were doing in Soleanna, especially after learning Eggman had kidnapped the Solean monarch.

Until a mobian vixen came, claiming to be his mother. It didn't take long for the kit genius to do a DNA test and confirm it was the truth. Under the pretext to want to chat with him and learn to know him she took him away. At first his chat with Lady Prower, he wasn't quite ready to call her "mom" yet, had been quite amicable. But soon she started raving about his birth was a gift from 'his lord Mephiles', who would soon destroy the world and remake it in his image. He tried to escape, not wanting to have anything to do with someone like that, even if it was his mother, but the only result he got was to be thrown into some sort to dark portal, his mother jumping in after him.

It seemed like the final showdown was about to start. All the protagonists where here.

Eggman and Snively of course, their plans in taters with Mephiles and his cultists having wrenched the Solean Chaos Emerald out of Ivo's contraption with extreme prejudice.

There was also Sally Acorn and her computer friend Nicole, the two agents of G.U.N., Rouge and Omega, the two meddling love-birds Amy and Shadow, and their idiot time-traveling son from a possible future, Silver.

Let's not forget, Mephiles in his true form, that of a gigantic and vaguely humanoid fox made of pure darkness, nine tails of malice trailing behind him, seven of which where holding the Emeralds, while he lord over one Miles Prower, the stubborn son he had with one of the peoples revering him as the god he will soon be, the younger kitsune repeating again and again he would rather die than join him on the dark side.

And finally, there is Sonic, the Iblis trigger himself, along with Blaze, Iblis' host, who will soon cry and free Mephiles' key toward true godhood.

"Continue to cry like that, son, and I might grant you your death wish. Albeit not today." One of his free tails turned into a beam of darkness skewering Sonic, moving so fast nobody saw it move. "No, you will have to content with seeing your hero's death." The tail disappeared from Sonic's body like it had appeared, letting a gaping hole behind.

In an instant, Sally and Blaze running to Sonic, the two princess cradling him in their arms. The first crying openly, while the second tried desperately to hold her tears back, but one still escaped, landing on Sonic's body. Just as the legends claimed, it was enough to free Iblis and cause a torrent of flames. Mephiles was ecstatic, screaming "YES! YES!" while building the spell that would merge him with Iblis, not noticing how the flames conspicuously let his adversaries alone, concentrating its consuming powers on his 'precious' cultists instead, diminishing Mephiles' powers.

The instant the spell was ready, the evil entity felt the Chaos Emeralds being ripped out of his tails to come circling above Sally, Blaze and Sonic, as a booming voice semigly coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time made itself known. "I never intended for a new Solaris to be made. But if I have to become one with another entity, it will be someone of my choosing. Someone I trust implicitly."

At this, a scared Blaze, still in her grown from the Festival of the Sun, levitated toward the floating emeralds, soon finding herself in the center of the circle they formed. The flames of Iblis slowly entered her body, making her look less and less like the familiar lite-purple cat, and more and more like a mobian bird made of fire, like a phoenix. Her scream and the way she contorted were clear indicator to how much pain she was feeling, but nobody could do anything.

And the pain wasn't Blaze worst problem. As the fusion progressed, it became harder and harder to know where she ended and where Iblis started, until all that was left was an entirely new entity. Once the pain had gone away long enough to let that new being have a clear mind "I am Solaris reborn, the new Flame of Hope. But for YOU" she said, pointing a finger at Mephiles "I will be the all consuming fires of hell."

What followed was a the kind of combat the others were more used to see Super Sonic participate in, rather than a newborn goddess. But everyone regarded the show all the same, not noticing Sonic's wound slowly closing up.

As soon as Solaris defeated Mephiles, she turned back into Blaze, who would have crashed on the ground if it wasn't for Omega's quick thinking. The robot surcharged his hover jet to join the falling princess mid-way, before returning it to normal so he could slow their decent. "Mobian designed Blaze/Solaris seem to have drained her battery. Solution: Put her on a mobian recharge station."

"Er… You do know mobians aren't mechanical, right?" Wondered Amy.

"Usual designation of a mobian recharge station: Bed. Also apply to human recharge station," Responded Omega, before walking toward the castle. All the pink hedgehog could do after that was facepalm, prompting Rouge to comment "Yeah, I took me a while to get used to him…"

Shadow for his part, was about to comment how the Emeralds seemed to have changed shape, or how he was now seeing them all green instead of their usual colors, like he wasn't chaos sensitive anymore, but was interrupted by a hoarse voice. "Arg… I feel like one of G.U.N.'s ginormous trucks ran me over… back an forth… several times."

In an instant they all looked where the voice came from, seeing Sonic, not in a good state but alive. "So… What happened? How am I alive?"

"Not sure about that last one" answered a happy Sally, tears of Joy flowing freely, "but apparently Iblis wasn't happy with the idea of becoming one with a jerk, and choose Blaze instead. Although that fusion seemed to be temporary only."

"Not so sure about that…" Mumbled Shadow.

He would be proven right a few days latter, once everyone had recovered and Blaze explained what she remembered from her time as Solaris.

Turn out Iblis had felt Blaze still had her own life to live, unlike himself, and as such locked part of their joint being, the new Solaris, inside the Emeralds, inadvertently emptying them of their chaotic energies. That last bit got Sonic a bit curious. "Then why don't I see them green?" "Because you're Sol sensitive too now, Sonic. That's an unintended gift from Iblis. It seem the tear that freed him had regenerative proprieties. It would be logic for something linked to the rebirth of Solaris, the god of renewal. Well… Goddess now, I suppose…"

"Sol sensitive? You mean they're called the Sol Emeralds?!"

"Yes, that's the name Solaris gave them. Their powers being linked to her, so renewal rather than chaos, you could use them to become Super Sonic, but not to teleport away. And they come back either to me or this castle if I'm away rather than scatter away or into special zones."

"Good to know," murmured the blue hedgehog.

As said speedster got up, about to go out of the room, Blaze called back "Sonic! Tell your girlfriend I was wrong about her, she'll make a great queen for your home country."

He simply shook his head. "Too late. She already made plans to ensure the Acorn archipelago will be a republic once reconstruction got far enough. Already dit before we came to your city."

Meanwhile in another room of the palace, one lent to them by the Solean princess for however long our heroes would stay, another princess was trying to comfort the young kitsune she had raised like he was her own son, even though she was a kid herself when he was found. Said fox wasn't just traumatized about being the biological child of a monster and its fanatic follower, but scared he might become like them in the future.

She knew calming Tails down wouldn't be a long and hard task. And even then, the poor kit would pass an awful lot of night dreaming about himself turning into an eldritch abomination thirsty for the blood of his friends, just like she have similar nightmare about turning into a second… Whatever the hell Naugus is.

Somehow, these thoughts make her thing of another being that peoples would say qualify as an eldritch monster, but one that was revealed to be a good person, once his age-old rage was quelled: Chaos. So, even if her father successfully made her transform the way he did, even if Tails grew up to become an ethereal fox with nine tails, they probably would still be themselves, still be the heroes they are today…

Meanwhile, a gravely wounded Lady Prower was shambling toward an unknown destination with great difficulty, her entire right side heavily burned. She was only alive because a barely held together Mephiles was possesing her. But with only one follower, said abomination didn't have enough power to take control of her body, just to maintain her alive, but it will be enough… For now!

Neither expected to be stopped by Snively, of all people. "I see you need medical attention, which I could provide for you. At least to the one of you having a physical body. I don't think we got properly presented: My name is Colin Julian Robotnik. But please, call me Colin."

Unable to speak, the hurt vixen simply glared inquisitively at the short man. "You wonder why I'm proposing my help, don't you? Well, let's just say I realize I backed the wrong person and decided to jump ship." Mephiles wasn't stupid, he knew the traitorous lackey would try to back-stab him in the future, but by then he would have recuperated enough to slap him away like the insignificant dwarf he is. So he instructed his host to nod her head in acceptance of Snively's help.

Said human still had one last question. "Am I right in thinking lord Mephiles' powers grow with the number of his followers?" At the questioning look he received, the younger Robotnik alive explained "Well, you can't live as long around Eggman as I did without learning a thing or two about his two passions: Mechanics and mysticism."

After a pause, he added "My specialty is genetics, which my accursed uncle make me use to make himself backups bodies. I could use the techniques he helped me develop to make you some new followers, rather than trying to recruit some. Giving them false memories about being a long hidden clan of true believer would be children play… May I suggest making them an Echidna clan? The guardian of Angel Island is so desperate to find more of his species, if we play our cards right, suddenly meeting a whole clan of them might convince him to join force with us."

Mephiles and Lady Prower both find that bold proposition rather enticing. They were both rather partial to foxes, but if Echinas could convince the powerful guardian of the Master Emerald to join forces with them…
I know how I will call that group, thought Mephiles, the Noctunus Clan!

Notes:

Lot to say here. (Not that surprising with how long is this chapter, is it?) First, I decided a reboot might not need to have Robotnik/Eggman control Sonic's home country for the whole series, like in the original. Why not start the story with said nation taken over by the evil doctor, but have him forced to flee at the end of season 1, (or the first games if we go that route) and make try to conquer other nations after that? (Can still have him trying to retake the Acorn nation from time to time, of course.) I know, so far I made a jerk out of the king. (Which he wasn't in the original series.) No I go and turn him into Naugus. Nothing about the idea of having a benevolent king into a series, but I think it might be interesting to have some of our heroes having jerk parents and see how it impact them and their evolution.
And it's (mostly) just me clumping together my ideas. If you decide to adapt this chapter into your own story, but don't like some of the points, you're free to change whatever you feel like. (Juste let people you took some of my idea, ideally with a little link, thank you.) And yeah, kinda rude of Blaze to assume Sally was the same kind of jerk as her ancestors here. But can you blame our fiery cat? Thankfully she notice how wrong she was soon enough. And speaking of the burning Princess, I loved the idea of her being a mobian, but still being raised by human. That said, don't expect to see a mobian/human couple, I'm not a fan of it. (Unless you want Alex Kidd to appear in this universe, because I can't help but picture him as a half-human/half-monkey hybrid, with the monkey half being mobian. My brain work in strange ways…) The bit about Sonic's Princess (namely Sally) being in another castle is a little Mario reference, of course. Some would cry it's scandalous, but after making Blaze try to seduce the blue blur, I couldn't help myself. And yes, Silver look more like a porcupine than a hedgehog to me. Speaking of our time traveler, I made him Amy's son because she appeared in the first Sonic game with time travel in it. As for what Shadow is the father, it's simply because they share the same tuft of hair. And yeah, Amy being the guardian of the time stones mean she is from Little Planet in this, rather than following Sonic there. (It also provide a better reason for her kidnapping.) As for why I changed Mephiles true form? Never liked the original one, and it gave me a pretext to make him Tails father. (We don't know much about Tails parents, after all.) I also like the idea of the final boss not being fought by (Super) Sonic this time, but by the new super (or is it goddly) form of Blaze. And yes, I rapidly killed the Burning Blaze form there. We barely got a glimpse of it at the start of the story, and it get replaced by "neo-Solaris" at the end. Maybe I should just delete the mention of it at the start… About Sonic being "Sol sensitive", I understand how it might look a bit unjust compared to Shadow. But the way I see it, the black & red hedgehog can use chaos spear without a Chaos Emerald. (He can just make them more powerful with one.) In the right circumstances he might even be able to use Chaos Control without one. (Where Sonic need at least a fake one.) So it balance out. And yes, new origin for the Nocturnus clan, that way we can have new Echidna in a way that's totally different from what Ken Penders made. Not that I have any hope to see my story become official in any capacity, but I like to write it like it would all the same.

If you have any critiques to share, please don't hesitate.