Chapter 1

Gentle waves lapped against the shore, coming in and out with the tide as they rolled in and out in a soothing rhythm, not disturbing the peace that the place brought as the soft caws of seagulls sounded in the distance. The sun was setting on the horizon, a ball of glowing yellow and orange flame, painting the sky and clouds with splashes of red and pink and purple and fading into the deep blue of the night sky.

A lavender cat was sitting on the sand, with her knees brought up against her chest and her eyes closed as she drank in the smell of the ocean, the salty tinge that it left on the warm, caressing sea breeze. This was one of the only times that she could truly get lost in her own thoughts, without others looking at her or judging her, one of the only times that she could be herself.

Her golden eyes flashed open as a seagull suddenly let out a very large caw, and her eyes instantly darted around for danger, body instantly getting tense. When she realized that nothing was amiss, however, she closed her eyes once again and told her already slightly speeding heart that there was nothing to fear.

I'm probably just a bit jumpy after that last fight with the Eggmen, she reasoned with herself as she remembered the last fight with the mad scientists, how they had nearly succeeded in creating ultimate chaos and destruction on her and Sonic's worlds.

Sonic.

She tried not to think much about him now, but it was almost impossible for her to not remember Sonic the Hedgehog. Everything about the blue hedgehog was fresh in her mind, from the way that he looked to his cocky attitude. She remembered how he had helped her fight the Eggmen, and she remembered how he had helped her slowly crawl out of her shell that she had built against herself and the world. The kindness that he and the others had shown to her, and the way that he always had a grin on his face, were hard to forget.

And every time that she thought about him, a new wave of pain would come and eat away at her chest, like a hole in her heart, like she always had slight difficulty in breathing every time that the fresh pain overcame her. It happened every time that she thought about him.

The cat opened her eyes again, and she saw that the sun has disappeared already over the line on the horizon, leaving only the clouds, tinged with light pink and purple, behind as a memory of it. The night sky took its place, the stars glittering brightly, surrounding a full moon, a perfect pearl surrounded by shining, sparkling stars on a background of a dark and velvety blue.

As she looked up into the night sky, once again, she ached with loss as she thought of him, how much she truly missed him. They both had been through so much together, had nearly died together, had felt fear and had protected their worlds and the sets of Emeralds from the clutches of Eggman and Eggman Nega.

One of the stars caught the princess's attention, the biggest and brightest one as it winked at her, beckoning her to notice its light, notice the way that it helped the moon give light to the world at night.

"Sonic," Blaze the Cat whispered into the night sky, as if the stars could hear her and answer her prayer, "please, come back…soon."

The star in the night sky that had caught her attention twinkled even more brightly than it had done before.

AT THE SAME TIME…

Clouds of dust suddenly sprang up in places that they weren't supposed to be in as a quick wind, a gale, swept through the moorlands. It made a quick veer to the right as it made a 90-degree turn and sped through the forest, tearing the leaves from trees because of the speed that it was traveling at. The world went by in a blur, a blur that could only be made into sense by a true speed demon. A streak of blue followed the wind wherever it went.

Sonic the Hedgehog was running at speeds faster than the speed of sound, and he enjoyed the rush that he felt at running, like he always did. The wind in his face, the sense of freedom that same when his feet hit the ground, quick and sure, and the feeling that he could do anything, he was invincible, nothing was impossible.

The adrenaline, the sudden rush of it as it pumped into his veins, never got old, and the exhilaration that he felt never seemed to become boring or tiresome. It was a good way to ease off his stress and just get lost in the freedom that he felt that he ran.

It was also a very good way to clear his head and to think about lot of other stuff that he didn't have time to think about before.

Others had noticed that he was a bit different this past month, ever since he had come back from her dimension after saving both of the dimensions once again. He was just…different than he had been before, a bit more serious, more thoughtful, and he wanted more time alone to run.

He missed her, and as he thought about Blaze the Cat, he felt two things shoot through him at the same time: sorrow, and some other emotion that he couldn't name. Something that longed to see her again, like happiness, but not quite, something different…

He hoped that he could see the lilac cat again, see her once more and look into her amber depths, and run with her and race, like they used to when there was free time and when they weren't fighting against the Eggmen for the time being. He had won most of the races, obviously, and at times, she had won, or they had tied, and he could barely hide his frustration from her, and she had just grinned at him triumphantly when she saw his slight frustration. She was the only female who could rival his speed, and she was proud of it.

Sonic shook his head, trying to remember what he was supposed to be doing. He had come out running for a reason, he remembered, but what was it?

Right, he was supposed to be looking for the last Chaos Emerald. After he and Tails had returned home using the power of the Chaos Emeralds and the Sol Emeralds, the Emeralds had scattered themselves once again. And he had to find them before Eggman did and plotted another evil scheme to take over the world and to create Eggmanland, an age of fear and chaos and destruction.

For some reason, he got the sudden feeling that something was wrong, that something was about to change. He didn't know how he knew, but the quills on his back started to tingle a bit and his body tensed slightly, like the way that it did before a fight that was going to happen, but this time, he wasn't sure what it was.

He shook it off. Probably still a bit wound up after that last fight, he thought as he continued to dash faster than the speed of sound. Yes, that was probably why he was a bit jumpy. The last time that he and Blaze had fought the Eggmen, they had suddenly come without notice; neither of them had expected that they were truly behind the plot that's goal was to obtain the Jeweled Scepter and bring ultimate destruction by unleashing the Power of the Stars.

"Sonic!" he heard a voice call from behind him, a voice very familiar to him.

"Tails, what is it?" Sonic asked, slowing down to about sixty miles an hour from his previous speed of about seven-hundred-forty-eight. He realized that his feet had automatically taken him on the route towards Tails' workshop, and he nearly smacked himself in the forehead for his stupidity.

The orange fox had a panicked look on his face, and he was panting as he landed next to Sonic, making his twin tails stop rotating in unison as they waved out behind him, like they had minds of their own. He was glad that Sonic was near the workshop so that he wouldn't have to fly all over looking for him.

"Sonic, something's wrong," Tails panted, still out of breath. "And, before you ask me, I have no idea what it is. The six Chaos Emeralds that we have are acting up in a really strange way, like they did when Blaze's world started merging with our own."

"Do you think…maybe she's coming back?" the blue hedgehog asked, slight hope in his voice at the thought of seeing the lavender feline again.

"I…I don't really know," Tails admitted. "Yeah, it seems the same, but there seems to be something a bit different about it as well. Like…I don't know…it's just not exactly the same. It's a bit different, but, maybe she is coming back." The twin-tailed fox brightened up a bit at the idea of Blaze coming back; everyone missed her.

"We have to find the last Chaos Emerald," Tails said, reminding Sonic once again of his previous mission.

"I'll find it," Sonic said confidently. "There are a lot of places that I haven't checked yet that the Emerald may be in; let's just hope that Eggman hasn't gotten it."

"Yeah," Tails agreed. That was when he noticed that his best friend was looking slightly away after he had told him of the possibility of Blaze coming back to this dimension.

"Tails, maybe you should go back to the workshop and do some more research," Sonic suggested. "I'll keep on looking."

The younger boy nodded. "All right, Sonic," he replied, and then he flew away, spinning his two tails like helicopter blades to get him in the air, and flying off.

As Sonic ran, once again looking for the Emerald, that single thought, the hope that Blaze was coming back again, that he would see her once again, made him go even faster than his previous eight-hundred-seventy-three miles per hour.