A/N: Well, I finally finished it! Sorry you had to wait so long, Bureizu =)

"Arghh!"

The young golden fox growled in frustration, his arm hurling forwards of its own accourd. At the same time, the hand on the same arm just happened to let go of the thick metal spanner that was clutched in its fingers. The spanner smacked the wall with a loud thunk, causing the plaster to crumble as the metal tool hit the floor.

Tails ignored it and sighed heavily, his head falling into his hands in dispair. He sighed once more when he heard the desperate footsteps, so fast you wouldn't be able to hear them unless you were actually listening out for them.

"Tails?" A concerned voice called out. A blue hedgehog appeared suddenly in the doorway. His green eyes flicked from left to right as they searched for any trouble. He suddenly noticed Tails sitting at his desk. Even when seeing he was fine, Sonic rushed over to his 'Little Brother', shaking his shoulder to get him to lift his head.

"Tails? What was that noise? Are you ok?" Tails nodded, keeping his head bent.

"I'm fine." Sonic frowned, not convinced. He was sure Tails was hiding something.

"That's ok then. So what was that noise?"

Tails glared, his eyes glancing over to the cracked patch of plaster on the wall. It was just for a second, but that was enough. Sonic turned his head, his eyes widening when he noticed it too. He walked over, bending down to pick up the spanner which lay on the floor. He turned back round to Tails, who was looking at him.

"You threw it, right?" Sonic guessed, knowing by the look on Tails' face that he was right. The hedgehog held the spanner up, showing Tails the bend in the metal. "You might wanna buy a new one." Tails' face creased into a scowl. He leaped from his seat, yanking it from Sonic's hand.

"Just leave me alone, Sonic!" He yelled, storming towards the door. He tugged it open, turning to tell Sonic to get out. His face fell when he saw the blue hedgehog stood at his desk, a handful of papers clutched in his fists. He turned back to his best friend calmly.

"What'cha inventing?" He asked.

"Give them back!" Tails bellowed, leaping at Sonic once more, grabbing the sheets from his hands. Sonic frowned as Tails hugged the paper to his chest tightly, crumpling it.

"Tails? What's wrong? What are you drawing?"

"Nothing." Tails mumbled, sniffing as he stared miserably at the ground. Sonic walked over, laying a hand on Tails' shoulder.

"Come on, Tails. Is it just another invention?" Tails shook his head, like a kid who was being forced to keep quiet.

"Not... exactly..." He muttered. Sonic stood over him, waiting for an explanation.

"Look, I just don't want you to see them, ok?" Tails told him, a whining edge in his voice. Sonic nodded, disappointed that Tails would keep something from him, but accepting that he didn't want to tell him. Sonic walked out of the room, leaving Tails on the floor, still clutching his papers. He took them away from his chest, holding them in front of his face. His eyes brimmed with tears as he flipped through them all, his diagrams of failed attempts to invent a machine which could travel through dimensions, and the pages and pages of drawings, repeated careful sketches of the same small, energetic orange raccoon, smiling at him from the paper.

***

"Marine?"

"In 'ere, mate."

The teenage purple cat known as Blaze walked into Marine's room. The raccoon instantly greeted her with an unwanted hug. Blaze sighed, pushing Marine away from her.

"What was that for?" Blaze asked, irritated. Marine stepped back, grinning sheepishly. She shrugged, and Blaze rolled her eyes, turning and walking over to the far wall. She inspected the photos that were arranged on the beige wallpaper. Most of them consisted of Marine and herself, accompanied by Sonic the hedgehog and Tails the fox.

Blaze smiled, a rare sight, as she gently lifted down one framed photograph of just Tails and Sonic

"Kinda miss them." Blaze thought out loud. Marine walked over, peering at the photo. Blaze paused, hurriedly handing the frame to Marine.

"I meant... not miss them exactly, just..." She sighed and gave up.

"I miss those blokes." The raccoon piped up. "That Tails was a ripper fella."

"Mmm." Blaze murmured. She shook her head. "But there's no way we're ever going to see them again, Marine. So there's no point in hoping."

"Yes there is!" Marine grinned, grabbing Blaze's arm and tugging her out of the room. "Come take a gander at this 'ere, mate!" Blaze wrenched her arm free but followed her outside and down to Southern Island beach. They ran all the way over to the far side of the beach, where a secret hut was standing. Marine entered it and pulled Blaze over to a table by the window.

Without saying a word, Marine handed Blaze a thick pile of paper. Shuffling through them, the cat realised what the raccoon was trying to do. On each sheet of paper was a careful design of some kind of machine shaped as a boat.

"Marine..." Blaze said quietly, turning to face the young raccoon, "you... can't invent anything that will take us to Sonic's world."

"Yes I can!" Marine yelled, snatching back her papers. "I'm going to see Tails again and I'm going to tell him that... he... uhh..." Her voice quietened and faded as her eyes fell back to the floor. Blaze raised an eyebrow.

"Tell him that..?"

"Eh... hehe... I meant... that umm..." Blaze narrowed her eyes, bending down to look diretly at Marine.

"Marine... Do you have a crush on Tails?"

"What?! N-no! Of course I don't, mate! Heh... I j-just thought that uhh..."

"You do." Blaze smirked, folding her arms. Marine flushed red.

"Yeah, well... y-you like Sonic!" She cried desperately. Her attempt to embarrass Blaze wasn't working. The cat made a 'Pfft' sound, and turned towards the door of the hut, grinning at Marine's shouts of 'insult' as she went.

"Admit it, Marine," Blaze called back, "you like Tails and you're gonna have to tell him one day."

***

A deafening explosion caused Sonic to jump four feet in the air as the ground shook. He fell to the floor and remained there for a few seconds, before slowly rising to his feet. His knees trembled beneath him from shock. He suddenly realised where the explosion came from.

"Tails?!" He yelled, running for the basement, Tails' workshop. "Tails!" He skidded to a halt at the doorway, panic rising in his chest when he saw that the room was empty. A thick, black smoke floated towards him.

Oh no... Sonic thought as he choked uncontrolably. He ran over to Tails' desk and saw the designs and diagrams of a machine made to travel through dimentions. Sonic's eyes widened as he also picked up several drawings of Marine the raccoon.

***

She heard it before she saw it. The loudest sound she'd ever heard. Her yelp of fright was drowned out by the huge explosion, and she threw herself to the floor as a strong blast of wind blew a wave of sand at her. Marine's eyes were clenched shut as her hands clamped over her head.

Tails choked in the sudden cloud of sand that was thrown at his face, the sand settled, he slowly opened his eyes and looked around. The sky was an orange colour, a sunset, he guessed. It had been noon when he started up his ship...

Jumping from his cockpit, Tails slipped a little on the soft sand. Peering around, he could see that he was on a beach somewhere. But... it didn't really look familiar to him.

Swallowing the sobs of disappointment, Tails was heading back to his machine when something overwhelmed him suddenly. He whipped round, throwing back his head as he bellowed as loud as he could, just in case...

"MARINE?!" He stood as still as was possible, waiting for an answer. The wind blew gently through his hair, but there was no response. No reply. No longer able to hold back the tears, Tails fell to the ground and sobbed. All those months of working straight through the night... all that time, and his stupid machine didn't work! Pounding the ground in frustration, Tails didn't notice someone standing over him. Which he probably should have done.

"Tails, mate?" Tails gasped, raising his head quickly, in case she might run away for some reason. Marine stared back down at him warily. "What you doin' 'ere then?"

"M... Marine?" He couldn't believe it. He couldn't. It worked. It worked, and she was here, right here. Tails leapt to his feet, flinging his arms around her involantarily. Marine's eyes widened as Tails sobbed on her shoulder. Several thoughts crossed her mind, thoughts of pushing him away or asking him why. The thought she settled on was to let him. After all, it was... kinda nice. Marine held the fox tightly, a smile forming on her face, for reasons unknown to her.

"Tails?" She muttered. "Are you ok?" Tails raised his hed again, looking straight into her eyes. He nodded, feeling foolish.

"So uhh... what are you doing here? And... how?" Tails lowered his hands, taking hold of hers.

"I came here... I travelled into a different dimension... spent months building something that would let me... I did it... all of it... for you."

"Wha-" Marine was silenced as Tails layed his lips gently against hers.

"Marine," Tails whispered when he broke away minutes later, "I missed you."

"I missed you too." Marine murmured in reply, as Tails bent his head to kiss her again.