The war against Eggman had just ended, and the heroes were doing their best to help Mobius Earth, slowly, returning to its normal state.
Amy was rearranging her personal belongings left in the base when a voice jolted her:
"Amy?"
"Blaze?! Blaze, it's you! You missed a lot! Here was hell!" the pink hedgehog exclaimed, going to embrace the friend of the other Dimension, who could not attend the fight and had learned of the crisis only at games over. Taken off guard, her friends hadn't had time to contact her.
"I am immensely sorry that I couldn't help you, my friends... this conflict has been quite bloody..."
"Yes... it was... but now it's over..." Amy murmured, moved.
The girl's relieved smile sagged with concern when she saw Silver supporting Sonic, who was limping visibly.
"Sonic was trying to hide a bad wound on his left knee... He needs gauze and disinfectant."
Amy looked at the conspicuous loss of blood, which was dunking one of the flaps of Blaze's jacket, torn and tied around the blue hedgehog's knee.
"We should call a doctor, but first we have to stop the bleeding..." the cat continued in the meantime, "... Please, Amy... call the hospital while I give him a first treatment..."
"All right."
The girl in the red skirt pointed to a small room, used as an accommodation. Blaze and Silver laid Sonic on one of the beds.
Sonic was semi-conscious and complained.
"Umpf... Blaze?"
The lavender cat placed a finger on his lips.
"Shh! Think about resting, Amy is already calling the doctors."
Silver watched the scene confused as he passed the phone to Rose.
Blaze opened a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and passed it abundantly over the open wound, ripping loud laments from the blue hedgehog.
"Wow... my flesh has the same color as my beloved hotdogs!" he tried to humor himself, and lighten the situation.
"Silver explained me what you did... you are the bravest people I've ever met..." the cat said again, while she held the gauze around the cut; she had raised her amber eyes on Amy too, and she had looked away intimidated.
"Well... maybe we are also the craziest..." he answered back, before performing again in grimaces of pain.
"Ouch... is it possible that whenever we meet, is there any catastrophe going on?"
"You're lucky, Sonic... better the knee than the heart..."
Perhaps it was the dizziness caused by that intense malaise, perhaps it was the tension accumulated in the last months that was melting... but Sonic firmly gripped Blaze's hand and placed it on his chest.
Blaze's eyes lit up; Amy had finished the conversation with the first-aid workers and Silver was standing still to witness that scene, without a breath.
The poor sixteen-year-old female hedgehog watched in horror as their two faces approached and touched, their lips united.
Amy felt faint and Silver had to support her to keep her from stumbling backwards.
"I knew I'd never know
That warm and loving glow
Though I might wish with all my might"
Suddenly, Amy understood: Blaze loved him, loved Sonic and he reciprocated her. Blaze didn't need to chase him, in fact... it was him, in a sense, chasing her. Her adoration had exasperated him in some moments, and in those cruel seconds Amy wondered if she hadn't sin of excessive selfishness in propounding her attentions to Sonic. The funny thing is that she felt no sense of revenge towards her friend.
In a flash, she saw the dreams of a life together fading like water vapor, her white wedding dress would had paraded next to another man, or it wouldn't had paraded at all... and maybe it was better that way. The thought of someday falling in love with someone else made her feel bad, even worse than seeing Sonic kissing another girl.
Who knows, maybe Silver was feeling like her, maybe even he had imagined a future with Blaze... as uncomfortable and difficult as it could had been because of their origins.
The two lovers broke away and Sonic closed his eyes, sleepy. Blaze stroked him.
Amy was crying silently, with Silver encircling her with his arms. He understood her perfectly.
The door swung open: the doctors had arrived.