Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

          “Come on… Pick up already! Pick up!”

          Amy resists the urge to bite her thumbnail as she listens to her phone ring in her ear, the sounds of crashing and commotion behind her making her tap her heel with anxiety. She’s almost ready to give up on backup and just take her chances on her own when the call finally connects, the ringing replaced with the static sound of rushing wind that accompanies every call Sonic makes.

          “Yo, Ames!” Sonic says, clearly yelling into his receiver to just barely be heard over the sound of the wind beating against his speaker. “What’s up?”

          “It’s an emergency, Sonic!” Amy cries. She hears something large collapse behind her. “It’s a really big emergency! There’s a huge Badnik attacking the Natural History Museum-”

          “In Emerald Town?” Sonic interrupts.

          “Yes, it-”

          “I’m on my way,” Sonic says, “I’ll send Tails over too. Hold ‘em off till we get there!” 

          There’s a loud noise over the receiver that Amy assumes is Sonic swerving in the direction of the museum, and then the call cuts off. Amy sighs a little at being interrupted, but she knows better than to waste time being offended– she needs to focus on minimizing damages as much as possible until the backup arrives.  

          Pocketing her phone, Amy picks up her hammer and runs out of the alcove where she had been sheltering. She has to crane her neck up to get a good look at the Badnik– its body takes up more than half of the massive lobby it’s currently trashing. The robot’s main body is a large, disk-like shape, held aloft by spindly legs many times Amy’s height. The design reminds Amy vaguely of a crab, though instead of claws, it’s equipped with giant blasters, currently laying waste to the museum’s grand lobby. 

          Her eyes scan for anyone who needs to be evacuated; while it seems people had, for the most part, managed to clear out when the bot first crashed through, there were still stragglers who were cut off from exits by the Badnik’s imposing mass. Amy cuts under the robot’s legs, sweeping rubble out of the way with her hammer. She approaches a couple of civilians whose paths to escape had been blocked off.

          “I’ll cover your backs, so go for it! Run!” she says, waving the pair towards the nearest exit. She hears the robot shift behind her, and throws a glance back just as its eyes lock onto her with a precise click, her shouting and wide motions having attracted its attention. She grits her teeth as she hears the whir of the robot’s cannons charging up.

          “Keep running!” She calls, “stay behind me and keep running!” She casts one glance back to make sure that the couple were listening, then quickly refocuses on the bot itself. She tightens her grip on her hammer as she tries to analyze where to strike. Should she go for the eye…? She could try striking the cannon, but there are multiple, spaced out, likely to fire all at once– there’s no guarantee she’ll be able to hit them all and still keep the civilians safe. The whir of the cannon’s charge reaches its apex, the sound shrill and piercing, and Amy makes her move. 

          In the second before the cannon fires, Amy leaps for one of the robot’s legs, somersaulting into a powerful strike of her hammer against metal. The Badnik stumbles, its shot going wide and piercing a pile of rubble yards away from the escaping civilians. Amy dodges out of the way quickly as the robot's leg waves wildly in its attempts to right itself, its eye spinning and emitting frantic clicks and beeps as it refocuses. Amy rushes to put distance between herself and the Badnik, hopping up the piles of fallen rubble to find her best vantage point now that everyone has been cleared out of the lobby and she can focus fully on her takedown. The Badnik wastes no time in setting its sights back on her; its cannons begin to buzz as it charges another shot, and she hoists her hammer in response, searching for the best point to strike. The cannons are glowing, their attack almost charged, and Amy bends her knees, readies to strike, and-

          Crack!

          In a flash of light, the Badnik is sent staggering, its leftmost cannon completely wrecked, and for a second, she thinks a bullet has been shot through it– until she sees him. Sonic kneels on the robot’s head, his hands braced against it to keep his balance atop the flailing mass. His eyes sweep over the lobby, no doubt searching for stragglers the same way Amy had– when their eyes meet, he raises one questioning eyebrow, and Amy shakes her head and flashes a thumbs-up; all clear. Sonic grins, righting himself and jumping off the top of the robot, spinning around into an axe kick against its side that sends it off-balance once again.

          “Amy!”

          Turning to the source of the voice, Amy sees Tails floating towards her, reaching out a hand. She takes it, guiding him to a stable landing onto the rubble upon which they’re perched.

          “Is everyone okay? Everyone made it out?” Tails asks. Amy nods.

          “I just got the last of them,” she confirms. Tails opens his mouth to respond when he’s interrupted by a sharp cry. Both of them turn quickly in time to watch Sonic get swatted into the wall like a fly, if a fly were able to leave spiderwebs of cracks in concrete walls upon impact. Amy cringes and raises her hammer, running back into the fray with one last worried glance back at Tails. 

          “Sonic!” She cries, waving her hammer till his eyes lock onto hers. In a moment, the two exchange a plan through their glances, and Amy nods and sets off as Sonic rights himself and spins back onto the top of the robot. He runs around its head a couple times, the lens of its eye struggling to stay focused on him, disorienting it. As the bot grows more confused, Amy plants herself near one of its legs, her hammer raised at the ready. From where she stands under the Badnik, she can’t see Sonic– she instead glances to Tails, who watches carefully from his vantage point, his tails waving nervously in his concentration. He holds his hand up in front of him; Wait… wait… wait…

          “Go!” Tails cries, snapping his fingers as he signals them into action. Amy doesn’t waste a second; she throws her entire weight into a spin, her hammer connecting with the robot’s leg with a resonant Clang!

          At the same time, she hears something collide with the top of the robot; on the opposite side from her, Sonic has driven his weight down into the bot, providing the extra push needed to knock the bot entirely off of its feet. In a familiar whirl of blue, Amy feels herself lifted and carried out of the way of the collapsing robot, as if she were being blown away by the wind. Sonic places her near where Tails stands, and all three of them turn their attention towards the convulsing bot, an easy mark now that it’s been fully overturned. With all three of their attacks focused on it and no defense of its own, their adversary goes from a Badnik to a pile of scrap remarkably quickly. 

          When all the bot’s lights cease blinking and it no longer moves to so much as twitch, Sonic whistles. “That was a workout,” he laughs, looking around the wrecked lobby. Amy grins.

          “Aw, was it? I didn’t even break a sweat!” She jokes.

          Tails grins. “You sure did, though, Sonic,” he points out. Sonic wipes a hand across his forehead and frowns at the feeling of moisture wicking off his glove.

          “That’s not sweat,” Sonic says, and his tone is bewildered enough that Tails’ smile drops slightly. Tails moves closer to Sonic, scrutinizing him.

          “Was the robot powered on water, or something?” Tails asks. Amy looks over, not quite sure what they’re talking about– until she gets a good look at Sonic. The hedgehog is completely soaked in water, so much that it pools around him in a small puddle on the floor. 

          “No, there wasn’t any water in that thing at all,” Sonic says, casting a glance back at the wreckage that was once the Badnik. Amy hums in agreement– she’s sure she would’ve noticed if the robot had anything water-based in its arsenal, and since when was Eggman interested in renewable energy sources?

          Tails runs his hands over Sonic’s head, nose crinkling as he does. Sonic’s ear flicks in indignation at having his quills touched, but he allows Tails to continue, shaking water out of the fur on his arms. 

          “You smell really salty,” Tails says, bewildered. “Is this seawater?”

          “How should I know?” Sonic says, gently shaking Tails’ hands off of him. “I don’t even know how it got there.”

          “One of the exhibits…?” Tails wonders aloud, looking around the museum lobby, though Amy can attest to the fact that this part of the museum never had any kind of water installation. Sonic simply sighs, shaking his quills out and frowning.

          “Give me a sec to run this off,” he says, and then he’s gone. Tails and Amy stand waiting for a few seconds– Amy makes a concentrated effort not to count– and just as quick as before he’s back, running a hand through his own quills and frowning when droplets of water still shake from them. 

          “How far did you run?” Tails asks.

          “To the city limits and back,” Sonic says, “More than enough wind to dry off with. What’s the issue?”

          Tails circles Sonic slowly with a pensive look. “This doesn’t feel right. Can I take some?” he reaches into his bag and procures a small, empty glass vial.

          “If it’ll help you sleep at night,” Sonic says, frowning. “It’s just water, I don’t see what there is to test.”

          “It’s better to be safe than sorry,” Tails says, taking a cluster of Sonic’s quills in hand and squeezing some of the water out into his bottle, a sensation Sonic clearly doesn’t appreciate. “We don’t know if this could be one of Eggman’s schemes.”

          “He must be running out of schemes if some annoying water is the best he can come up with,” Sonic says, his foot starting to tap on the ground impatiently. “You ready to get outta here yet?”

          Tails nods, putting the vial of water away in his pack. “Sure thing. Bye, Amy.” he waves, Sonic following suit.

          “I’d love to stick around and chat, but we were already in the middle of something when you called us up,” Sonic explains as he turns to leave. Amy nods, waving back.

          “I understand,” she says, “but make some time to hang out soon, okay?!”

          Sonic laughs and nods. “I will,” he says, and then he and Tails are off.

—

          Sound rushes back into Blaze’s ears as her head breaches the surface of the water. Wading towards the shore, she wipes the moisture from her eyes, taking in the low light of the setting sun around her. A large towel is laid out on the beach, a stack of smaller ones folded atop it, from which she takes the one on top and begins to rub the seawater from her hair. She lets her attention wander towards the horizon, surprised at just how long she must have been swimming for– when she had started, the sun had not even begun to set, and now all around her the sky is painted orange and pink, refracting off of the sea with a kaleidoscopic fervor. Blaze allows herself to sit down, staring out at the waning sun and letting the sound of the rolling waves wash over her. She had come out to the beach to clear her mind; in the time she had spent in Sonic’s dimension, time in her own had marched steadily forward, and in her absence the responsibilities had piled up. Gardon and the other members of her court had done their best to keep things manageable for her, but without the authority of the princess herself there was only so much they were able to do, and since her return she’d had barely a moment to catch her breath. It wasn’t until Gardon had taken a stack of papers out of her hands and ushered her from her office, telling her as politely as he could to take a break before she collapsed, that Blaze allowed herself to come here.

          The ocean had always been a place for Blaze to calm her mind. She’d been taught how to swim when she was quite young, and from then it had been a struggle for her mentors and retainers to keep her focused on anything that wasn’t the water. Despite the way it served to neutralize her fire, her weapon, there was nowhere else that Blaze felt more safe than when she was in the water. Nothing could reach her there; no sounds or sensations could startle her. Only in the dull and muffled world found under the sea could Blaze really clear her head.

          Blaze sighs as she watches the sun dip further down under the horizon. Her mind wanders away from her work and responsibilities and to that same thing it’s been wandering to for weeks now– that dimension. Cream, Amy… Sonic. As much as she tried to prevent it, she couldn’t stop her mind from straying to her time there. Of course she couldn’t; it was no common occurrence to be transported to an entire different dimension, to be thrust into such an adventure as she had, and even Blaze could not deny that the transition from the excitement of her stint in Sonic’s world back to her menial day-to-day routine had left her feeling disappointed– even incomplete, in a way. 

          Sonic and the others… she wonders what they must be doing now. Blaze cares for her kingdom more than anything, can’t imagine ever leaving her post to globetrot in the way Sonic seemed to, but she still can’t help wondering what it would be like to live more like him, always running somewhere new, living life as it comes to you. She can’t really picture their positions switched– just imagining a piece of paperwork in Sonic’s hands is difficult enough. As appealing as Sonic’s lifestyle may be, in theory, Blaze simply can’t imagine a world where a balance could be struck between the two of them. Sonic’s place was out in the open world– Blaze’s was in her palace, watching over her people. She wouldn’t give it up for anything… and she’s sure Sonic wouldn’t either.

          The sun has almost dipped completely below the sea, the sky’s honey-orange lacquer giving way to the rich purple of dusk. A thought crosses Blaze’s mind unbidden– was Sonic seeing this sunset too? She hadn’t considered if time in her dimension matched that of his. She wasn’t even certain of how many days she had spent in Sonic’s dimension, too caught up in the whirlwind of her search for the emeralds to keep track. Were days the same length there? Did time match up between them, or as Blaze watched the horizon swallow the day’s light, was Sonic’s sun only now beginning to rise?

          For the first time since her return, the magnitude of the word dimension weighs fully on her mind. Her friends aren’t standing on another island, another continent, not even something so close as another planet. Nothing that they can see, nothing they can feel, is the same thing that Blaze can. She had known that before, but as she watches the last rays of light fade behind the horizon, she really understands it for the first time. Even if Sonic is watching the sun set, like Blaze had wondered, it wasn’t the same sun. it wasn’t the same horizon. It wasn’t even the same sky.

          Blaze has never felt such great distance in her life.

—

          “I just- I can’t believe it. Something has to be wrong!”

          Sonic stifles a yawn. “Buddy, you’ve run like twenty tests, and I trust your tests. I think we can give it a rest.”

          Tails frowns at Sonic and then back down at his screen. “I just.. I don’t know, Sonic. Some strange water that gets on you that comes from no discernible source, it doesn’t dry off even under high wind pressure, and then all tests just say it’s normal seawater? And right after fighting an Eggman robot? It doesn’t feel right.”

          “It did dry off, though,” Sonic points out. The water had, in fact, quickly dried off on its own after around twenty minutes of trying to get it off through other means. Sonic was glad for it, though it had only left Tails even more confused and distressed.

          Tails is still looking down at his screen and muttering. Sonic sighs, walking up to him and swiping it out of his hands, holding it away from his reaching arms.

          “Listen, bud,” Sonic says, holding the screen up higher as Tails stands on his tip-toes to try reaching it, “If I feel anything wrong, anything at all, I’ll tell you. But for now, I think you should let it go. Every fancy little test of yours says it was just seawater, and since it went away on its own and I’m not dead or turned into goo or whatever yet, I’m pretty inclined to believe it.”

          Tails has quickly given up trying to reach for his screen, and now stands with his arms crossed over his chest, tails swishing in indignation. “You promise you’ll tell me if you feel anything bad?” He asks.

          “If my insides start melting, you’ll be first to know.”

          “ Anything at all.”

          “Yeah, yeah, I’ll tell you.”

          Tails’ eyes narrow suspiciously, but he acquiesces. “Fine. Can I have the Miles Electric back?”

          Sonic hands the device back to Tails, who takes it and walks over to his cluttered desk, placing it in its designated space. Sonic watches, taking in all the tools and pieces of machinery strewn about the desk. “Working on anything interesting?” He asks.

          “Nothing much, as of late… I’ve been trying to work on something for Knuckles, a sort of device to help him with gliding…”

          Sonic hums as Tails begins to explain the mechanics of his current project. Taking care to still be listening, he lets his eyes wander around the cluttered lab. He didn’t spend much time in this room, and he felt like every time he was there, it was completely different. Some of the bits of machinery he recognized; some of it was stuff Sonic had scavenged from Badnik fights and delivered to Tails himself. Most of it, though, was completely alien to him.  Sonic is particularly drawn to the largest thing in the room– a sort of tank-like machine, the size of a fridge and covered in dials and switches. It kind of reminds Sonic of an elevator.  He lets Tails finish talking before he points it out. “And that thing over there? What is that?”

          Tails looks toward the machine. “Oh, that? It’s not done… I’m not sure it even has a chance of working. It’s, uh, a medical machine, I guess. Or supposed to be. Like a healing pod, you know?”

          Sonic whistles. “Woah! Ambitious. Does it work at all?”

          “Right now, not really,” Tails laments, “Standing in it for a while can soothe some aching, but it’s not capable of actually healing any wounds.”

          Sonic nods. “Well, it’s a really impressive start, buddy. I never would’ve guessed it was a medical thing, though. It kinda looks like some sort of transporter.”

          “Oh, yeah… I guess it does.” Tails’ brow furrows. “I should work on making it look less utilitarian…”

          “Have you ever tried making one of those?” Sonic asks, a little too abruptly. “A transporter?”

          Tails looks over at Sonic in mild surprise. “A transporter? Um… Not really? I guess I maybe could, but, not in any way that would be easier for you than just using Chaos Control… or running somewhere yourself.”

          “Well, sure, but what about something for places even I can’t go?” Sonic himself isn’t even sure why he’s asking after this so much, but he keeps going. “Like, other planets, or dimensions?”

          “Well, rockets are pretty easy,” Tails responds, still mildly bewildered by Sonic’s line of questioning, “But dimensions are… a whole different story. With the power of the emeralds, maybe, but… there’s just so little we know about alternate dimensions, and the lines between dimensions aren’t the most stable things. Messing around with them can be pretty unpredictable, even dangerous.” Tails’ ears tilt inquisitively. “Why do you ask, Sonic? This planet not enough for you, anymore?”

          “Woah, no way!” Sonic says. “I don’t think our planet will ever get old. There’s a ton I haven’t seen, and the things I have are always changing.” He crosses his arms, breaking eye contact with Tails to look around the lab again. “I just got curious, is all. Being able to travel to different dimensions…” 

          He trails off, not even sure himself of where his sentence had been going. Tails looks a little worried, like he wants to press further, but he knows Sonic well enough to know he’s probably not getting anything else out of him.

          Really, though, there’s only one other dimension I know enough to care about visiting, Sonic thinks. And I know there has to be some way to get there…

          “Thanks for the tests, Tails, but I think I’m heading out now. It’s getting pretty late.”

          “Oh! Well, okay,” Tails says, already returning to his workbench. “You’re not staying tonight?”

          “The weather’s nice,” is the extent of Sonic’s explanation, and in the next moment he’s out the door. Tails shakes his head and turns back to his desk.

          Sonic zooms back in so quickly some papers are blown off Tails’ desk. “Don’t stay up too late,” he adds, and then he’s gone again just as quickly.

—

          It takes little time for Sonic to find where he’ll stay for the night. The vast field is a favorite of his, though located far enough to the north that it’s not comfortable to sleep in year-round, so he likes to take advantage of it whenever the weather is warm enough. 

          Though not the strangest thing for a Mobian to do, sleeping out in the wilderness was one of the few habits Sonic still had that Tails always put his foot down on. We have a house, Sonic, the kit would chide, you don’t have to do that anymore.

          Sonic knew he didn’t have to, and if pressed he really couldn’t explain why he still did. Sleeping on a bed was still nice, sure, and he would definitely take Tails’ well-heated home over a night in Holoska, but sometimes he still got the urge to find a secluded patch of grass or a mossy cave and curl up under the stars. Tails eventually just gave up trying to convince him to stay inside, though he still sometimes fretted about Sonic getting sick or being attacked in his sleep, so Sonic always made sure to choose somewhere temperate and secluded to alleviate his little brother’s concerns.

          The field he currently sits in is large, but still suitably concealed, surrounded by a thick ring of forest and miles away from any city or town. This far from any city lights, the stars overhead shine so brightly it almost rivals the light of day. It’s one of Sonic’s favorite views, and one of the few he’s loath to share with anyone else– Sonic’s an open guy, but even he has those places he wants to keep for himself. 

          As he settles into the grass and stares up at the luminous sky, Sonic’s mind wanders back to his earlier conversation with Tails. Though he hadn’t admitted it at the time, he knows what spurred him to ask all those questions; ever since his adventure those few weeks ago, he hadn’t been able to get Blaze’s dimension out of his mind. Part of it was just the idea of a whole new dimension; a world’s worth of new places to discover, new adventures to have… while he hadn’t been lying when he told Tails he was happy with his current world, he couldn’t deny the appeal of something so novel.

          The other part, though, and something told Sonic that this was an even greater influence than that promise of new adventure, was… Blaze. Sonic felt like he had barely the chance to speak with Blaze, and yet… at the same time he felt like the bond between them was something greater, like their time together had been cut too short. Admittedly, he often couldn’t help feeling this way; with the amount of new people he met on his journeys, he couldn’t help sometimes feeling like he didn’t have enough time to spend with everyone he knew. But he hadn’t been able to get the princess off his mind. Maybe it was due to the magnitude of their separation, the knowledge that Sonic couldn’t just pop over to her country for a visit whenever it struck his fancy. Blaze wasn’t gone– not in the way some of his friends were– but where she was was so unreachable that Sonic couldn’t help the way it made his heart twist in the same way. 

          Seeing the stars has begun to make Sonic’s chest twinge uncomfortably, so he allows his eyes to slip closed. Lamenting these things wouldn’t change them, he reminds himself. He just has to face what each new day brings him.

—

          When Sonic opens his eyes, he is standing on a balcony, so high up even he feels his stomach flip a little at the considerable drop below. The balcony overlooks a sprawling landscape; something vaguely tropical, but wholly unfamiliar to him. He can see miles of lush jungle, spreading out until they hit the shoreline of the rolling sea that surrounds them. It’s beautiful, breathtakingly so, and Sonic laments having missed a place like it all this time. Where could this be? 

          He looks around his immediate surroundings a little more, and that’s when he notices her; a girl standing to his left, staring out over the balcony just as he had been. He doesn’t recognize her– or maybe he does? He dimly notes that he can’t really focus on any of her features, a fact that might be worth concern but that his mind does not allow him to dwell on. He’s not even sure how he knows she’s a girl at all, just that he does, as well as he knows that standing here with her makes him feel content, like a weight is lifted from his shoulders and all is right with the world, and he knows that-

          “Are you doing alright?” He feels himself asking without even thinking the words.

          He knows that she must be very scared.

          She regards him for a moment, or at least he thinks she does, before she shakes her head. “...I can’t deny I’m nervous,” she says, “But I think… I’m okay.” She's silent for another moment, and then, ever so hesitantly, she says, “I know I’m safe, when I’m here.”

          A thought crosses Sonic’s mind unbidden, like a flash; a single name. He stares at the girl next to him, wide-eyed, and opens his mouth.

          He wants to ask her what she means. He wants to tell her everything is okay. He wants to say her name.

          Sonic’s eyes open to the feeling of grass at his back and the morning sun beating down on his face. Whatever he was going to say is dead on his lips, fading through the cracks of his mind, taking the details of his dream with it. He stands up, carefully, stretching out his limbs and frowning as he does. He’s not ready to face the morning; he feels as though he hasn’t slept at all.

Chapter Text

           Foot back. Knees straight. Shoulders level. Swing.

          The sound of Blaze’s saber hitting its mark echoes like a gunshot in the empty courtyard. The training dummy is worn almost to breaking, her hours of practice evident in the grooves of its scarred wood. It’s been some time since she’s had a chance to practice her swordsmanship; despite swordplay being considered a vital skill for any member of the royal family, Blaze’s fire power made it a low priority, her studies more of an observation of tradition than actual necessary training. Thus, her sword training was often struck from the schedule in favor of more essential obligations; etiquette lessons, history lectures, financial reports, the like. Just the thought of those obligations brought a frown to Blaze’s face, made her swing her saber with a little more force than necessary. Despite it being seen by some members of her court as frivolous, Blaze treasured her swordsmanship training, looked forward to it whenever she had the chance. Classes on manners and etiquette made her feel like her brain would turn to sludge. She needed to be active, needed to feel like she was really doing something. Sword drills were hardly the most riveting of activities, but at least she was moving.

          Blaze lines up her feet for another swing, trying to wrangle her scattered thoughts back into focus. She’s just about to strike when a sharp, sudden pain glances across her leg, sending her stumbling to the floor. Instantly, she’s on high alert, blindly swiping out with her flames as she regains her bearings. She jumps to her feet, ignoring the pain that shoots through her leg as she scopes the room around her, her hands alight and ready to strike.

           Frantically, she turns her head every way, ears pointed straight up as she tries to track her attacker. But the yard is empty. She glances down at her leg, and sees no wound, not even a tear in her clothing. Her brows furrowing, Blaze lowers herself back to the ground, taking the weight off her protesting leg as she inspects it for any damage. Was this just a cramp, then? She hesitates to dismiss it as such. Blaze has had many a leg cramp over the years; she knows one when she feels one, just as she knows this isn’t one– her leg feels distinctly as though a jagged blade has been run through it. She may have been trembling from the pain now, even, if not for her focus being taken up entirely by sheer confusion. Applying pressure to the area doesn’t seem to make it worse; though in some moments it will flare up on it’s own without her touching it, making her grit her teeth. 

           With some difficulty, Blaze collects the blade she had dropped and brings herself to her feet, taking another glance at her stinging leg. She can’t see herself continuing her drills in this condition. After a moment’s consideration, she decides some food would do her good. Take her mind off her pain, at least, until it has subsided. She drags herself out of the courtyard and into one of the palace’s halls, her fingertips trailing along the lacquered wall– not enough to support her weight, but enough to catch her if she were to stumble. It feels odd, to walk on the side of the hall rather than the middle; for once, she notices how wide the passage is, almost overbearingly empty. The hall’s lamps are unlit; the only light comes from what sun breaches the tall, thick curtains shielding the windows. She eyes the crevices of the hall with faint unease, their depth magnified by the dark shadows cast throughout the hall.

            As she lifts her hand from the wall to inch herself forwards, she’s caught by something colliding with her side; a negligible force, in any other case, but with her already precarious balance, it’s enough to send her crashing to the ground, her instincts quickly sending her into a roll and springing to her feet. Without a second thought, she sends a spark of fire towards the most shadowed parts of the hall, illuminating the area like a camera’s flash. 

           Nothing happens.

           She takes up her defensive stance, her hackles raised and her fire ready, but yet again, the source of the attack is nowhere to be seen. Her ears strain for any sign of an attacker, but she can hear nothing but the rush of wind outside and the crackle of her own flames. Her tail lashes as she circles the hall, searching for a perpetrator to no avail. Once again, her issue appears to be the product of her own mind, or perhaps her tired body– but even with the evidence before her, she can’t make her thoughts settle; her senses still race as though she is in the midst of battle, her heart jackhammering in her chest more like she’s been sprinting and less like she’s been limping around her halls and shooting fire at shadows. Blaze frowns. Something feels wrong, deeply so; for a moment, she considers telling Gardon about what’s going on, but just as quickly she strikes the thought from her mind. As it stands, the most likely explanation for the source of her affliction is merely “she’s tired.” Telling Gardon would only serve to worry the poor man about something he couldn’t fix.

           A memory of Sonic worms its way into her head. You’re not alone, Blaze, it says, you can rely on others. For a moment, she feels profoundly guilty, but she quickly shakes this thought, too, from her mind. Relying on the help of others to take down a serious threat is much different from bothering her already so overworked retainer with matters that could be fully chalked up to Blaze suffering a restless mind.

           She takes a deep breath. It doesn’t calm her heartbeat, but that she can ignore. She reminds herself of her goal; she will make some food. This will restore her energy. She’ll be fine once she’s had something to eat. 

           With an objective in mind, Blaze is able to clear her thoughts, narrow her focus. She sets back off down the hall, now walking at a brisk pace down the center rather than continuing to limp against the wall. It would only slow her down.

—

           With one final kick, the Badnik is sent skittering away, sparking as its wires and lights fail and shut down. Sonic sighs wearily, letting himself fall onto his back as he catches his breath and waits for his pounding heartbeat to settle.

           He barely has time to hit the ground before Tails is bounding towards him, features dripping with worry. “Sonic! Your leg!”

           Sonic rises to his feet, already waving Tails off as he approaches. “It’s fine, it’s fine, it just scratched me,” he assuages. Tails shakes his head with vigor. 

           “Sonic, you’re bleeding!”

           Sonic gets a good look at his own leg, and confirms that yeah, actually, his leg is bleeding a little more than he expected. He hisses. “It looks worse than it feels.” If anything, he’s more annoyed by the ache in his side from the thing slamming into him. The robot had been small, sure, but it had been annoyingly quick.

           “Still, let me patch it up for you.” Tails insists.

            Sonic rolls his eyes, but dutifully sits back down as Tails rifles through his pack for their first aid kit. It’s annoying, sure, but Sonic isn’t stupid enough to leave a cut open like that. He hisses when Tails dabs the wound with alcohol, but otherwise remains quiet as he lets Tails work.

           “I know you said it’s not that bad, but… This is kind of worse than usual, isn’t it?” Tails notes as he applies the bandage. “Usually you wouldn’t let such a small robot get you like this…”

           Sonic grumbles. He’d have a snippy retort for anyone else trying to point out his less-than-stellar performance, but Tails is only looking out for him. “I don’t know. I guess I just felt off.”

           “You seemed kind of distracted.”

           Sonic scowls. His first instinct is to protest, but Tails is right– and if it’s affecting him enough that others notice, he should probably say something. “Yeah,” he admits, sighing, “I guess so. I did feel distracted, I guess, but I’m not sure what I was distracted by.” Tails shoots him a questioning look, to which he can only shrug. “It felt weird. Like I was trying to focus on two different fights at once, and I couldn’t really focus on either.”

           “Was there another Badnik?”

           “No,” Sonic says, “that’s the thing. It was just the one thing, it should’ve been simple, but..!” He groans in frustration, flopping onto his back to lay on the ground. “I got no clue. I don’t think I’ve ever been tripped up like that before.”

           “Did something happen?” Tails asks, leaning over Sonic, his eyes shining with worry. “Do you know what could be causing it?”

           Sonic’s head is starting to ache from all the questions. “Nothing I can think of. Things have been pretty calm, lately.”

           “Are you sick?”

           Sonic wrinkles his nose. “I don’t get sick.”

            “Yes, you do,” Tails says. Sonic rolls his eyes.

           “I didn’t do anything to get sick,” Sonic says, “and I don’t feel any symptoms except… distracted. And maybe a little tired, I guess, but not, like, sleep-tired, it’s like, the other kind…”

           “Exhausted?” Tails suggests.

           “Exhausted is a strong word,” Sonic says, incredulous, and he sits up as if to prove even the notion wrong. “I definitely don’t get exhausted.”

          Tails knows when not to start fruitless arguments, though the look he shoots Sonic makes it clear it’s taking him some restraint regardless. “Either way… If you’re sick or tired, maybe you shouldn’t sleep out in the grass today…” Sonic’s expression immediately sours, and Tails rolls his eyes. “Don’t be like that. You have an injured leg, and you just admitted you’ve been feeling off. It’s the safest option.”

           “I wouldn’t call a skinned knee an injured leg,” Sonic says, but he can hear himself– he’s grasping at straws. “...Okay. I’ll stay over.”

          Tails grins up at him, a smile so wide it pulls at his cheeks, and of course Sonic has to smile back.

          “We could watch a movie!” Tails exclaims. 

          “If you wanted to watch a movie together, you didn’t have to set up a scheme to make me stay over. I would’ve come if you asked.”

          Tails shoves Sonic lightly. “Come on! You know I didn’t do that!” he cries, his protests already being drowned out by Sonic’s laughter. Tails can only be indignant for so long before he’s laughing along too.

          When they calm down, Sonic allows Tails to help him to his feet, but once he’s upright he shakes him off. Sonic taps his foot against the ground, testing it out, and when he decides it’s fine, he scoops Tails up, who yelps in surprise before dutifully wrapping his arms around Sonic’s neck. 

          “Not too fast,” Tails warns.

          “Yes, yeah, I got it,” Sonic assures him, and like that, they’re off.

—

          He is standing in a vast ballroom, a room large enough to house one of Eggman’s aircraft and more ornate than anything Sonic has ever seen, let alone stepped foot in. He knows this is a dream, in the way the carvings in the walls seem to swim before his eyes, patterns starting and leaving off nowhere, changing every time he looks away. The room is bright, too, almost bright enough to hurt his eyes, but there are no lamps or windows in sight. The room is ornate, yes, but not opulent; though Sonic hardly has an eye for fine architecture, he finds he can appreciate the intricately carved wood that makes up the ballroom walls, patterns that crawl up to a ceiling covered in countless painted scenes. Rather than crane his head up to stare at the artwork, he looks down at his feet, the floor beneath him so thoroughly varnished he can see himself and the room around him clearly reflected in it, almost as if it were a mirror. The painted ceiling is hard for him to focus on, the images unclear and shifting much like the carvings on the walls, but from what he can make out they seem to be depicting a series of religious scenes, though not any religion he recognizes. He squints, trying to make out the details of one of the larger paintings, but just as his eyes manage to focus his vision is obscured by a sweep of silky fabric, hands leading him away.

          Right. The person across from him. He’s been so caught up in admiring the grandiose ballroom that he’s barely noted the fact that he’s dancing, too, being led by his partner in a dance he doesn’t recognize at all. His body moves on its own, filling in steps that Sonic has never seen before, though Sonic notes that even with the dream guiding him through the dance, he still messes up, at times falling out of sync or stepping on the toes of his partner.

          And that partner he’s dancing with is Blaze. The princess of the Sol Kingdom. Sonic, himself, is shocked by this, the alarms in his mind ringing with confusion, but that shock is mollified by the mind of whoever he is in this dream, the version of him that has danced this routine so many times it has become a muscle memory. Sonic wonders if this is Blaze’s ballroom, or if it’s just as foreign to her as it is to him. He finds it difficult to meet her eyes– her face is dutifully cast downward, and Sonic himself is compelled to stare down at his feet, watch for mistakes in his footwork he can’t anticipate or correct.

           Though he can’t make direct eye contact with her, he still can take in the rest of her. The dress Blaze wears is gorgeous– Sonic remembers her in that split purple coat, which had already seemed so fancy to him, but it now seems like sleepwear in comparison to her current regalia. She wears a deep purple gown, silky and glittering. Sonic could get lost just watching the way the shifting fabric shimmers and sparkles like stars when it hits the light. The hems are trimmed with patterns of woven golden thread, compliments to the gold jewelry that adorns her hands, neck, and, most notably, her head; the ruby red stone in her forehead is framed by an elaborate golden tiara, curving around her head in the shape of leaves and vines. Sonic is left a little breathless; not even the clothes worn by the citizens of Camelot had been quite as lavish as this, the amount of luxury on display enough to make Rouge faint if she were here. For the first time, it truly settles in for Sonic that Blaze is a princess, a real, actual member of royalty.

          Only after staring at Blaze’s ensemble for so long does Sonic realize he, too, is dressed up, though he feels the suit he wears still pales in comparison to Blaze’s attire. Still, the suit he wears is certainly nothing to scoff at– it’s probably more expensive than everything he’s ever worn, combined. It’s navy blue, fashioned from a similar silk as Blaze’s gown, though not nearly as shiny, and accented with silver filigree. His hands lack gloves, a sight almost surreal to see, and are instead adorned with rings of silver, some inlaid with bright green gemstones. It’s a strange feeling, to be done up so fancily, though not quite as uncomfortable as he would expect. It’s a little fun, really, to dress up like this. It’s like Halloween, he thinks, and then wonders if that’s rude to say about what’s probably just a normal outfit for Blaze. Any guilt is quick to dissipate, though– he can’t imagine her being mad at him about something like that.

         He wishes he could say something to her, maybe to ask a question or just to say hello, but he can’t get the words to form. It’s for the best, probably– as vivid as it feels, he reminds himself this is very much a dream, and the Blaze here is just a figment of his own mind, created from his thoughts alone. Still, something about it just feels… so different. This isn’t the kind of dream he’s ever had before. He thinks back to the dream he’d had only a few nights before, the one on the balcony. He’s aware now that the girl in his dream had been Blaze, then, the same as it is now; his ears flick with embarrassment. Jeez, Sonic! He thinks, watching as he raises his arm and twirls Blaze around, her gown flaring out around her like rolling waves. You knew the girl for like, a week, and now she’s showing up in all of your dreams? Get it together!

          He’s drawn from his thoughts by a particularly complex dance move, he and Blaze both spinning around each other before he pulls her into a dip, leaning so far forward he’s sure he’s going to drop her. Finally, their faces so close together, his eyes meet hers.

           Sonic sucks in a breath. This isn’t right. This isn’t a dream. At least, she isn’t. Everything around them has been hazy, unclear, his mind trying to fill in gaps of memories it didn’t really have. Not her. The Blaze in front of him is real, her eyes full of more soul and emotion than anything his subconscious could construct. He’s not sure how he knows, but he’s sure of it– this is Blaze, the real Blaze, in front of him.

          And she can tell too. In the instant their eyes meet, Blaze’s go wide, and Sonic knows that she recognizes him. Whatever spell had been keeping them dancing seems to break with the realization– the both of them fall gracelessly to the floor, their strings abruptly cut. Sonic rolls off of Blaze, righting himself as he settles across from her, the both of them still staring at each other wide-eyed.

          Blaze is the first to gather her thoughts enough to speak. “Sonic?”

          Hearing her voice, so clearly her voice, only furthers his confusion. Bewildered, he reaches a hand out to her, opening his mouth to call out-

          “Blaze!”

Chapter Text

          “Blaze! Your Highness! You need to wake up, you’re going to be late!”

          With a gasp, Sonic shoots up, chest heaving as he is ripped from the lavish ballroom and thrust back into the familiar scene of Tails’ house, the room he lays in still dim in the faint light of the just-rising sun. Tails’ living room is so small compared to the ballroom Sonic had just dreamt, cluttered where it had been empty, warm where it had been sterile and chilly, and he feels almost dizzy from such a dramatic shift.

          After allowing himself a moment to center himself, Sonic scours the room for the source of the voice he was so sure he had heard, but finds the room entirely vacant, save for himself sat upon Tails’ couch and the kit himself curled up in an adjacent armchair, dutifully snoozing away. As carefully as he can, Sonic brushes his blanket from his lap, stepping off the couch as lightly as if the floor were made of paper, wary of the way Tails’ ear twitches when a floorboard creaks. Sonic would loathe to wake him up and cost the kit any loss of sleep, especially at an hour so early as this.

          If left to awaken on his own, there’s still some time before Tails gets up, so Sonic decides he may as well fashion some sort of breakfast for Tails to wake up to. Sure, Sonic can admit he’s no master chef, but if there’s one thing he can make, it’s breakfast for his brother. Padding down the hall, he tries to remember what ingredients Tails has to work with. Pancakes are always nice, he thinks, or I could make quesadillas, if the kitchen has the right ingredients. Or…

          “Your Highness, where are you going?! There’s administration that greatly requires your attention!”

          That voice again! Sonic stops dead in his tracks, spinning around to locate its source, but once again he finds nobody. He slaps his cheek, wondering if this is still part of the strange dream– vision?– He’d had before. But he’s sure he’s awake, now. Carefully, he doubles back to the living room, peering through the doorway to check on Tails; the kit is still fast asleep, and the room around him remains undisturbed. Unease begins to creep into Sonic’s mind. His distraction, his strange feelings, these could be chalked up to some mild exhaustion. Hallucinations…

          Sonic thinks back to last night’s dream. In retrospect, it feels so silly, but… it had seemed so real. Could that dream be related to this? The words that voice had said… It was hard not to find some correlation, but Sonic can’t draw any conclusions past that. Okay, so he’s dreaming about dancing with his friend, and hearing voices that aren’t there, ones related to her. So what? What did that mean?

          Was he really that sentimental?

          He watches Tails for a few more moments. Should he tell him? There’s no doubt Tails would want to know. But Sonic isn’t even sure what he would tell him. A problem like this doesn’t seem like something Tails’ tests or gadgets could fix, or even diagnose. He knows he causes the kit enough stress when nothing at all is going on; he would hate to cause even more by troubling him with something trivial like this, something that wasn’t even technically harming anyone.

          Shaking his head, Sonic turns away, walking back towards the kitchen. If he wants breakfast to be ready for Tails before he wakes up, he needs to stop wasting time.

—

          The machine in front of him whirs steadily, its fans keening in exertion as the computer runs through every test it could know and then some. Eggman sits bowed over his computer almost possessively, typing so fervently the device almost can’t keep up. The room around him is illuminated only by his monitors and his machines, the brightest of which makes up the centerpiece of the room; a steel device, tall and imposing, in which a small glass chamber is inlaid, said chamber lit up better than any other part of the room. Countless wires and cables spread from the device like roots, every other machine and computer in the room connected to it, screens generating charts and lines upon lines of numbers and text. The chamber itself contains one simple vial; a sample, hardly a milliliter’s worth. 

          And a milliliter is all Eggman needs; just a milliliter of Sonic’s blood, collected under the guise of an attacking Badnik, and Eggman’s machines, Eggman’s genius, could yield results. The results of the tests he runs on the blood confirm a hunch already sowed by the readings he had scanned in his and Sonic’s last battle.

          Nothing escapes his eye; his wicked grin goes ever wider as he reads through the results of his tests. A plan has started to take form in his mind, but he needs more data. Turning to a separate keyboard, he searches for something, then issues a command.

Find him. Get me more data.

—

          A stamp. A signature. Another stamp. Junk, swiftly incinerated in her hands.

          Wiping ash into the wastebin beside her desk, Blaze sighs as she regards the stack of papers she has yet to sort through, the number hardly seeming to have dwindled despite the hour she’s already spent at work. She looks up from her desk, staring wistfully out of the office’s open doorway– how she wishes she were anywhere else right now. Technically, not all of this needs her administration; if there was ever a matter unimportant enough to be relegated to a piece of paperwork, it was unimportant enough to be handled by one of her retainers. But it would be rude to pass this kind of work off just because she was feeling a little bored, not to mention the guilt she would feel.

          Still, sitting here filling out paperwork about zoning laws and farming disputes is going to drive her mad, especially when there’s so much on her mind already. Her thoughts drift to last night’s dream; though when she catches this, she quickly tries to strike the thoughts from her mind. The dream was odd, yes, and she can’t deny how unsettlingly… real it had felt, but above all else she remembers it as embarrassing. Her responsibility is to be driven, focused, single-minded in her dedication to her duty. Dreaming of fancy balls and lavish dresses is a poor reflection, regardless of how real it had seemed. Letting these kinds of frivolities invade even her subconscious was–

          Blaze’s thought process is broken when she sees someone pass by the doorway in front of her, dropping her pen in shock. Anyone passing through would be odd enough; her office is relatively secluded, and people generally only come down this hall if entering it is their end goal– but ever stranger is the fact that she knows just who this figure is. A yellow fox in her court is notable enough, but those twin tails are unmistakable.

          “Tails?!” She calls out, rising quickly from her desk as the fox passes by out of her sight. She rushes out from behind her desk and runs towards the hall. “Why are you-”

          Her words die on her lips as she makes it out to the hall and finds it empty. The nearest corner is still far off– how could he just disappear? Unless…

          Tails was never really there. Blaze shakes her head, ashamed. Sentimentality is one thing. Letting her emotions cloud her mind to such an extent that she starts to misinterpret what’s real like this… She is reminded once again of her dream, and the guilt she feels only compounds. Just as she expected, “opening up” to others had only led her to fall to complacency. She turns back to her office, walking through the threshold to return to her work.

          As soon as she passes through the doorway, Blaze is bombarded with a host of unfamiliar senses. Her eyes squint in the unfamiliar light, starkly different from her gently sunlit office, and her hands fly up to cover her nose, blocking out the sudden strong and unfamiliar scent.

          As she adjusts to the change in scenery, her confusion only grows. She stands in some sort of common room– clearly a home, well lived in, but wholly unfamiliar to her, designed and decorated in a style she’s never seen in her own continent. If anything, it reminds her of Cream and Vanilla’s house, though where that home had been neatly organized and tastefully decorated, this room seems… cluttered, and a little chaotic. Pictures of various sizes line the walls with no rhyme or reason to their placement. The center of the room, which houses a short table surrounded by a sofa and various chairs (none of which match each other in color) seems to be in grand disarray, blankets and empty dishes strewn about as if a meal had been eaten here and nobody had bothered to clean up after themselves. Blaze makes her way closer to the table– along with the bowls and a couple of controllers, the table also houses more pictures, standing in small frames. One has been knocked over, and Blaze carefully reaches to pick it up and stand it upright.

          She can’t help the way her jaw drops when she sees the subject of the photo, though some distant part of her mind tells her she shouldn’t be surprised by this point. Sonic, Tails, and Amy Rose grin up at her, looking considerably younger than how she remembers them; Amy’s quills are styled completely differently, and Sonic’s quills have yet to darken to the rich cobalt she remembers. His eyes, too, stand out to her. Where she remembers them as a bright green– she thinks of the way they had looked in her dream, so vibrant and expressive– in this photo they’re colored a deep brown, almost black. It makes his eyes seem so much larger, rounder, and Blaze wonders what happened to them to induce the color change. There’s absolutely no way that Sonic the Hedgehog wears color contacts.

          She places the photo back on the table, nestling it among a group of its peers. Most of the photos depict Sonic and Tails, usually together but sometimes on their own, and sometimes paired with what Blaze assumes are various friends of theirs; she recognizes a few, like Amy and Knuckles, but others are completely new to her, like the young red armadillo pictured holding a younger Sonic aloft with one arm, or the odd trio of a crocodile, chameleon, and a young bee, all smiling up at a camera the bee holds a little too close to their face. Sonic and Tails have so many friends. Blaze sighs. No wonder they have no trouble relying on them.

          She startles when she hears a sound from somewhere else in the house. It hadn’t even occurred to her that there may be others here. Is this Sonic’s house? She pricks up her ears, making out the sounds of faint chatter, objects being moved around, and… something sizzling. Now that she’s focused, she can identify the smell that hit her earlier as something cooking. She can’t tell what, just from scent, but… It does smell good. Is it Sonic who’s cooking? She hadn’t imagined he could.

          Only one way to be certain. She spots the doorway that leads to a hall, and sets towards it. She hopes whoever’s in the kitchen won’t be too shocked by her arrival– she isn’t sure how she got here either, but surely they would be able to work something out together.

          But when Blaze crosses through that entrance, she’s once again hit with a sudden shift in sensation. Just as quickly as she had left it, Blaze finds herself back in her office, the sleek and sparsely decorated room a stark contrast from the room she had just walked out of. She turns back towards the doorway, but outside of it is simply the familiar hall of her palace, as though the common room was never there at all. And, of course, it wasn’t; but this instance is one Blaze can’t merely dismiss as a fabrication of her mind, either. Looking around her office, a feeling like dread starts to set in. What is going on? And-

          “Your Highness?”

          “What!?” Sonic whips around, pan still in his hand. The almost uncomfortable warmth against his palm reminds him of what he was doing. Cooking. Right. He hadn’t noticed his mind start to wander; he wasn’t even sure where it had wandered to. He’s struck with a sudden bout of vertigo, almost strong enough to throw him off balance. He sets the sizzling pan back on the stove, just to be safe.

          “What is it? What’s wrong?” Tails asks, looking one second away from leaping up out of his seat.

          “Didn’t– did you say something?” Sonic asks, frantically. Desperately.

          Tails shakes his head. “No…”

          Sonic sucks in a breath, placing his hands on the counter behind him to steady himself and then hissing and quickly retracting them when he is reminded the counter behind him is the stove.

          “Okay,” Sonic says, turning around and shutting the stove off. “Okay,” he repeats, and he has to stop himself from saying it a third time, lest it seem like something’s really wrong. Tails’ concerned expression tells him he’s not doing a great job of hiding it.

          “Sonic-”

          “I think I’m gonna head out for a run,” Sonic interrupts. Tails’ brow furrows; Sonic has no clearer deflection than that. But before he can be called out on it, Sonic is depositing the contents of his pan onto a plate, pulling on his shoes, and giving Tails one last pat on the head before he’s out the door. Tails could follow him, if he wanted, and if he did Sonic would probably let him, but Sonic has pulled this enough times before he knows Tails probably won’t.

          Running out of Tails’ house, it’s not long before Sonic hits the coast, and there he adjusts so he’s running parallel to it, the cold sea spray brushing against his quills helping to wake him up and clear his mind. As much as he hated entering the water itself, this path along the beach was one of his favorites, the refreshing breeze and the beautiful sight of the ocean always helpful in calming his most turbulent thoughts.

          Sonic runs like this for some minutes, letting himself get lost in thought. It’s because of his drifting mind that he’s completely blindsided by something running into him. Grinding to a halt, his first instinct is to apologize– usually he’s mindful enough to not run into other people, but it does happen– until he sees exactly what it is he’s ran into.

          The Badnik doesn’t afford him a moment to recover, barrelling into him as soon as it’s recovered. Sonic is ready, though– he pushes back against it, shoving it off of him and dropping into a more battle-ready stance. The first thing he notes is how small the robot is– tinier than the last one he and Tails had fought, which had already been notably small. But where the last one had been just a bit shorter than Sonic, this one barely reaches above his waist, hardly larger than a Motobug. It compensates for its size with some impressive speed, but it’s still no struggle for Sonic, who intercepts another lunge from the bot with a swift punch– but not before a thin blade affixed to the Badnik is able to shoot out and nick his arm. He hisses at the sting but doesn’t allow himself to falter, following his own punch up with a forceful kick that sends the thing flying off into the sand, its lights flickering off as it goes. He loses sight of it then, but it doesn’t get back up to charge him, so he lets out a breath and drops his defensive position.

          He frowns as he opens his communicator. He hates to bother Tails with something so trivial– especially so early in the morning, on a day that seemed to have been going just fine– but they had an agreement. Sonic had promised Tails that he would notify him of any Badnik attacks, no matter how small, and it was one of the few promises Sonic had that he really could uphold, making him loath to break it. He presses the button on the device that calls Tails– no number to dial, too much time– and only needs to wait a moment before Tails is picking up.

          “Sonic? Is everything alright?” 

          “Everything’s fine,” Sonic confirms, “but there was a Badnik. I’m still at the coordinates it showed up at,” he confirms, knowing Tails can and probably already has checked them for himself, “But, listen, it wasn’t a big deal. The thing was tiny, and went down in a few hits. Nothing to be worried about.”

          “Are you hurt?”

          Sonic notes the slight sting in his arm. It’s slight. “No.”

          Sonic hears Tails moving around on his end a bit before he speaks back up. “Well, it’s good nothing too bad happened, but… Isn’t that weird?”

          “What do you mean?”

          “Why would there only be one?” Tails asks, “And one so small, that he knows you can defeat? This is the second time it’s happened in two days.”

          Sonic takes a moment to process. “Does that mean something to you?”

          “It doesn’t mean nothing,” Tails insists, “But I can’t see why he’d do it. And you already said you’ve been feeling weird lately… I’m worried something’s going on.”

          “I haven’t been feeling that weird.”

          “Still! Remember the thing with the water after we fought his robot?”

          “You think that’s related?”

          “I just don’t think we should rule anything out.” Tails sighs. “Sonic, are you absolutely sure you haven’t noticed anything else that’s strange going on recently?”

          The very first thought Sonic has is his dream. He then starts trying very hard to not think about his dream. He wants to know if you’ve been experiencing anything genuinely troubling, not every embarrassing thought that’s crossed your mind, genius!

          “Look, Tails, I’m glad you’re being conscious and showing concern and all, but it’s good to just relax a little,” Sonic says. “I haven’t been feeling any drastically different from normal, and Eggman is just… being his usual nuisance self. It’s good to be on the lookout, but don’t worry yourself too hard, okay?”

          Tails is silent for a long moment. “If you say so, Sonic,” He finally says, “But I’m still going to be on alert.”

          “You do that, Tails,” Sonic says. “I’ll talk to you later, alright, buddy?”

          “Alright.”

          Sonic closes the device, setting back off on his path down the coast before he has time to stew in his thoughts. He doesn’t notice the Badnik that flickers back to life behind his back, zooming off with its freshly collected sample secured.

Chapter Text

          Blaze stands atop a tall cliff. A breeze ruffles her fur, soft grass cushioning her feet as she stares out at a vast, sparkling ocean. She feels a pit start to form in her stomach as it registers just how high up she is, just how close to the edge, and she quickly backs up some steps. What was she doing so close to the edge, anyway?

          …Where is she?

          Blaze has seen her fair share of ocean in her life, but this particular stretch of coast isn’t one she recognizes. The air is cold, the spray of the sea only making it more so, and clouds filter the midday sun, casting a sort of dreary shadow over the area. It’s a far cry from the sweltering heat and blazing sunlight she’s most used to. A question crosses her mind. Is this…?

          She turns around, fully taking in the scenery around her. The land leading up to the cliff’s edge is covered with grass, peppered with small wildflowers, which gives way to a thick treeline not far off, a forest so densely foliaged Blaze can’t make out anything far past it. A lone tree sticks out from the treeline, pushing closer to the cliff’s edge, and around it the wildflowers seem to converge, surrounding its roots in a blanket of color. And lounging under the tree, snoring away without a care in the world, is-

          "Sonic?” She calls out, rushing towards the tree. Sonic opens his eyes as though startled awake. He looks around, taking in his unfamiliar surroundings much in the way she had, before his gaze finally settles on her, eyes widening in shock.

          "Blaze?!”

          She stops right in front of the tree, standing right over Sonic as he sits up and tries to gain his bearings.

          "Do you know where this is?” Blaze asks.

          Sonic blinks at her, surprised by the sudden questioning. He tilts his head to the side as he processes her words, seeming somewhat confused. “This is a dream.”

          A dream? How could he know that? Blaze looks around again, this new context wholly altering her perception. The flowers dotting the grass seem to change their shape and position every time her focus drifts away; what she had thought was dense foliage obscuring her vision of the forest is in truth the forest simply ending, trees fading off to darkness; and, most tellingly, the whole area is eerily silent– she hears the sound of a rushing wind, but none one of other sounds such a landscape should produce– not the waves crashing against the rocks below, or the sounds of animals that should populate such an area, nor even the shushing of the wind passing through the grass and trees. 

          "... You’re right,” She says, a little stunned, “This is a dream.” She looks back down at him, still sat casually against the tree, staring up at her expectantly. “But you’re not. You’re real, aren’t you?”

          “I would sure hope so,” Sonic grins, though his jovial tone quickly gives way to something more serious. “Yeah, it’s really me. And it’s really you.” he stands up, carefully wiping the grass from his legs. Regarding him, Blaze takes note of the bandage wrapped cleanly around his leg. That’s the same spot where I received that phantom pain…

          She looks up to meet his eyes. “You know something,” she ventures. Sonic tilts his head in a so-so motion.

          “Not really,” he says. “I’ve had some pretty weird stuff happen to me before, but nothing… quite like this. It just makes the most sense.”

          "This makes sense to you? The fact that we’re… Sharing some kind of dream world?”

          Sonic shrugs. “You got a cleaner explanation?”

          Blaze stares for a moment, then sighs. “I guess you’re right. But… Do you really not know anything? You seem awfully… composed, for someone completely in the dark.”

          “Like I said, weirder things have happened,” Sonic says. He hesitates a moment, then adds, “And besides, I don’t want to waste our time panicking.”

          “Our time?”

           “This isn’t the first time we’ve had a dream like this,” Sonic notes, and Blaze is struck by the memory of her last dream, the one in the ballroom.

          “That was really you?” She asks, trying not to let too much mortification seep into her tone. 

          “Yeah,” Sonic says, linking his arms behind the back of his head. “Nice outfit you had,, you know. Real sharp.”

          Blaze’s whiskers twitch. “Sure. You too.” she crosses her arms. “What were you saying about not wasting time?”

          Sonic laughs. “Right, right, sorry. Well, last time we had this dream, it ended before we could, like, talk. Like, right before we could talk.” he shrugs. “I don’t want us to be waking up before we can figure out what’s going on.”

          “And do you have any idea where to start, with that?”

          “Do you not?”

           “I’ve made it clear I’m just as in the dark as you are,” Blaze says, then pauses. “... However, I have been… experiencing certain phenomena, outside of just the dreams,” she ventures.

          “You too?!” Sonic says, lurching forward eagerly. “The- the hearing voices, and the feeling weird, and stuff?”

          Blaze leans back, startled by his sudden energy. “Yes, all of those things. I’ve… I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me, or exhaustion, but I’ve been… Seeing things that aren’t there. And…” She glances at his bandage again. “I’ve been having… pains, with no clear source.”

          Sonic’s gaze follows hers, down to his bandaged leg, and she can see the dots as they connect in his head. He taps his foot on the ground, forcefully, as if to test it, and Blaze’s ear twitches as she feels the pain that shoots up his leg reflected in hers. “Don’t do that.”

          “Whoa,” Sonic gasps. Blaze is hit with a wave of guilt, the seemingly unfounded feeling confusing her– until she realizes it’s not her own guilt, it’s Sonic’s. “Sorry about that.”

          “Don’t… worry about it,” Blaze quickly dismisses, her tail lashing with discomfort at the feeling of processing emotion that’s not her own.  “What’s important is the why. Or even– what, exactly, is going on.” Her brow furrows. “It’s… It’s more than just voices, or feelings. Just yesterday, I…” She trails off, scowling as she gathers the right words to describe what happened. “I was in your house?”

          Sonic blinks. “My house?” he asks, and something about the idea seems to faintly amuse him. Blaze nods.

          “I think it was your house. The walls were painted blue, and there were pictures, photos, of you and Tails…”

          “You were in Tails’ house.” Sonic says, the amusement in his tone cast out in place of shock. “You dreamt this?”

          “...No. It was real. I- I was really there. I could hold things, I picked a photo up…” She stares at him. “I didn’t know you had brown eyes.”

          The sudden non-sequitur seems to throw him off, his expression warring between surprised, confused, and embarrassed. “That’s- Yeah, I did.” He shoots her a hasty grin. “The green suits me way better, right?”

          The brown eyes were pretty cute, Blaze thinks. A growl escapes her unbidden at the thought. Stop that! 

          Sonic jumps a little at the sudden growl, interpreting it as annoyance towards him. “Sorry, sorry! On topic, keep it on topic.” he blinks a couple times, his eyes darting. “What’s the topic.”

          “Figuring out why this is happening,” Blaze says, “And how to fix it.”

          “Well, who have you pissed off lately?”

          Blaze scowls. “You think this is my fault?”

          “It’s nobody’s fault. I’m just trying to find a place to start.”

          Blaze gives it a moment of genuine thought before shaking her head. “I’ve had no encounters since returning to my dimension. The way I live is quite peaceful, Sonic. I’m unlikely to piss anyone off performing my duties.” Except for the occasional landlord or advisor who disagreed with her policies, but those few were more likely to sit and whine about it rather than do anything, and she hadn’t made any major changes in the time since her return. “Unlike you, who I’m sure attracts a new foe every day of your life.”

          “Hey, it’s not that bad,” Sonic laughs. “I’ve been keeping it super chill. I mean, Eggman’s a constant, but nothing he’s done lately involved anything like this.”

          “So we have no leads at all,” Blaze says, schooling the bitter agitation that threatens to seep into her voice. Sonic twitches, his eyes widening a little.

          “Hey, hey, there’s no need to get upset,” He insists, despite how Blaze had managed to keep her tone level. In her mind, she curses– even her thoughts, her emotions, are no longer only her own.

          “Do I need to come over? Will that stop this?”

          “Come over- like to my dimension?” Sonic pauses. “I don’t know. That seems- that seems like a lot, doesn’t it? And we don’t know if… what if that makes it worse?”

          Blaze fails to see how it could get much worse, but she sees the logic in Sonic’s assessment. Their situation is nigh impossible to predict; loathe as she is to admit it, the best course of action may really be to wait and observe the way things play out. 

          “Well,” she says. “We may wait until we are more informed. But in that time, what do we do?”

          Sonic shrugs, though at least has the grace to look guilty about doing so. “I could have Tails run some tests, I guess. But aside from that, I got nothing.”

          All Blaze can do is nod, exasperated. “Fine.”

          They stand still, staring at each other for a few moments more. Neither has anything more to say. Nothing changes.

          “How do we wake up?” Sonic asks.

          “I could hit you,” Blaze suggests.

          “Any other ideas, before that?”

          “We sit here and wait for the dream to end?”

          Sonic spreads his arms, surrendering. “Okay. Hit me.”

          Thankfully, she’s awake before her fist connects.

—

          Sonic wakes up annoyed. Despite the long night’s rest, longer than he’s usually afforded, he feels like he hasn’t slept a wink. He blames the dream for this, though at that thought he can’t make himself stay mad. The chance to talk to Blaze was nice. Nicer still would have been some answers, but Sonic knows to take what he should get.

          Speaking of answers… It’s time he really did tell Tails what was happening. He looks around the living room; once again, he’s camped out on Tails’ couch, though this time the kit has woken up long before him, probably already off in his workshop by now. Sonic sighs. He had put off telling Tails about anything that had been going on for fear of upsetting him. But now that he has to tell him, Tails will only be more cross that Sonic kept things from him. This, on top of Tails’ worries about whatever Eggman was up to…

          Sonic trudges through the house towards Tails’ workshop like a child on the way to the principal’s office.

          When he enters the workshop, Tails is, as he expected, hard at work, typing strings of code into a terminal, their meaning or purpose entirely lost on Sonic. The room is also way too dark, lit only by Tails’ screens. Sonic’s hand finds the light switch and he flicks it, Tails jumping slightly as the room is suddenly lit up. Tails turns, his somewhat exasperated face morphing into one of shock. He starts to scramble, almost falling out of his chair in his haste to get up and get away.

          “Blaze?!” Tails cries out, “What are you doing here?! Where’s Sonic?!”

          “Woah, calm down, hey, what?!” Sonic exclaims, stepping closer to Tails and putting his hands up placatingly. It doesn’t do much to calm the kit down, his ears flat against his head, and as his words register in Sonic’s mind, Sonic’s confusion only grows. He looks down at himself, seeing the same blue fur he always does. What does Tails see?

          “Tails, bud, it’s me. It’s Sonic," he insists. 

          “Sonic? But- you- the-” Tails shakes his head, covering his eyes with his hands and sucking in a breath. When he looks back up, the recognition is back in his eyes, and he runs up to Sonic, arms and tails waving all about.

          “Sonic, I! I’m sorry, I don’t know what just- I-” Tails struggles to find words to explain, “I thought you were- You looked like Blaze? I know it sounds, it sounds crazy, but I-”

          “It’s not crazy,” Sonic assuages, “I actually came to… talk to you, about that. Something related to that, at least.”

          Tails blinks, his swishing tails abruptly going still. “You… You did?”

          “I- there’s something wrong,” Sonic says, “I need to- I’m gonna explain something, and you need to promise not to laugh. Though after he’s just seen it for himself, he’ll probably be more likely to believe you…

          Tails promises, and Sonic describes every part of the situation to him from the beginning. He glosses over a couple details– the specific contents of his dream in the ballroom his largest omission– but otherwise tells Tails everything, from his earliest strange dream to the latest. Tails listens with rapt attention, the cogs in his head visibly spinning with each new piece of information gleaned, trying to put the pieces together himself. When Sonic is finished, Tails runs a hand down his face with exasperation, frowning.

          “You should’ve told me earlier,” He says.

          “I know.”

          “It could’ve been dangerous.”

          It wasn’t even! “I know.”

          Tails hesitates for a moment longer, staring at him, before he sighs. “There’s not really anything I can do if she’s not here. I could try scanning you, alone, but… I did that recently, and nothing strange turned up, remember?” Sonic nods; the day with the water, when Tails had run all those tests on him… must have been just a day or so before weird things started happening. Or– was that incident with the water itself also related to this strange connection? Sonic groans. He should’ve put that together sooner.

          “Those were only topical scans, though,” Tails continues, “Maybe I could glean more if you gave me a blood sample.”

          Sonic frowns. “I’d rather not.”

          “I know. Spit in a cup?”

          Sonic wrinkles his nose at that. “That sounds worse than taking blood.”

          Tails sighs. “It’s either that or you somehow get Blaze to come here herself, and I can scan you both.”

         "You don’t think that’d be dangerous?”

          “I don’t think it wouldn’t, but there’s nothing to prove it would either,” Tails shrugs. “I can’t say there’s no risk, but we have a better chance of figuring something out if we take it.”

          It’s true, Sonic knows it, and if it was just his safety on the line he’d take the risk in a heartbeat. But he would hate to put Blaze in danger just because he was too hasty to get answers. Though it may be their best bet…

          "What do you think we should do?” Sonic asks. Tails has turned back to his computer, pulling up a new terminal and typing things faster than Sonic can read.

          "The blood sample would be helpful either way,” Tails starts, “but I still think you should call her here either way. I think it’s the best bet we have to help you guys.”

          Sonic hums. “Well, I trust your judgment, but I don’t know how to do that.”

          "You didn’t figure out a way to contact each other?” 

          Sonic grimaces. He should’ve thought of that before he got Blaze to punch him awake. “I could try dreaming again?”

          Tails turns around to shoot him an incredulous look.

          “What’s your great idea, then?” Sonic asks defensively.

          Tails considers for a moment before shrugging. “I guess it can’t hurt. You look like you could use the sleep anyway.”

          “Rude,” Sonic says, grinning.

          “Just telling it how it is,” Tails retorts, “Go lay down on the couch, see if Blaze picks up the phone, and I’ll see what I can find out on my own.”

          “On it, boss,” Sonic says, saluting. He feels– confused, suddenly, and can’t place why, though in just a moment it registers. Something has confused Blaze. It’s strange, having someone else’s emotions in his head, and he’s not really sure how to fix it. He tries to think reassuring thoughts, repeating the sentence is everything alright? as loudly as he can in his head. He can’t tell if it does anything, but the foreign emotion does go away after a while. He walks out of the workshop, pretending he can’t hear Tails when he yells for him to turn the light off, and makes his way back to the living room couch. 

          Reaching the living room, Sonic flops face-first onto the couch, disregarding any of the blankets or pillows in favor of screwing his eyes shut, digging his face into the cushions, and willing himself asleep as quickly as he can. He doesn’t have any more faith in this working than Tails does, but he can feel his fatigue starting to creep into the corners of his consciousness, and he’ll take any excuse to nap that he can get. Settling into the couch, he tries his best to clear his mind, focusing his thoughts on Blaze, her dimension, the two of them standing next to each other… Anything to try and convey the message, I need to see her. We need to talk. 

          With this focus in mind, his thoughts finally start to drift.

Chapter Text

          Sonic’s plan doesn’t work.

          Far from forcing any psychic dreams to occur, he can’t even force himself to fall asleep. He tries focusing his thoughts; then he tries unfocusing his thoughts, assuming that perhaps a clearer head will lull him to sleep faster. Nothing works. For as tired as he had been since first waking up, he now lies wide awake, staring up at the ceiling in frustration. Hopefully Blaze was doing a better job at figuring things out than he was…

          “Sonic? Are you alright?”

          “Gah! Blaze!” Sonic shoots up, looking wildly around the room. She’s already here?! Is this a dream?!

          His survey of the room turns up empty, and he realizes the voice had been entirely in his head. Another hallucination, then, he thinks, falling back onto the couch with a heavy sigh.

          “You’re not dreaming, or hallucinating,” Blaze’s voice says, sternly. Sonic yelps.

          “Blaze?” He says, eyes darting around the room. “Is that you? Actually you?”

          “It’s actually me. I’m contacting you through a Sol Emerald.”

          “A Sol Emerald?”

          “Yes. I could sense that something was wrong, that you wanted to see me, through our… connection,” she explains. Sonic grimaces; apparently his “think the same thing over and over” plan had been doing something. “However, I couldn’t make out why, or what was going on. I thought that if I made contact with a Sol Emerald, due to their connection with your dimension, it might amplify our connection and make it clearer. It appears I was right.”

          “What, so you’re, like, calling me? With the Emerald?” An image of Blaze holding a Sol Emerald up to her ear like a cell phone is conjured in Sonic’s mind, and he can’t hold back a giggle.

          “I saw that! I’m not holding it like that!” Blaze sputters, indignant.

          “Really?”

          “You-! I didn’t contact you for this nonsense! Take this seriously or I’m leaving.”

          “Sorry, sorry,” Sonic says, still grinning. “Um, has anything else weird happened to you, since last night?”

          “Aside from the emotions I picked up from you… there was one thing. One of my royal advisors, he… he didn’t recognize me, at first. When I approached him, he thought I was…”

          “He thought you were me?”

          “I assume so, yes.”

          “The same thing happened to me,” Sonic says. “I talked to Tails, but he saw me as you at first.”

          Blaze’s voice is quiet for a moment, but her concern bleeds into Sonic’s mind. “That isn’t good.”

          “Yep.”

          “What else did Tails tell you?”

          “He said…” Sonic takes a breath. “He said he probably won’t be able to figure out what’s going on unless you come over and he can test both of us.”

          Sonic hears no response. He presumes Blaze must be thinking.

          “Well, if that’s that.” she says, and suddenly a shrill, high-pitched noise pierces Sonic’s ears. He claps his hands to his ears, trying to block it out, but it does nothing; the sound is coming from inside his own head. Sonic screws his eyes shut, willing it away.

          “Sonic? Are you alright?” The noise is suddenly cut off as Blaze’s voice pierces it. Sonic opens his eyes. Her voice sounds clearer, now, less like it’s coming from his mind and more like-

          Blaze stands over him, her wide, worried eyes encompassing his vision. Sonic yelps and scrambles back, falling against the couch. “Blaze?!”

          Blaze frowns, confused. “Yes. Hello. Are you okay?”

          “What are you doing here?! When did you get here?!”

          Blaze leans back, crossing her arms over her chest. “You told me to come. Here I am.”

          “Wh- So soon?”

          “I was already holding the Sol Emeralds,” Blaze shrugs, “Is it a problem? Do you think I should leave?”

          Sonic stares. “No…? Uh, no, you don’t need to leave, I just wasn’t expecting you to be… here. Already. Just like that.”

          Blaze’s only response is a questioning look and a tilt of her ears. Sonic sighs. “Whatever. You’re here. Uh, hi. Welcome to my dimension, I guess!”

          Blaze looks around the room. “I’ve been here before.”

          “You-? Oh, in your dream?”

          “Right.” She looks around the room, her eyes settling on the collection of photo frames resting on the center table. She notes one has fallen over and reaches forward, righting it. As she does so, she reorients a few others around it, and soon she’s adjusting the whole group into a more cohesive display. Sonic watches in silent shock, his mind refusing to catch up with events. Blaze the Cat is standing in his house. Blaze the Cat, princess of the Sol Kingdom. Should he bow? He didn’t feel the need to bow when he met her before. But this feels strange. What is he supposed to do? Offer her food? What could he even offer a princess? Is he supposed to offer her tea?! Tails probably keeps some in his cabinets, but Sonic wouldn’t know it if he saw it.

          Blaze freezes in her tidying, suddenly righting herself and clasping her hands behind her back. “Um. Where is Tails?” she asks.

          “Already? You just got here!”

          Blaze shifts. “Well. We want this resolved as quickly as possible, don’t we?”

          Sonic shrugs. “Okay… I guess. Follow me.” he beckons as he starts moving towards Tails’ workshop. After affirming that Blaze is following him, he hums, a question coming to mind. “Hey, can you really just go between dimensions with the Sol Emeralds? Just like that?”

          “It’s not exactly easy,” Blaze responds, “and it takes a lot of energy out of me. But yes, the Sol Emeralds on their own can be used to travel to your dimension.”

          “What about others?”

          “Your dimension is the only one I’ve ever had to go to.”

          “Yeah, but haven’t you at least tried to check out some other ones? Just to see?”

          Blaze’s brow furrows. “I would think doing so would pose an exceptionally high risk, just for the sake of seeing if I could. What if I ended up somewhere I couldn’t come back from?”

          Sonic pauses a moment. “I guess that makes sense. I don’t think the Chaos Emeralds are able to travel dimensions, so I got pretty curious.” He tilts his head. “I guess they can teleport, though…”

          “You can use your Chaos Emeralds to teleport?”

          Sonic waves a hand. “Well, not me- I mean, I can, but I don’t. It feels weird. And they’re not really mine?”

          “Whose are they?”

          “Uh… No one’s, really. They just kinda… are.”

          “Who protects them?”

          Sonic shoots Blaze a look. “Um… I guess that…” he flounders for a bit on how to respond. Lucky for him, they now stand in front of the door to Tails’ workshop, so he decides he doesn’t have to. “Here we are. I’m gonna go in first and let him know to not freak out too much, okay?”

          Blaze nods, standing just out of sight of the door as Sonic opens it and peers in. “Tails, buddy?”

          “Yeah?” Tails asks. “If you’re here to ask how the research is going, you’re gonna be disappointed.”

          “Not really. Listen, I need you to not freak out, okay?”

          “What?” Tails finally looks up from his monitor at Sonic. “Why? What’s wrong?”

          “Nothing’s wrong,” Sonic assures, “I just really need you to not freak out.” as Tails tilts his head in confusion, Sonic beckons for Blaze to come into view.

          “Hello, Tails,” Blaze says as she steps into the doorway. Tails’ jaw drops, but he clearly is trying very hard to not freak out.

          “...Blaze,” he chokes out. “You’re here? Actually?”

          “I am. Actually.” She confirms. Tails blinks.

          “That’s…! Um, it’s good to, uh, have you? I wasn’t- Sonic didn’t tell me you would be here so soon?”

         “Well, she didn’t tell me either,” Sonic grumbles.

          “I was told I needed to be present for you to be able to diagnose whatever is going on with us,” Blaze says. “I trust Sonic has fully informed you of the circumstances.”

          “Um… yeah.” Tails says. “I know what’s going on. Did you- you want to do tests? Now? Right now?”

          “At your earliest convenience,” Blaze shrugs.

          Tails looks at Sonic, who also simply shrugs. Sure, they can do the tests right now. Not like he has much else going on.

          “Well… okay.” Tails says. “Give me a minute, to uh, set up my scanners and stuff, and then…” he trails off, the rest of his sentence implicit, as he hops out of his chair and begins to bustle about the workshop, procuring and plugging in all sorts of unidentifiable gadgets and machines. 

          After laying multiple things out on his table, Tails beckons the two of them over. He holds up something that looks like a strange version of a blood pressure monitor. “Put this around your arm,” he tells Sonic. Sonic wraps the cuff around his forearm, feeling it tighten almost uncomfortably tight, like a real blood pressure monitor. Tails plugs the cuff’s cable into his computer, the monitor instantly lighting up with numbers and data that Sonic doesn’t comprehend. Some of the numbers seem to steadily climb up at a rapid pace as he watches, and he frowns. Hopefully that’s not a bad thing.

          Tails squints at the data on his computer, nodding slightly. “Now you put one on, Blaze,” Tails says, passing her another cuff. She attaches it dutifully, and with a few taps on his keyboard, the screen becomes much more cluttered, taken up with whatever information their two cuffs are picking up.

          Tails is quiet as he watches the screen, his tails swishing animatedly as he thinks.

          “Hmm… Can the two of you make contact? Hold hands or something?”

          Blaze is quick to hold her hand out to Sonic, who’s more hesitant, staring at her hand like it may burn him. She sends him a strange look, one that says get on with it, we need to continue the experiment, is something wrong?

          Sonic quickly schools his apprehension, grabbing Blaze’s hand as if going in for a handshake. Something happens, at the contact, but Sonic can’t tell what; it’s like the air around them changes somehow, the room unchanged yet feeling entirely different somehow. Emotions overwhelm his head; with the two of them touching, no filter exists to keep their feelings out of each other’s head. 

          Neither Sonic or Blaze enjoy the feeling. “Is this enough, Tails?” Sonic asks through gritted teeth. Tails turns to his computer, eyes widening at the way Sonic and Blaze’s readings are reacting. He types some things into the console, and a third source of information begins to flood the screen; their combined readings, presumably. Tails sucks in a breath as he watches the data stream in across his screen. “Woah… That’s a lot.”

          “What’s it mean?” Sonic asks.

          “It hasn’t even been a minute, Sonic,” Tails says, “I have no idea. And if this is a phenomenon we haven’t seen before, the computer won’t be able to diagnose it. I’ll have to analyze this all myself.”

          “And how long will that take?”

          Tails looks at his screen, where information is still being fed in a mile minute, and then looks back at Sonic in exasperation. “A long time.”

          Blaze hums, sitting carefully on one of the workshop’s few uncluttered chairs. “We’ll wait, then.”

          “Woah, woah, no we won’t,” Sonic says. “He’s gonna take, like, an hour!”

          “Probably more than that,” Tails says. Sonic groans.

          “I don’t wanna wait around in this dusty workshop for hours!” He exclaims. “I haven’t eaten, like, all day. I wanna go get something.”

          “I hope your meal goes well, then.” Blaze says. Sonic sends her a look.

          “You’re coming with me! This is your opportunity to try food from another dimension! You can’t pass that up!”

          “I’ve been to this dimension before,” Blaze points out.

          “Yeah, and how much food did you try then?”

          Blaze doesn’t have a good response. “Fine, then.” she says, standing up. “What kind of food were you thinking?”

          Sonic grins. “Do you have hot dogs in the Sol Kingdom?”

—

          There are hot dogs in the Sol Kingdom, but Blaze’s idea of one is quite different from the thing that Sonic puts in her hand. Chiefly, it’s wrapped in a bun; though the street food in her kingdom was not something she often partook in, she at least understood hot dogs to be something you ate on a skewer, a sausage fried in some sort of batter. She explains this to Sonic, who’s brow furrows in thought as he chews on his food (which he’s already devoured half of, despite just having sat down.)

          “I guess we have stuff like that, but it’s not what I would think of when I think of a hot dog,” he says. “This kind is the more normal kind.”

          “And is it normal to put… stew? On it?” where Blaze’s food was relatively unadorned, topped with only onions and some condiments, Sonic’s own was dressed with a healthy amount of some kind of meat stew– the concept of using meat as a garnish for an already meat dish making Blaze frown.

          “Chili isn’t really stew,” Sonic says, “it’s just chili. And it’s not the usual way people eat it, I guess, but it’s the way I like it. Do you want to try?” He offers the half-eaten hot dog out to her, some of the sauce dripping off with the motion, and she puts a hand out to decline.

          “That’s… fine. I have my own food.”

          Sonic shrugs and takes another bite. Blaze looks down at her own food, unsure of how she’ll be able to eat it without making a mess. She could request a fork and knife, but something tells her eating it in that way would probably be even more frowned upon here, and…

          Blaze watches Sonic, who eats his food with such gusto and disregard for cleanliness it’s really a little gross. Despite that, nobody around them really seems to care; and Blaze knows Sonic is some sort of influential figure, based on the way nobody she met could shut up about him when she first came to this dimension. For this reason, she’s willing to assume this is some sort of cultural difference between dimensions– with this in mind, and really, with no better alternative, she collects the food as neatly as she can and takes a bite.

          She can feel the sauce that smudges on her face, and she knows that the grease will stain her white gloves, but she wills herself not to care. She’s nobody’s princess here; just someone normal, having a normal meal. Nobody knows who she is, nobody cares. She tries to focus resolutely on her food rather than anyone who’s around them. It’s not the best thing she’s ever eaten, but it’s good; serviceable as street food. She wouldn’t get it for herself, at least not often, but she can see why Sonic likes it. 

          The two of them eat in companionable silence, taking in the quiet scenery around them. It’s not long before the food is gone, and as soon as she’s taken her last bite Sonic springs up, tossing both of their trash in a nearby bin and making a show of dusting his hands off.

          “Whew, that hit the spot,” Sonic grins. “You wanna go for a walk?”

          “A walk? You?” Blaze asks, incredulous. Sonic laughs.

          “Well, it’s your first time really hanging out here, right? It would be a shame to just run past all the sights,” he says. “But if you want to run…”

          “A walk is fine,” Blaze says, laughing at the exaggerated dejected expression Sonic pulls.

          “There’s somewhere I want to show you, though, and it’s a little ways away. At least run with me to get there?”

          Blaze agrees, and the two of them set off, Sonic leading the way while Blaze follows close behind. They aren’t running too fast– Blaze is able to keep up with Sonic without using any boost from her fire– but the sharp feeling of the wind through her fur after so long without it is still exhilarating. Sonic is clearly taking them a longer route than necessary, running over buildings and through trees as he leads her further from the outskirts of town, into a densely wooded area that Sonic navigates like it’s muscle memory. At first, Blaze balks at the idea of rushing so quickly through such a crowded area, the idea of falling or running into something in such an unfamiliar terrain a very real concern, but as she falls in step beside Sonic she finds that traversing the forest is like second nature to her– as long as she doesn’t think too hard about it. It must be the connection; She lets her thoughts wander, focuses everywhere except her own feet, and the moves she needs to make just come to her on their own.

          At the pace they’ve made, it’s only minutes before Sonic and Blaze burst from the tree line, Sonic quickly skidding to a stop just before he runs himself straight over a cliff.

          Blaze stops short just behind him, her breath catching as she takes in the scene around her. “This is…”

          “The place from our dream,” Sonic says, beaming. “I come here pretty often. It’s quiet, you know?”

          Nowhere near as quiet as it had been in the dream, but it certainly is a peaceful locale. The sound of waves crashing against the cliffside is a familiar one, almost enough to remind Blaze of her home, yet there’s something about them that she can’t place that makes her hesitate, just a tinge of unfamiliarity. This is what gets her about being in a different dimension, more than the most drastic differences she encounters; it’s the things that should be the same, the things that seem so close to familiar, but there’s something in them that’s just– off. She breathes deeply, taking in the ambient sounds of the wildlife. It doesn’t sound like this where she’s from; the birds aren’t chirping right, the buzz of insects is off. They don’t sound bad– the place is beautiful, almost breathtakingly so– yet Blaze still can’t help the unease that pools in her gut.

          “Is something wrong?” Sonic asks, breaking Blaze from her reverie.

          “Oh… no,” Blaze says, “It’s only that-”

          She’s cut off when a projectile whizzes past her face, missing her cheek by a hair. She whips around, seeing Sonic in the corner of her vision follow suit. 

          “Badniks,” he growls. There must be almost a dozen of them, only the glint of their glowing eyes and weapons giving away their positions as they approach under the shadows of the foliage.

          “Sonic?” Blaze asks, fists raised and already sparking. The rest of her question is implied. We’re fighting them, right?

          “Right on,” Sonic says, and though Blaze is turned away from him, she can feel his focus steel in her own mind, something in her head clicking into place as their emotions converge into one.

          The first robot charges out of the trees, and Blaze’s hand ignites.

Chapter Text

Without a need for words, Sonic and Blaze fall into a seamless formation, back-to-back as they fight off the Badniks that quickly surround them. Fighting alongside Blaze is like nothing Sonic has ever felt before; they play off of each other seamlessly, each one’s attacks bleeding into the others’ till you can’t tell where one of them starts and the other ends. Blaze is able to keep up with him perfectly; for every robot he sends flying off with a kick, she’s able to catch it with her fist, sending it back at him like they’re playing a game. It’s exhilarating in a way Sonic hasn’t felt in a long, long time; despite how many robots they’re made to fight, the battle feels over all too quickly. Blaze drives her hand straight through the head of the last robot standing, frying its insides as she does until it melts off her hand and falls to the ground below, joining the heap of half-molten scrap that now surrounds the two of them. Sonic can’t help the way he beams.

“Clearly, I’m not needed,” He says.

Blaze shoots him a wry smile, then goes back to considering the debris that surrounds them, smile dropping. “Is this common? Should I be watching my back here?”

“It’s not… not common,” Sonic admits, “but it’s not regular, or anything. Eggman has been doing this a lot lately, sending out these little robots, and we don’t know why.”

Blaze cocks an eyebrow at him. Sonic knows what it is she wants to ask without her saying it.

“I don’t know if it’s related to all this,” he sighs. “Tails thinks it might be. I don’t see how it could be.”

“You can never be too careful,” Blaze points out.

Sonic looks mildly irritated, but before he can open his mouth to respond, a strange kind of beeping sound plays from his glove, and he holds a finger up to her in a one second motion, holding his arm up to his mouth as he presses something on his wrist that makes the beeping stop. “Tails?”

“Sonic!” Tails’ voice rings out from the glove, startling Blaze. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Sonic replies. “What’s up? Did you finish your scan thing?”

“I think so. It’s…” Tails pauses. “It’s a lot. Do you think you two could head back to the lab?”

“Sure, we just got done here,” Sonic says, casting a glance towards the pile of wrecked Badniks around them and then grinning at Blaze. “Nothing bad, I hope?”

Tails doesn’t respond. Sonic’s grin drops.

“Buddy?”

“I don’t want to talk about it over the phone. Come back as soon as you can,” Tails says. Another beeping sound plays, one Blaze assumes means Tails has hung up, as Sonic’s arm drops back down to his side, his brow knit in concern.

“I assume bad news awaits us,” Blaze says. Sonic’s frown deepens.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” he says. “Tails has a bad habit of assuming the worst when it comes to these kinds of things.” 

Despite his words, Blaze can still clearly feel his worry permeate her mind. “Should we do something about this?” she asks, gesturing to the wreckage around them. Sonic considers.

“...I don’t think we have time for cleanup,” he says. “People are usually happy to scavenge these wrecks, anyways.”

Blaze hesitates to leave so much potentially dangerous machinery out in the open like this, but she acquiesces. “Alright.”

Shrugging apologetically, Sonic gestures for her to follow him. 

—

When they make it back to Tails’ house, the fox is already standing outside waiting for them, his hands wringing and tails twirling as he scans the area. When he sees them, his face lights up for a moment, though his expression quickly falls back to a deep worry.

“Follow me to the lab,” he says when they approach, forgoing any greeting. Blaze feels her own concern deepen, and feels Sonic’s increase tenfold.

Upon reaching the lab, Tails runs straight to his computer. The monitor’s display is similar to what they had seen when Tails had first ran the test, though the information appears now to be much more organized, complete with a couple charts and graphs conveying… something. Blaze still can’t parse even a bit of it.

“You remember Eggman Nega’s plan, from when we first met Blaze,” Tails says. It’s not a question, but Sonic answers.

“He wanted to harness both the Chaos Emeralds and the Sol Emeralds to build his own Eggmanland,” Sonic says. “Is that it? Eggman Nega is behind this?”

“No. Not directly. Let me finish,” Tails replies. “The Sol Emeralds essentially function as their dimension’s anchor, as do the Chaos Emeralds with this one. When Eggman Nega brought the Sol Emeralds to this dimension, the two dimensions began to merge.”

“A course that would have ended in their mutual destruction,” Blaze points out.

Tails grimaces. “Right. Two dimensions merging would cause both to cease to exist.”

“So you think whatever’s going on between me and Blaze is related to that? The dimensions merging?” Sonic asks. “But Blaze has all the Sol Emeralds in her dimension.”

“Sonic-” Tails sighs. “I’m not there yet. Listen. Our dimension and Blaze’s, they’re parallel to each other.” he holds his hand up parallel to each other to illustrate his point.

“Meaning?”

“Blaze’s dimension is less of an alternate world, and more of… the same world, if it was… a little to the left.” He hesitates. “Maybe a lot to the left. But still the same world, at its bones. Like the Sol Emeralds– they don’t have quite the same powers as the Chaos Emeralds, and they look different, but they’re still- seven emeralds, that appear to hold functionally limitless power. You could consider them counterparts.”

“Sure,” Sonic says.

“It’s not just the emeralds that have counterparts between dimensions. Objects, places, and… People do, too.” 

“Tails,” Blaze says, the pieces beginning to connect in her mind. “You’re not…”

Blaze’s realization must find its way to Sonic, somehow, because his eyes suddenly go wide. “That’s- that doesn’t make any sense!”

“It’s the only conclusion I can draw from the results,” Tails says. “You two are your respective dimension’s ‘versions’ of each other.”

Neither Sonic nor Blaze respond, their silence weighing over the room as their minds process what they’ve been told. Tails looks between the two of them, hands wringing in worry.

“...Tails,” it’s Blaze who finally speaks up, her grave tone reflecting the deep frown on her face. “You say that me and Sonic are- each other’s counterparts. And this is what you believe to be the cause of what’s afflicting us- you compare it specifically to what happened between mine and yours’ dimension.” Her gaze is razor-sharp as it meets his. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but…” She trails off, not wanting to voice the rest of her conclusion, as though saying it aloud is what will ultimately make it true.

“No… That’s right,” Tails says. “Your two beings are, in some way, merging. That’s the reason for all the strange overlap, like feeling each other’s emotions, or hearing things only the other should have heard. And, much like what happened between our dimensions, this merging would…” He frowns and looks away. 

“...Ultimately destroy you both,” he finishes.

Sonic’s response is immediate. “That’s not going to happen.” 

“Why is this happening to us, specifically?” Blaze asks, her brows furrowed in thought. “What plan do we have for fixing it?”

Tails look uncomfortable. “I’m not positive why this affects only the two of you. If I had to say, it’s related to the simple fact that the two of you met in the first place. It’s possible that as… each other, the two of you were never- supposed to meet. And that somehow set this in motion.” He turns towards his monitor. “As for a plan… I don’t have any idea. Last time, the problem was that the Sol Emeralds were in the wrong dimension. The solution was getting them back where they belonged. But your symptoms started when both of you and your emeralds were in the correct dimension. So clearly that’s not the solution here.”

Sonic’s face lights up. “Wait, is Blaze being here a problem? Is it going to make things worse?” For some reason, the thought makes him hold a hand against his heart as though he’s checking his own pulse.

“It may be too early to say, but from what the readings have shown so far, I actually think that the two of you being in the same dimension is staving off the effects,” Tails says. “Have either of you experienced any more hallucinations since Blaze got here?”

They both take a moment to think about it, quickly surmising that they hadn’t. The only symptom that had seemed to persist upon Blaze’s arrival was the strange sharing of emotions, something that had only seemed to grow stronger. They relay this information to Tails, who nods, typing something into his terminal.

“I thought so. Considering what we know, I think it would be safest if Blaze remained here until we can find a solution.” He turns to Blaze. “Is that okay?”

Blaze chews her lip. “It’s fine. Whatever it takes to get rid of this as quickly as possible.”

Sonic blinks. “Wait, does anyone back home even know where you went, Blaze?” he asks.

“I told my retainer I may be gone for some time before I arrived,” Blaze admits. “I suspected that whatever the problem was would require quite a bit of time here to resolve. I just didn’t expect it to be…” She exhales wearily. “The answer is yes, my kingdom is in good hands, and will not panic in my absence.” For now.

“Well, that’s good,” Tails says, back to typing away at his computer. “You can stay with us for as long as you’re here…” he suddenly looks up, looking around the messy lab as if only just realizing the state it’s in. “Uh, I guess it may not be the most fit for a princess here,” he says self-consciously. “Maybe a hotel in the city…”

Blaze feels a pang of trepidation. “If it’s no trouble for you, I’d be fine staying here,” she says. “I don’t require any lavish accommodations, and I believe that it would probably be safest for me to stay near you two, in the case of anything happening.”

“That’s true,” Tails says. “You can sleep in Sonic’s room.”

“What!?” Sonic sputters. “Who let you decide that!?”

“It’s not like you ever use it,” Tails says, “And you like the couch better anyways.”

“Still doesn’t mean you can go renting out my room out like a hotel,” Sonic says, though he’s clearly not really upset; he grins back towards Blaze, who manages an unsure smile in return, unsure of how she’s meant to fit in to whatever banter is going on.

“Well!” Sonic says, “If you’re staying here, I should show you where your room is gonna be, huh?” he waves a hand for her to follow him “Tails, you don’t need anything else from us, right?”

“No, that was all for now,” Tails says. “You can go give your grand tour. I’ll call for you if I find anything.”

With Tails’ assurance, Blaze follows Sonic out of the lab. She notes that it’s darkened considerably outside since they went in; the lab lacked any windows, so Blaze hadn’t registered the way the time had passed. She follows Sonic as he leads her through the house, stopping by an open doorway at the end of the hall. 

“It’s no palace or anything, but…” he gestures inside. Blaze steps through, feeling the hardwood under her feet shift to thick carpeting as she enters the room. She’s a bit surprised by it as she looks around; though it’s far from the tidiest room she’s ever seen, it’s much less cluttered than what she would expect Sonic’s bedroom to look like, only a few sparse trinkets on the shelves and posters on the wall indicating who the room belongs to. Blaze supposes it makes sense; Tails did say that Sonic hardly used the room. Her gaze drifts towards the bed, neatly made, covered with a pattern quilt that Blaze understands to be a gift from someone important, just from looking at it. The bed is also about a fourth of the size of the one she sleeps in back in her palace; the entire room itself could fit in her closet alone.

It’s cozy.

The fact that she hasn’t said anything for a while must be getting to Sonic, who shifts his weight between his feet where he stands in the doorway. “Is it okay?”

“It’s very nice,” Blaze says, truthfully. “Are you sure it’s alright for me to take your bed?”

Sonic waves a hand. “Don’t worry about it. Tails was right when he said I prefer the couch.” His eyes dart around the room a little, and land on the clock that sits upon the bedside table. He considers it for a moment, then turns back to her. “Hey, are you tired at all?”

“Not particularly,” Blaze says. The fact that it’s technically evening at all still surprises her; though so much had ostensibly happened today, the time had seemed to pass so fast.

“We should do something!” Sonic says, “Have a movie night or something. I bet the movies in this dimension are way different from the ones in yours, right? And I could make you more food from this dimension to go with it.” He brings a thoughtful hand up to his face. “I only know how to make so much, though. Do you have quesadillas?” 

“Of course we have quesadillas,” Blaze says. Sonic laughs.

“Right, of course,” he smiles, and starts walking out of the room, down the hall. Blaze follows. “So, what’s your favorite movie genre?” He asks as they walk.

The truth is, she couldn’t have a strong opinion on the subject if she tried. She’d seen a few films, of course, but not nearly a wide enough variety to really have any preferences regarding genre. Something tells her nothing isn’t a great answer, though, so she scrambles to name something, if only for the sake of having an actual response. “Um, horror?”

Sonic makes a surprised sound. “Not what I was expecting!” he says. “I don’t like horror flicks that much. They make me jump.” grinning, he adds, “It is fun watching them with Tails, though, ‘cause he jumps more than I do.” he stops walking down the hall and dips into a room that Blaze quickly identifies as the kitchen, rummaging around in the cupboards to procure a few large bowls and a bag of popcorn.  

“Tails!” Sonic shouts as he prepares the popcorn. No response comes.

“Tails, we’re having a movie night!” Sonic calls again. He waits a few beats.

“Tails, I’m making popcorn!” He finally yells. After a moment, Blaze hears a door in the distance. 

Tails pads into the room, immediately picking up one of the bowls of popcorn on the counter. 

“Hey! That one’s mine!” Sonic says. Tails is already trotting out of the kitchen.

“Can you get the DVDs out?” Sonic calls after him. Tails doesn’t respond.

Sonic clicks his tongue and hands Blaze her bowl of popcorn. “Sorry, I forgot to ask if you even like this stuff. Do you have it where you’re from?”

“Sure,” Blaze responds; it’s true that her dimension does have popcorn, but she omits the fact that she’s never actually eaten it herself. Bowl in hand, she follows Sonic out of the kitchen and into the living room, the same one she had first arrived in. Tails is kneeling in front of the table, a collection of DVD cases spread out in front of him. Sonic approaches the table, picking up the most horror-looking box out of the set, some zombie flick, from the looks of it.

“Sonic! Not that one!” Tails whines.

“Hey, we have guests, and this is the kind of movie she wants to see,” Sonic says. He holds the box up towards Blaze. “Right, Blaze?”

Blaze inspects the DVD. It looks like a straightforward zombie movie; not particularly more compelling than any of the other movies on the table. “Yes. this one.”

Tails groans while Sonic laughs and sets about putting the DVD into the player. Tails crawls into the armchair, curling his entire body around his bowl of popcorn. Sonic flops onto the couch, patting the space next to him for Blaze to sit down. She takes her seat carefully, trying not to sit too stiffly as to avoid seeming ungrateful while also making sure she doesn’t sit too casually. When she’s sure she’s situated as well as she can be, she places her bowl of popcorn on her lap, popping a piece into her mouth as she watches the opening credits of the film.

Well. It tastes like air.

She eats the popcorn slowly, revelling in the odd way it melts against her tongue like paper. It doesn’t taste good, particularly, but the texture isn’t unpleasant. She’s so focused on the strange food that she’s completely checked out of the movie, startling when she feels a spike of fear in her heart– a split second before Sonic himself jumps, reacting to some creature on the screen.

“Have you seen this movie before?” She leans into Sonic and mutters, trying not to distract Tails.

“Sure. Few times,” Sonic responds, just as quietly.

“You know what’s coming, and you still let it scare you?” Blaze asks, incredulous.

“It’s fun,” Sonic says with a grin, shrugging. He turns back to the movie, shoving a handful of popcorn into his mouth and immediately coughing it up when a zombie bursts onto screen. Blaze hears Tails yip in fear. She frowns.

This movie sucks.

It’s fun to watch Sonic and Tails’ reactions, though. She feels herself settling deeper into the couch, laughing when something on screen startles the others, jumping a couple times herself when a scare is particularly well timed. The movie isn’t great, and isn’t anything particularly different from what she might see in her own dimension, but it’s a good time anyways. When she eventually drifts off, posture disregarded to instead curl fully onto the couch, it’s with a smile on her face.

Chapter Text

Elsewhere, under the sterile light of countless monitors, Eggman stands at a console, typing away. The room in which he stands can best be described as dense, with the heavy thrum of machines weighing down the atmosphere and the myriad of discordant wires snaking across the floor like steel veins, all feeding to the centerpiece of the room– a tall, imposing machine, still being constructed by the small Badniks that flit about it, flying all manner of cables and materials in and out of the room. Orbot and Cubot stand to the side, directing the Badniks in their work.

“So, eh, what’s the machine even for, anyway?” Cubot asks. “It just looks like a bigger computer to me. Don’t we got plenty of those already?”

Before Orbot can concoct an answer, Eggman grumbles. “It’s much more than a computer, idiot. This machine is the key to my ultimate victory!” He spins around to face the robot pair, the both of them shrinking back in fear.

“Feels like every machine is the key to your ultimate victory,” Cubot says. Orbot smacks him upside the head.

“This time is different,” Eggman says, his curling smile stretching his face wide. “Every other scheme of mine has involved defeating the hedgehog myself. This time, he’s covered that part for me.” he gestures to the looming device behind him, grin growing wicked. “With Sonic and that cat-girl destroying themselves for me, all I need to do is be there to harness the result.”

“The result, sir?” Orbot asks.

“The result being more energy than you could compute. Comparable to that of a dying star… no, greater…”

“Greater than a Chaos Emerald, sir?”

Eggman’s gaze pierces the robot. “This is far beyond a Chaos Emerald. Far beyond…” He turns away again, muttering. “If I can lure them in in their super forms…”

“Pardon, sir, but what exactly is it that’s causing these results you speak of? Shouldn’t you be worried”

“I have my own theories, but the semantics of why hardly matters. Whatever it is is only affecting the hedgehog and the cat girl, and it will take the two of them down without me having to lift a finger!” Eggman exclaims, returning to his place at his console. Orbot and Cubot exchange nervous looks.

“Whatever you say, boss,” Orbot says, laying the skepticism on thick, but his words go ignored, Eggman’s attention already fully refocused on his monitor.

“Quit your babbling and get back to work!” The doctor insists without looking up from his screen. With one final, worried glance, the two robots do just that.

—

Though Blaze assumed the majority of her stay in Sonic’s dimension would be spent actively trying to fix their problem, Sonic seemed determined to prove her as wrong as he possibly could, waking her up at the break of dawn and urging her to go get food with him. Blaze is quickly realizing that cooking isn’t a staple of the brothers’ household, which shouldn’t much surprise her; neither of them seem like the types to want to sit down and learn how. Still, such a lifestyle can’t help but confuse her– what’s the point of having a kitchen at all?

Sonic takes her to a bakery of sorts, somewhere where he’s friendly with the owner, greeting the tiger behind the counter with an exuberant hey, buddy! And introducing Blaze as a friend from out of town. Sonic tells her to choose anything she wants while he chats with his friend, the baker already preparing a pastry in a paper bag for Sonic without him having to ask for it. She orders something that looks like a small tart; she assumes it’s made of pineapple filling, but biting into it reveals it’s a kind of lemon custard. Sensing her surprise, Sonic quickly asks her if it’s okay, if she doesn’t like it, if they should go back and get her something else-

“It’s fine,” She assures, “I like it. Just not what I expected.”

Sonic grins, biting into his own pastry, some kind of fried dough covered in powdered sugar. “I’m glad,” he says with his mouth full. “That bakery is the best spot for miles, trust me.” he points to the pastry Blaze is holding. “Can I try a bite?”

“Why didn’t you get this one, if it was what you wanted?”

“I mean, I just wanna try it. I’ll let you try mine.”

“I don’t want yours?” Blaze says, “I want the one I have. Go back and get one of your own, if you want to try it so badly.”

Sonic’s brows furrow. “But the bakery is… way back there…”

“You’re fast.”

Sonic sighs, giving up and taking another bite of his own food. Blaze can tell she’s done something wrong, though she’s unsure of how to rectify it. She searches her mind for something to say, something to fill the silence before it becomes too awkward.

“So.. where is it exactly that we’re heading towards?” She settles on. Now that she’s asked, she is genuinely curious– after they had left the bakery, Sonic had simply started jogging in some direction, and she had followed without much thought.

“Amy’s house,” Sonic says, like it’s obvious. Blaze frowns.

“Amy Rose? Does she have some way of curing our condition?”

“Huh? No. Amy doesn’t even know what’s going on with all that. I guess I’ll have to tell her…” he muses.

“What? Why are we going to see her if she has nothing to do with what’s going on?

“Well, Amy would never forgive me if she found out you were here and I didn’t tell her,” Sonic says. “She liked you alot, you know.”

Blaze blinks. Her time spent with Amy had been brief, and she’d spent most of it being clipped and stressed-out. She can’t imagine Amy would really be that excited to see her again.

“...Regardless,” she responds, “That doesn’t tell me why we should be wasting our time on something like a social call when we could be searching for a solution.”

“Social call?” Sonic mouths, incredulous. He shakes his head. “Whatever. Listen, I get you’re worried about the… everything, but there’s only so much we can do. We should make the most of your time here in the meantime.”

“While you complacently sit around, waiting for an answer?”

Sonic doesn’t break his poker face, but Blaze can feel his irritation wash over her like someone is brushing her fur backwards. “There’s only so much we can do, Blaze. Tails has his scanners doing whatever it is they do and we’re trying to keep track of any new strange phenomena. There’s no point running ourselves ragged when we don’t even have a lead.”

Blaze steels her jaw, stops herself from saying the first things that come to mind. She should be understanding of Sonic’s position.

Sonic’s being stupid, though.

As it stands, however, there’s not much she can do. Sonic is, at least, right in his assertion that the two of them have no leads; she’s completely lost, in a hardly-familiar dimension going through something she never imagined possible, couldn’t imagine a way to fix. Staying near Sonic is her best bet, even if Sonic is determined to procrastinate.

You navigated this dimension on your own once, something sneering in her mind tells her. You should be able to do it again.

She doesn’t let it get to her. It may be the more logical side of her brain telling her something; it doesn’t matter. She’s already decided the side she’s listening to is right, logical or not.

They walk in plain silence for a few minutes, Sonic leading them away from the busier part of the town to a more residential area, bright little houses lined up neat along the roads, the streets mostly empty save for the rare resident out on a walk or watering their front lawns. Blaze never spends much time in places like these; most of her time spent outside of her own castle is spent in the bustling city center of the Sol Kingdom’s capital. The peace is fresh, nice– but she can’t really imagine ever living somewhere like this, not permanently. It’s no wonder that Sonic drifts as he does.

The house they approach is relatively isolated, set just apart from the rest of the community, the paved road breaking off into a worn dirt path that winds towards the building’s front porch. Flowers line the path leading up to the house, and the front of it is surrounded by a lush, impressive garden, all manner of flowers and vegetable plants growing and flourishing in the little patch of land.

Amy is crouched in the vegetation in front of the house, tools scattered around her as she… gardens. Blaze isn’t sure what it is she’s doing, exactly.

“Sonic!” Amy exclaims upon noticing their approach. “You didn’t say you’d be over! Is that-” She trails off as she registers who exactly Sonic is walking with, her already smiling face breaking into a wide, beaming grin. “Blaze!?”

Faster than Blaze can register, Amy is on her feet and bounding towards them, frantically wiping soil off of her gloves as she runs. “Get ready,” Sonic mutters, and it’s just barely enough warning for when Amy jumps at Blaze a moment later, almost barreling her over with the force of the hug she engulfs her in. Blaze freezes up, unsure of how to respond.

“It’s nice… To see you, Amy,” Blaze says, twitching slightly in the hopes that she’ll let go soon. Amy keeps a tight grip around Blaze for just a little longer than is comfortable before letting go and taking some steps back, inspecting Blaze up and down.

“You haven’t changed a bit!” Amy exclaims cheerily. Blaze tilts her head.

“Well, it’s only been a few weeks since we last met,” she points out. Amy waves her hand.

“Well, you know,” she says. “It feels so much longer, doesn’t it!?”

“Sure?”

“You get it!” Amy grins. She turns partly to Sonic. “So… what’s with the visit? Why are you here, anyway, Blaze?”

Sonic coughs. “About that. It’s a lot to explain.”

“Should I be…”

“Nothing is in danger at the very moment,” Sonic assuages. “Well, sort of. There’s nothing to do about it right now, anyway. Mostly. Listen…”

As Sonic launches into his explanation of the situation, Amy picks her gardening tools back up, multitasking between tending her flowers and listening to Sonic talk, her hands sometimes stilling with rapt attention when he says something particularly shocking. 

“Sonic, that’s horrible!” She says when he’s done recounting, waving her sharp gardening shears frantically. “The two of you could die!? What are we going to do!?”

“Working on it,” Sonic says, hands held out awkwardly in front of him as he tries to subtly placate her. “There’s not a lot we can do, right now, with how little we know, but we’re working on it.”

“That’s just too bad,” Amy laments. “Well, it’s nice that Blaze is here, you know, but the circumstances…”

Blaze blinks. Wasn’t that worse? Dropping by just for the bad news? Glad you’re here, sorry you’re dying?

What’s with these people?

Amy finally stops waving the gardening tools around, turning back towards her flowers. “Well, while you’re here, taking the time to visit, and all… Would you like to help me with the garden?”

Sonic turns to Blaze, nodding for her to answer. “Ah…” she says, “Sure? I’ve never gardened.”

“That’s alright!” Amy says, kneeling down and patting the ground next to her, “I’m not doing anything too challenging right now, just some weeding and pruning. You can probably handle weeding, if I show you what to pull?”

Blaze looks to the ground where Amy had motioned with trepidation. Maybe if she’s careful, and kneels on a patch of grass, it’ll…?

Not a chance. The second her knees hit the ground, her white pants are covered in grass stains. She has to swallow down a frustrated groan, and she sees Sonic in the corner of her vision covering his mouth, probably stifling his own giggles at her expense. She rolls her eyes in his direction before turning her full focus on Amy.

“Tell me what I need to do,” She says. Amy laughs.

“So grave! It’s not too serious, don’t worry,” she grins, guiding Blaze’s attention to a certain plant. “These ones, with the long leaves, are the main offenders. When you pull them out, make sure you take their roots with them, or they’ll come right back.” She yanks the example plant out of the ground, tossing it into a bucket at her side. She beckons Sonic, who had still only been standing and watching, to join them. “You help too.”

She shows the pair of them a few other types of plants that need to be weeded out, then hands Blaze a spade for any particularly deeply rooted plants.

“And toss anything you dig up into the bucket!” she finishes. “You’re all set!”

Though she had been put off at first by the… grime, involved, Blaze quickly finds herself immersed in the activity. It reminds her of her fencing practice; physically involved, immersive, something repetitive, but active… if anything, it feels better than her training, as she’s able to see the results of her work laid plain in front of her. She feels fulfilled.

Maybe I should start a personal garden, back home…

“Hey, could you pass me the spade?” Sonic asks, a little ways across from her. One of his hands is tugging on a stubborn root while the other one is stretched out towards her.

“Of course,” she says, leaning over to hand it to him. Their two hands meet in the middle, and in a moment the both of them lose their balance.

A high-pitched whistle pierces Blaze’s mind like an arrow. She doubles over, ears flat against her head, eyes scrunched shut as she brings her hands to her face, digging into the sides of her head and pulling at the fur there. The noise, the feeling, is excruciating; Blaze tries to open her eyes, but she can’t even see through the white-hot pain, squeezing them shut again when the attempt only hurts more. Faintly she can hear someone calling her name, and Blaze’s name, but he’s in too much pain to respond with anything except a labored groan.

Someone’s shaking him, which isn’t really helping anyone, though the feeling of being grabbed by his shoulders like that irritates him so much he’s almost able to push through the pain just to complain for whoever it is to get off of him. As it is, though, Sonic can only continue to writhe, waiting for the all-consuming sensation to subside.

It isn’t sudden at all; it feels like hours before the pain has ebbed away to a manageable level, and even then it still thrums at the back of their mind, like someone drumming their fingers along the inside of their skull. Blaze and Sonic stare only at each other for a moment, unblinking, before Amy commands their attention.

“What was that?!” She cries, hovering between the two of them worriedly. “Are you two okay? What’s going on?”

Sonic is the first to collect himself enough to speak up. “We’re… I’m fine, we’re fine,” he’s quick to assuage. “Blaze?”

Deep breath. “Yes, I’m… alright. That was… I don’t know what that was.”

Sonic is pushing himself to his feet, reaching out a hand for Blaze to lift herself up with. She eyes his hand, frowning, and stands without his help.

“I’m sorry, Amy,” She says, dusting her pants off (as much as she can, granted.) “I… that must have scared you. I’m sorry it caught me off guard.”

“No, no…!” Amy says, “Don’t worry about me, I’m worried for the two of you! You’re hurting! How can I- Can I help?”

Sonic grimaces, waving her off. “It’s… I don’t think it’s something any of us can help, Ames,” He says, “Appreciate the concern, really, I…” he locks eyes with Blaze, something exchanged between the two of them without words, without even motion. “I think we need to leave.”

“What? No, it’s okay!” Amy assures. “I just want to make sure you’re okay…”

“It’s getting late, anyways,” Blaze points out, and she’s not lying; the time had flown by, and the sun has begun to set. “It really is best we leave.”

Sonic agrees hastily, handing Amy her gardening tools before she can protest further. “It was really great to hang out, Ames. Let’s do it again soon, okay?”

“You…”

“Thank you for teaching me what you did about gardening,” Blaze adds. “I’d love to stop by again some time.”

Amy stands, her fists clenched at her side. “...Right. I… right…” She can’t find the words she wants to say. “...Come back soon.”

Sonic and Blaze are quiet as they set off, Blaze following Sonic’s stride without any idea as to where he’s heading. Their silence is tense; though no words are shared, they can’t stop the flood of emotions sent between them, back and forth like rolling waves, so palpable between the two of them it feels like drowning.

“We’ll find a way to deal with this tomorrow,” Sonic finally speaks up. “Really deal with it.”

“I thought you said there was nothing we could do,” Blaze responds, failing to keep the bitter tinge out of her words. Sonic grimaces.

“I… still don’t know what there is we can do, honestly. But I can see it’s gotten too bad for us to keep waiting for an answer.”

Blaze wants to pile on, wants to say took you long enough, at least now you care, look what happens when you don’t listen to me. She holds her tongue; Sonic feels guilty enough, she knows, and rationally she knows it’s truly not his fault- he’s just as lost here as she is. She doesn’t trust herself to be able to voice this, though, if she tries to say anything, and thus she merely nods, the two of them lapsing back into silence, though a more comfortable one this time.

“Um… While we’re in town… Did you want to see Cream while you were here?”

Cream. An image of the little rabbit flashes in her mind, and she’s caught off guard by the pang of pain that lances her heart. Out of all the residents of this dimension, Cream is by far the one she had spent the most time with, grown most attached to. Upon her return to her kingdom, she had found herself missing the rabbit dearly, being reminded of her in all the mundanities of her daily life, wishing she could share her world with Cream in the way Cream had shared her world with Blaze. Would Cream enjoy her lavish palace, its dazzling architecture and crystalline fountains? Would she like playing in the white-sand beaches of the Sol Kingdom, running through the capital’s bustling marketplace? 

Blaze wants so badly to show her, to see her again. She wants it so badly she almost says yes, please, take me to her, just like that, without a thought. But before she can, her episode from earlier flashes in her mind. She sucks in a breath at the memory, recalling Amy’s terrified reaction to seeing her and Sonic like that. If something like that happened again, and Cream had to witness it…

“Not now,” She sighs, although it pains her, “Not until our conditions are fixed.” She offers up no explanation as to why she wants to avoid visiting Cream until then, but it doesn’t take their connected feelings for Sonic to understand her reasoning. He simply nods, turning slightly away from her and towards the setting sun.

“You ever been camping?” Sonic asks, suddenly. Blaze’s brow twitches.

“Camping…? No. Why?”

“... I don’t feel like going back to the house tonight,” Sonic admits. “Not when… Eh, you get it.”

She gets it. “You have somewhere else to sleep?”

Sonic makes a so-so motion with his hand, which isn’t a very reassuring answer to that kind of question. “I have some spots, but I kinda just sleep wherever.”

Spots? Wherever? “Do you… are you talking about sleeping outside?”

“Well, yeah,” Sonic says, as though that was a given. “Camping, you know?”

“That isn’t-” Blaze starts, but holds her tongue. “...Okay. Sure. Camping. …Where?”

Sonic turns around in a circle, taking stock of their location. “Hmmm… I know somewhere close by,” He says, his only warning before he’s off. Not at top speeds, but still fast enough that Blaze is startled by his sudden takeoff, following suit as quickly as she can.

They run for less than a minute before Sonic sees fit to stop, whirling around and holding his arms out as if presenting it to her.  It’s a nice spot, a sparse copse of trees kept shaded and cool by large rocks that pepper the area, the whole place cushioned with vibrant moss. It’s…

“Where do you sleep, here?” Blaze asks, surveying for any sort of tent or campfire or something she had missed. Sonic waves his hands in no general direction. 

“Wherever’s nice,” he says, smile bright. “Here, by the rocks, the stars aren’t hidden by the trees.”

Blaze blinks. “Right on the ground? In the dirt?”

“Sure,” Sonic says, and he walks right over to a particularly thick patch of moss, circling a few times before he falls right on it, no hesitation, like he’s trying to prove his point. “It’s nice.”

Blaze stands over him, arms crossed. “You’re gross. I should just go back to Tails’ house.”

Sonic shrugs, eyes already closed contrasting the broad smirk across his face. “Good luck finding your way. In the dark.”

Darkness is never a problem for her, but it’s true she’s not sure at all on how to get back to the house from wherever it is they are. She looks around the area again, feeling the chilly breeze against her fur, the soft grass and moss under her feet. It isn’t too bad, if only a bit too cold for her liking…

“Fine. But I’m starting a campfire,” she says, “and I’m sleeping over here.” She motions to an area some ways off from where Sonic lays, leaving plenty of space between the two of them. She’d rather not risk touching him at all again, if touch alone is what had triggered their recent episode. Sonic seems a little dejected, but he’s understanding.

“Right,” he says, “A campfire would be nice. It’s kinda chilly.”

Setting up a campfire is amazingly quick work for Blaze. And once it’s complete she does her best to settle on the ground in front of it, opposite to where Sonic lays. The mossy ground is deceptively comfortable. She can see why Sonic deigns to spend so many of his nights out here.

“Hey, Blaze,” Sonic asks when Blaze has settled in and only the sound of the crackling fire remains. “The stars, the constellations… Do they look like this in your world? Or are they different?”

Blaze lies face-up, staring into the stars above them. They’re beautiful, vibrant, out here, far from any town with its  light pollution. She can’t make out any constellations, not ones recognizable to her, but she always needed a guide to find constellations in her own world anyway.

“I’m… not sure,” She answers, finally, “I don’t think I ever checked the stars enough to be able to tell.” It's such a mundane thing, yet somehow she feels embarrassed to admit it. 

“Ah… I get it,” Sonic hums. “I guess when you don’t sleep under them almost every night, it’s hard to make out those kinds of differences.”

“Almost every night?” She responds, incredulous. “I didn’t know this was the usual routine for you. Does Tails not like you being in the house, or something?”

“Oh, no,” Sonic says, “I think Tails wishes I slept over a bit more. No, I just prefer to sleep outdoors. It’s nice.” She can’t see him from across the fire, but she hears him shifting. “It’s much better with the fire, though. I never really thought of doing that. Usually if it gets too chilly I just have to keep inside.”

Blaze’s heart feels warm. “I’m glad to help, then,” she replies. She can’t see Sonic’s lazy grin, but she feels it.

“You do a lot to help,” he says, voice growing more sincere. “You’re… great, Blaze. I know we’re going to be okay. Because it’s you.”

All this over having the great idea to start a fire when it’s cold, she thinks, but it’s not the time for teasing.

“I hope you’re right,” she says instead, simply, quietly. The two of them are quiet for the rest of the night.

—

The sun has yet to rise by the time Blaze blinks herself awake, the fire smoldered down to ashes, the shifting of Sonic’s sleeping form the only thing moving in the still morning air. As she sits up, she finds the sleepy atmosphere almost overwhelming; she’s never really been outside this early, and the stillness of it all in a way overwhelms her. She stands, slowly, regarding Sonic’s sleeping form. She should probably wake him, but…

She doesn’t really want to, and rousing him so early would be rude anyway. She pricks her ears, listens to the ambiance around her. There, somewhere in the distance- waves. With one last glance back towards Sonic, she sets off in the direction of the sound.

In ten or so minutes of walking, grass and soil begins to shift to rocks and sand, and the vast ocean comes into view. Soft sand underneath her feet, she stops, staring out at the water that has begun to glitter as the rising sun peers over the horizon, bathing the area in golden light. An ocean is an ocean, but she can’t deny that there’s something different about this compared to the one she spends her time with in her own dimension. The differences are minute, not something she’s able to put into words; but they’re there. They’re definitely there. Her heart pangs; she’s not homesick, not now, so soon after leaving, but the reminder of the dimension she’s left behind makes her guilty.

She reaches into her clothing and pulls out one of the Sol Emeralds from where she’s kept them nestled away, feeling the comfortable weight of it in her hand. She holds it out in front of her face, towards the sunset, turning it in all directions and watching the way it refracts the light, casting its kaleidoscopic patterns across the sand. This is what she’s sworn to protect; this is what she was born to protect. There are no other members of the royal family to take up her mantle if she’s gone.

When she’s gone.

Lost in her thoughts as she is, staring into her Emerald’s glassy surface, she’s fully unaware of the figure that approaches her, silent and swift, not even the sound of breathing to give it away. All at once, something is slamming into her, the Emerald wrested from her hand with the force of it. She quickly rights herself, whirling to face her attacker with bared fangs and unsheathed claws. The offender is a robot shaped like Sonic, its red eyes glowing in silent fury, silver claws clasping the Emerald in an iron grip as it stares her down, dares her to retaliate. She lunges.

The fight is dirty, brutal in a way Blaze hasn’t ever really experienced. She grapples with the robot with her customary force, super-heating her hands as she claws at the plating of her opponent; unlike the robots she usually faces, though, this metal Sonic returns her attacks in an unnervingly skilled manner, dodging, feinting, and blocking her claws with startling accuracy. She rakes her claws across its cold muzzle, soldering deep scratches into the metal; the robot retaliates in turn, scratching its own claws across her face before she has time to block, the cuts stinging hard in the salty sea breeze.

It’s the sand that does her in; she’s unused to having to maneuver on such unstable terrain, a problem not shared by her opponent, who hovers inches off the ground, unhindered by the soft sand that has Blaze scrambling to keep her feet under her. The metal Sonic uses her disorientation to dodge behind her, delivering a swift kick to her back that sends her flailing into the water’s shallows, coughing up saltwater as she watches the robot’s jet power up and it rocket away, taking her Emerald with it.

For a moment, all she can do is sit there, stunned, the ocean around her lapping at her legs and arms as she processes what’s happened. A Sol Emerald was stolen from her; that fact is the one that stands out the most, the thing that blares in her head like an alarm. One of the Sol Emeralds is gone. 

She has half a mind to go after it right now; even now, separated as she is from it, she can feel where it’s going, something tethering her to it, pulling her towards it. She drags herself from the water, warming her body up until her clothes are no longer soaking wet, and sets her sight on the direction she knows the Emerald to be in, her gaze narrowing-

“Blaze!”

She startles as she looks around and sees Sonic running towards her, face panicked. He looks like he wants to grab her shoulder but thinks better of it and stops short before touching her.

“What happened!? I heard- and I could feel- you’re-” he seems out of breath, oddly, despite the distance from here and their little campsite being nowhere close to enough to tire him out. Blaze blinks at his presence; in the heat of it all, she’d almost forgotten how close by he was.

Though hesitant to stay here much longer when she should be recovering her emerald, she explains what had happened, describing the Sonic-like robot that had attacked her.

“Metal Sonic,” Sonic says, bitter. “That isn’t good. If Metal is involved, Eggman is up to something. Something big.”

“I need to recover the Emerald,” Blaze says, quickly, as though she knows what Sonic will try to tell her next. It’s a trap. We should wait. We should be careful. 

Sonic sighs. He knows he cannot stop her; he knows if their places were switched, she wouldn’t be able to stop him either.

“At least let me help you,” he says, his tone more worried than she’s ever heard from him; it unnerves her. 

“... I can sense where it’s being taken,” She says. “Follow me?”

He agrees, and the two of them set off together.

Chapter Text

          The place Blaze takes them is far away, unfamiliar to even Sonic. The sun, which had still been rising when they had set off, has crawled high into the sky by the time Blaze slows down, coming to a stop at the crest of a hill. “Down there,” she says, ducking behind a shrub as she gestures towards the base of the hill. 

          Sonic looks down and sees the base nestled within the trees, Badniks milling about the perimeter. He feels a sense of trepidation. “This has to be a trap,” He says. Blaze huffs.

          “Of course it’s a trap,” She agrees, “But he has my Emerald. I’m going in regardless.”

          “At least let me call Tails over before we run in guns a-blazin’,” Sonic asks, pushing his glove up to access his communicator. 

          “How far away is Tails from here?”

          Sonic looks around, then looks back at her a little hopelessly. “I’m not even sure where ‘here’ is.”

          Blaze jumps down the hill.

          “W- Blaze!” Sonic calls. He swears, punching a message into his communicator. We need backup. Eggman base. Here’s the coordinates. He makes sure his location is being picked up, too, just in case, before rolling his glove back down, jumping after Blaze as fast as he can.

          Blaze at least has the forethought not to rush straight in through the front, instead creeping carefully along the perimeter. At least, until he catches up- all the warning he gets is the nod she spares in his direction before she’s launching herself towards the robots that guard the entrance, her hands alight. He jumps after her without hesitation, covering her back as the guard robots start to swarm.

          “The door’s open,” he calls to her as he kicks the head straight off of an oncoming bot. He doubts she hasn’t noticed that, already, but he means it as more of a warning; we’re expected. We’re going in blind. Be careful. Blaze doesn’t respond, slashing her way towards the door heedlessly, but Sonic feels her acknowledgement through the connection.

          Sonic kicks a Badnik through the open doorway, sending it crashing into another bot within. The inside of the base is unremarkable, its imposing metal architecture typical of an Eggman structure. A grand hall stretches before them, twisting, sure, but not mazelike–  made to disorient, but not to misdirect. They’re being led somewhere, even if the robots that block their path don’t make it easy. He doesn’t try to indicate this to Blaze, this time; he knows she knows.

          A robot jumps on Sonic from behind, steel claws digging dangerously into his shoulder blades. He twists, grabbing the robot by its front and slamming it into the ground with the momentum. The move sends him off balance for just a second, time enough for two more bots to swarm him, slamming into his legs and knocking him fully off his feet. He rolls with the fall, spinning his legs out as he does to catch the robots in the swing, knocking them into each other with the force and sending their crushed remains skittering away. He rights himself, running after Blaze, who’s already rushing ahead of him down the hall, barely heeding the bots she tears through on her steadfast path. She claws through them, tossing them away from herself without a care for whether she actually takes them out, and Sonic follows dutifully behind her, covering her back and crushing any Badniks that spring back up at her.

          It’s a precarious method; they may be covering ground quickly, but Blaze rushes forwards at a pace faster than Sonic can cover her, and soon they’re being flanked on both sides with too many guards to manage. Blaze does seem to understand this, finally slowing down a bit, inching as close as she can to Sonic’s back without risk of touching him.

          “Are there always this many of them?” She mutters to him, lashing out with her fire like a whip.

          “More or less,” he confirms. Blaze clicks her tongue.

          “There’s too many of them… we’ll be overwhelmed.”

          Sonic spindashes into a robot. What Blaze is saying is true, but she states it only as a fact, uncaring for any new plan or strategy. They’ll be overwhelmed; they will continue forward.

          Blaze is steadfast in her path, her claws cleaving through the metal like butter, but it isn’t enough. Too many of them stand in her path, ready to pounce, and too many of the ones she casts aside crawl back up, leaving Sonic scrambling to keep up while he covers their backs. He feels a metal claw scrape against his arm as he blocks an incoming attack with one arm, the other already occupied crushing through the glass of another. He uses the crushed bot in his hand to slam into the one still attacking him, sending both of them flying, but it’s a momentary victory; he doesn’t have a second to breathe before two more are swiping at his ankles, slowing him down as he struggles to kick them off. “Blaze!” He calls out in warning. She casts a glance back towards him, her eyes widening in shock. 

          “Sonic! Behind you!”

          Stumbling slightly, Sonic whips around, in time to see a robot lunging straight for his head. It’s going to hit him; he doesn’t have the time, or the balance, or the momentum to retaliate–

          In that one, panicked second, the robot lunging for Sonic is cut off by a hammer smacking into it from behind. The shock of it sends Sonic falling back, watching as the rest of the surrounding bots are swiftly dispatched in much the same manner. 

          His face breaks into a wide grin as Amy stands over him, hammer slung over her shoulder, hand outstretched to help him up.

          “Sonic!” a new voice cries out, and Sonic’s grin stretches wider as he watches Tails run up behind them, tails twirling anxiously until he lays eyes on Sonic.

          “Tails! Amy!? You made it!” Sonic exclaims, letting Amy hoist him to his feet.

          “I came as fast as I could after I got your message,” Tails explains, knocking away a robot as he does. “Amy was already with me, so of course I brought her too.”

          “Thank you,” Blaze breathes, astonished. Tails waves a hand.

          “It’s nothing to thank us for. We’d do it anytime.”

          Amy nods. “You two, charge ahead. We’ll cover your backs.”

          Sonic grimaces at the plan. “Are you sure? This is so much to handle, I don’t want-”

          “Sonic,” Tails interrupts firmly, “I know this is important. Go.”

          With Amy and Tails diverting the bots away from them, Sonic and Blaze make it through the base considerably easier. Sonic doesn’t have to hold up the rear anymore; he runs side-by-side with Blaze, the two of them mowing through the rest of Eggman’s guards and trusting Amy and Tails to take care of anything that comes up behind them. Next to each other, they’re able to fall into their steady rhythm, and the rest of the path is like a cakewalk.

          Their path finally leads them to a large, steel set of double doors, looming dauntingly taller than either of them, the front emblazoned with Eggman’s personal symbol.

          They burst into the room in tandem, stumbling slightly at the sight of what greets them. A huge machine, so tall and overwhelming it nearly blocks out the fluorescent lights shining down from the room’s high ceiling. Nestled within the machine, encased in glass as though on display in a museum, are the Chaos Emeralds, the seven of them laid in a circle surrounding the lone Sol Emerald. Blaze starts at the sight of it, almost making to grab for it, but her uncertainty of the machine’s purpose holds her back.

          “Hah! You’ve stumbled your way right into my trap, hedgehog!” Eggman’s voice rings throughout the room. Sonic’s sight zeroes in on a large window, placed high up along the wall, where Eggman looks down into the room from over a console, his huge, toothy grin visible even from such a range.

          “Eggman!” Sonic calls, hands cupped around his mouth like a megaphone. “What is this, another death laser or something? Oh, color me scared! Not like I’ve thrashed a hundred of these before!”

          Eggman growls, slamming his hands down on the console. “Silence! You have no idea what you’re getting into, hedgehog! You may have wrecked my machines before, but those were different! Nothing is going to stand in my way now!”

          “Oh, really? What makes this so much different?”

          “The Sol Emerald, you nitwit!” Eggman growls. “With the overwhelming power of the Sol and Chaos Emeralds on my side, you’ll be powerless to stop my weapon!”

          “What, you think one more rock’s enough for you to stop us? I could still trounce you if you had fifty Emeralds with you, Egghead!”

          “SHUT UP!” Eggman yells, and with it he slams a button on his console so hard the sound of it echoes throughout the chamber, the ringing of the metal mixing with the steady whir of the machine powering up, the Emeralds’ case beginning to glow ominously.

          “Sonic…” Blaze says, warily. “Something isn’t right.”

          Sonic huffs, a sharp and pointed exhale as his focus shifts from Eggman’s observation window to the Emeralds. “I know. I’ll fix this.” he assures, launching himself forward.

          “No, Sonic, wait-”

          Sonic is already mid-spindash, throwing himself against the glass that stands between him and the Emeralds. The glass is tough, really tough, but it’s not impenetrable; he can feel the way it starts to falter and crack as he spins into it like a high-power saw. Just a little more…

          “Sonic!” Blaze yells out, and it’s fervent enough to give Sonic pause, but his momentum still carries him forward, finally crashing through the glass case as it shatters from his attack. He feels the familiar glow of the Chaos Emeralds wrapping around him like a cool breeze, threading through his quills and fingers like they’re reaching out to him. He can feel the lone Sol Emerald, too, though the warmth it radiates doesn’t reach out to greet him in the way his dimension’s Emeralds do.

          Sonic carefully picks up the Sol Emerald from where it rests in the chamber’s center, giving it a cursory glance for damage. Nothing he can perceive, at least. He turns back to look down at Blaze, who stares up at him worriedly.

          “Blaze! Take it!” He warns, holding the Sol Emerald above his head, before he tosses it down towards her. Faintly, he can hear Eggman swearing and yelling as he jabs at his console.

          Blaze catches the Emerald easily, some of her tension visibly melting away with it back in her possession. She stares up at Sonic, her ears pricked, her eyes unsure.

          Sonic holds his hands up, the Chaos Emeralds heeding his call and circling around him. 

          “C’mon, Blaze!” He calls, grinning. He feels the Emerald’s power as their energies sync with his, the familiar rolling tide of power washing over him foretelling his Super transformation. “Help me thrash this guy!”

          Blaze takes a step forward, her mouth open as she finds the words she wants to say, but something makes her stop.

          As Sonic feels his Super transformation take over, he sees something dawn over her face, her hand reaching towards him, her fur lighting up in its own telltale glow and then- and then.

          And then, all he sees is white.

—

          It hurts.

          They can’t see– they can’t hear– and everything hurts. 

          Awareness comes back in waves, the influx of senses nauseating to their fragile psyche. Hearing is first, a voice– annoying, detestable, unthreatening, problem– cutting through the bleary haze of their mind.

          “ –Fell for it! Right into my clutches!” It cackles. They groan.

          Some of the haze clears from their vision, but that incessant, uncomfortable glow– like looking into the sun– persists. They realise it’s coming from them, a brilliant light that emanates from every part of their body, thrumming in a rhythmic sea of pink and gold.

          That isn’t right– that shouldn’t–

          Isn’t it? Shouldn’t it?

          They try to breathe, try to focus on what the voice is saying, try not to vomit at the pulsing colors that swim across their vision.

          “ –Exactly how I expected you to!” The man crows. “You really think I’d be foolish enough to leave my machine’s powerhouse out for you to take? Hah!” They can see him, now; the Eggman, leaning far over his console to nearly press his face against the glass of his observation window, his grin sharp and predatory. “You went Super, just as I expected, and now my machine will harness your energy while you destroy yourselves!”

          Destroy? Energy? This is new. They know about this. This wasn’t supposed to happen. What’s going on?

          A million hands are grabbing them, pulling them apart, pushing them together, kneading them like clay. They can’t think, and they’re thinking too much. Eggman's words echo in their head, resonant like a death knell, falling meaningless and empty on deaf ears. They remember something.

          Sonic?

          Blaze?

          We– 

          There isn’t–

          Awareness hits them like a truck. The pain is still there, throbbing steadily through their entire– singular– body, but they can think now, register their surroundings, register themselves. 

          They float somewhere near the room’s center, flickering and listless. Eggman jabbers on, and though they can hear him clearly now they choose to block him out. What he has to say is meaningless, trivial in the face of this– this feeling. This being.

          It’s weird to be two people, they think.

          Are we going to die?

          Should we?

          I don’t think I am. It doesn’t feel like I will.

          There’s something in the room, something shrill. They had assumed it was the ringing of their own head, but they register now that it’s eternal, coming from around them. They shift, in the air; their eyes lock on to Eggman’s grand, deplorable  machine, the source of the piercing sound, smooth, waxy metal reflecting their supernova glow. Their gaze steels.

          “How can you move?!” Eggman yelps from where he watches, his grin faltering. 

          They pay him no mind, twisting in the air and launching towards the machine. The metal gives way under their hands so easily it feels almost wrong to do, tearing at the plating and the wires like they’re paper. It’s exhilarating, clawing the machine apart until its lights dim and the noise peters out.

          “No! No no no no, you weren’t supposed to– You shouldn’t even be lucid! NO!” Eggman is wailing, banging his hands against the glass of his window. He stills when they turn to him, something primal and deeply afraid crossing his face as their eyes meet his.

          “F– Fine! Die in there, for all I care, you damned animals!” He seethes, before he turns tail and runs, metal doors slamming shut behind him, leaving the room pressingly silent in their wake.

          Do I chase him?

          Don’t. He’s just a man.

          He…

          He’s just a man.

          In the wide, silent room, dying, sparking machine behind them, they start to lower themselves to the floor. Their foot barely grazes the ground when–

          “Sonic!” Tails bursts through the room’s entrance, a device in his hands blinking violently with some sort of warning. “Sonic!? Blaze!? Are y-” the words die in his mouth when he sees them, stopping him dead in his tracks. Amy lets out a small oomph as his abrupt stop causes her to run into his back.

          “Tails? Wh-” and then she sees them too, and her jaw drops. “S–Sonic? Blaze?” Unlike Tails, who still stands frozen in place, Amy is spurred to rush forward, her arm outstretched as if to grab them. “What is–”

          “Don’t. Touch,” They say, hesitant, taking a step back. That persistent pain still throbs beneath their skin, and– feeling the energy that pulses through them, electric and hot and blistering– they don’t know how safe it would be. Amy seems to understand.

          “Are you two… is everything… okay?” Amy asks. “Is… is it you two?”

          They shrug a little helplessly. “It’s. Us. Me. It–” they bring a hand to their head, grimacing. “Not sure. Not…”

          “How is this possible?!” Tails chokes, finally regaining his voice. “You should’ve… You should be…” He takes a shuddering breath. “What happened?!”

          “The Emeralds…” they say, “We… I went Super, and then I couldn’t… see anything, we couldn’t hear anything, we…”

          They point behind themselves, to the smoldering, clawed-up wreckage. “We destroyed Eggman’s machine?” they say, unhelpfully. Tails frowns, holds his device up towards them.

          “...” Whatever his screen tells him, he doesn’t seem happy about it. “I don’t understand…”

          “Are you… stuck like this?” Amy asks, hesitant, like even asking it will make it true.

          “Um…” They look around the room, like something there will answer for them. “I don’t…”

          Are we? 

          No… No, I…

          “Tails,” they breathe, “Tails, come a little closer,” they hold their hands out.

          Tails is hesitant, his hand trembling as he stretches it towards them, but his trust wins over, and he stumbles forward, taking their hand in his– 

          Sonic wraps his arms around his brother, both of them brought to their knees from the force of it. They both blink, needing a second to register as the last vestiges of pink-gold glow fade away, leaving a lone blue hedgehog kneeling on the ground, laughing softly as he hugs Tails tighter.

          “That was… that was kinda scary,” Tails says, disbelieving, squeezing Sonic back.

          “It– I bet.” Sonic says. “We- Blaze!?” he turns, suddenly, panicked, settling when he sees Blaze sitting behind him, looking weathered but intact, a fragile smile on her face as she watches the brothers.

          “Blaze–!” Sonic exclaims, and without even thinking about it he jumps towards her, wrapping her in a hug. They both tense, flinch, almost– but nothing happens. There’s no pain at the contact. They release a relieved breath together, Blaze’s arms reaching around to clutch Sonic back. He buries his face somewhere near her shoulder, hiding a little from the suddenly all-too-bright lights of the room around them. He feels Blaze resting her own head atop his quills.

          “That wasn’t horrible,” Sonic breathes into her fur. Blaze huffs a laugh.

          “Are you serious?” She mumbles, smiling.

          “I mean, it hurt like a bitch,” he admits, and he hears Amy click her tongue at him. “But it was– kinda fun, right?”

          Blaze is silent for a long moment. “Fun…” She repeats. “...No. Not really.”

          They both pull away slightly to meet each other's eyes, staring for a moment, before they both burst into laughter. Breathless, tired, but laughing nonetheless, and it seems to finally ease some of Amy and Tails’ worry, as the two of them join in, relieved. They join the hug, too, and Sonic is happy to let them, feeling his remaining tension bleed away.

—

          “Put it in a language I can understand,” Sonic says, arms crossed over his chest. The four of them stand in a sort-of circle in the wilderness outside of Eggman’s base,  Tails holding a screen out to them as he tries to explain some chart that’s displayed on it.

          “Uh… Imagine it like… souls,” Tails says, sighing. “When you two met the first time, you left a piece of your soul with Blaze, and Blaze with you.” he gestures at his extremely unhelpful visual aid. “After the two of you… uh… fused, those pieces returned to where they were before.”

          “And that fixed it? The whole connection thing?” Sonic confirms. Tails nods.

          “You shouldn’t have any of those problems anymore.”

          Blaze sighs, a weight she had become so accustomed to as to barely note that it was there lifting from her shoulders. “Thank you, Tails.”

          Amy hums, disappointed, the tip of her shoe digging little trails in the dirt. “Does that mean… Blaze is leaving?”

          Blaze nods. “I… have stayed here long enough. My kingdom needs me,” She says regretfully. Before Amy’s face can grow too sullen, she backtracks. “But–! With this all solved, I can… I could visit. Some time. For a bit.”

          Amy immediately brightens. “You’ll visit? Soon? You promise?”

          “I promise I’ll visit,” Blaze says, and she’s expecting it enough to not barrel over when Amy jumps on her and wraps her in a tight hug.

          Sonic steps up to her when Amy finally unlatches. “You better call, after you’re back home,” he says, uncharacteristically quiet.

          “I was only able to call you because of the connection,” Blaze reminds him. Sonic smiles bright.

          “You think the connection’s gone?” He says.

          And as their eyes meet, she feels–

          Blaze’s face grows warm.

          “Okay. Okay, fine,” she breathes, “I’ll call you.”

          His grin widens, and Tails waves, and Amy says you better call me, too! And Blaze sighs, waving back, heart light as she lets the Emeralds take her. “Goodbye,” she breathes, as she feels herself start to fade into her own dimension, and her eyes slip closed to a comforting chorus of well-wishes.

          The last thing she hears, resonant over all the voices,isn’t a sound at all; it’s just a thought, shared between the two of them, for her and from her. She smiles.

          I’ll see you soon.