Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognized characters or gameplay patterns within this fanfiction. Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, Eggman, Blaze, and all related characters of such are owned by SEGA.

The tunnels were not Blaze's favorite spot, but it was a lot better here than it was back out there. The wind at least wasn't down here, even if she could still hear the drops of water as it made its way down underground. It was chilled, but Blaze wasn't worried about that. She simply made the fire in her hand a bit warmer.

It was rather the oppressiveness of the environment that made her uncomfortable. There was mostly dirt above them, slowly leaking water, but there was something else above or below. It changed the pressure in the tunnels, and made the cold colder and the heat warmer. She wasn't sure what it was, or even if it actually existed. It might've just been all in her mind.

Tails was in just a rightful state as she was. He led her on, seeing as how he'd been here before and she hadn't. His bandages were soaked through, and probably wouldn't be helpful anymore. They stuck to his back and chest like glue, showing off the lithe muscle underneath his fur. His legs were bloodied, and he probably didn't notice that one of his ears was cut. She knew one of hers was, but it was shallow and just bloodied, a mere scratch. His was much deeper, and would probably scar.

They'd probably both have a lot of scars from this. She already had dozens, hidden underneath the lavender fur, and she knew that he probably had hundreds as well. What was a few more?

There were a few burnt out torches on the walls, and Blaze casually flicked a few of them on as they walked past. She didn't need the light, and she had thought that Tails hadn't either but maybe he did. Either that, or he preferred color to the white and black that most night vision gave.

"Who do you think built these tunnels? The same ones that built the ruins?" Blaze asked after a moment. They went through another passageway, marked by a third or fourth of Tails' marks. Small little arrows, drawn in the dirt of the walls and floors.

"Not sure. I could see it, but why would they?"

"There were several holes in the ruins. I wonder if this is where it led, but after they went through the lake. I didn't see any connections from the lake to down here."

"The cave room is just up here," Tails announced suddenly, and Blaze didn't just see it, but she felt it. The pressure evened out, and she saw the large cave with the underground lake. "Beyond the lake is where I saw the giant ring," he explained.

Blaze nodded. "Good a spot as any," she said. There was a wide area on the pathway, about the size of their last hut. The lake was still and silent, but Blaze wasn't worried. They'd brought enough food with them, she thought, to last at least a few days.

She dropped the rabbit hide slowly, making sure to not break any of the precious ceramics it held. Nothing broke it sounded like, and Tails quickly went around to set up a small tent. It was warm enough, Blaze thought, that it wasn't necessary. "Why the tent?" she asked.

"So that way if one of us wants to wash off, we can have some privacy," Tails answered. She grinned to herself as she spotted the slight blush on his face. She nodded quietly outwardly, accepting his explanation.

"I think we should check your bandages," Blaze said after a moment. "Come here," she said, letting a small flame endure on both sides of her. She sat cross-legged, pointing to in front of her. He blinked at her, but he did walk in front of her and sat down, facing her. "Turn around, I need to see your back first." she said.

Shrugging, he did so. "I don't think it's necessary though, is it? I mean, I feel fine now. And besides, it was my ribs, not my back."

"And yet I saw a lot of bruising back here when I applied the medicine," Blaze answered. She brushed off the dirt off her ungloved hand and gradually cut away some of the bandages. She was beginning to get used to the sensations from it, and she saw the Tails hadn't put his other glove on yet either. Was he doing it to emulate her, or was he doing it because he had forgotten?

She checked the paste gently, moving it around. It hadn't dried, which was good according to the guidebook, but was still too wet to be all that effective. She felt another small shock emanate from his body, but she was able to pull her hand away instantly before she got shocked.

His fur was coarse and thick, and underneath she could see his skin, a dark purple. Although now it was just a sickly yellow, slowly turning to its normal coloring. He was healing quickly, a lot quicker than she thought he would have.

She pulled away as another shock came from him just as she was about to touch his skin directly. That was...odd. He may not have been controlling it, but she wondered. She was a pyrokinetic, Marine was an aquakinetic, Sonic was an aerokinetic...could Tails be an electrokinetic? It'd explain much. His talent with machinery couldn't be put up to knowing intrinsically and instinctively how the energy would run, but it would probably help. There was nothing down here that would generate a static charge she thought, if anything he should be grounding himself by sitting down as he was.

"Have you ever tested yourself for electrokinesis?" Blaze asked after a moment. "Turn around again," she said, waiting as the fox turned, his hands together in front of his waist. He was hiding something, and Blaze was in no hurry to find out. She would tease him, if that. But nothing more.

"No. Never felt the need to. I always thought my own ability to fly was enough."

"I'm thinking that's one of the reasons you're as good with machines as you are," Blaze said, dragging her hand through his chest fur. There was a lot of mild bruising there, and she moved down to his stomach. He flinched, not from pain but from surprise.

"I work hard on those machines. It's not some 'instinct', it's all just hard work. Anyone can do what I do."

"I beg to differ. No one else I know would manage to rebuild a plane, no one else I know can make that tablet of yours," she answered. "Instinctive or hard work, no reason it can't be a mix of both."

"I'm not. Anything. I'm just Tails."

"Alright," Blaze said quietly. She wasn't going to push him on it. If he didn't want to accept it, she wasn't going to force him to. She knew quite well she probably would not have accepted her pyrokinesis if she hadn't started using it when she was four, before she knew what it was. All she knew was that she could 'make pretty embers'.

That was, of course, in the princess timeline. In the ruined timeline, she remembered making the flames dance to her whims when she was a bit older, but in turn Iblis had turned its attention to her. She remembered being cursed for being the reason that her village had to evacuate and run. She'd used her powers sparingly, in that timeline.

"Alright, you're good to go," Blaze said. Tails hopped up and sped over to the tent, finishing it up. She stared after him, before starting to conjure her fireballs again. Could she do it? Her four year old self could have done it, years and years ago, but could she now? Or was her childlike innocence too far gone?

The first one was red. The second was yellow, and the third was blue. She tried for a harder color, green this time. It came out as a yellowish green, and she kept trying. Each time it would come out as something close to it, but not quite the color she wanted.

"What are you doing?" Tails asked. He had the tablet in his hands, slowly drawing up something or typing something, although his attention was fully at the numerous small lights of fire hanging in the air.

Blaze shrugged a bit, many of them winking out instantly. "Trying to change their color. It's something I used to do as a kitten, years ago. I was trying to see if I could still do it."

"Keep trying then? How do you get it to normally change color?"

"I'm not sure. Easiest method is temperature, and I can do those colors without a problem. It's the more varied colors, the purples and the greens, that I am having problems with," Blaze explained. She created a few more small lights, sending them out towards the far wall of the cave. Most of them were red, with one blue one.

The far wall was surprisingly close, she realized. She had thought it was nearly twenty or thirty feet out, but instead it was only maybe ten over the lake. The actual room was about the same size as their clearing from earlier. Small drips of water hung from the stalactites on the ceiling, with some small streams coming down the sides.

"What if you just...cut loose? No more trying to control it, just let it go?" Tails asked.

"We would die," Blaze answered instantly. Tails blanched, and a small smirk arose on the cat's face. "I'm being quite serious. The last time I 'cut loose' so to speak, an entire city was engulfed in flames. I'm not letting that happen again. That was many years ago though, I don't want to think what would happen if I did that now."

Tails went back to being silent, staring down at his tablet, as Blaze continued her pyrokinetic practice. It was surprisingly frustrating, but it was frustrating in a good way. She knew that she could do it, and she was achieving some different colors, but nothing with the ease that she remembered doing so as a kitten.

After another hour or so, she finally stopped, frustrated completely with the exercise. She wanted to do it, but knew her frustration was only making it worse. It may have been a good type of frustration, but that didn't help when her mood was poor and...she stood up suddenly, one hand on the wall as she wavered. Lightheadedness. No wonder she was so out of control.

"You alright Blaze?" Tails asked. How he could sit still for hours on end staring at that tablet of his while he typed something or drew something up on it, she didn't know. Wait, of course she did, she was capable of the same thing. Why could she not think straight, right now? "Come on, come sit down," Tails said, suddenly in front of her. Had he teleported, or had she just not seen him do it? But, she was faster than he was. Right? Right!?

She found herself on the ground a moment later, the small blanket over her. Her shoes next to her, and her vision staring at the ceiling. What was going on? She tried to move her arms, only to find that she had no energy anymore. "You're pretty sick, Blaze. Go to sleep, I'm looking something up," Tails voice said from the side. She could see a small light, and it looks like the guidebook was in his hands.

Before she could say anything else, Blaze suddenly found herself floating around. There was a small island in front of her, hundreds of pathways and tracks leading all around. Visions of herself and Tails ran through them, exactly as they had so long ago. Seven years, right? Exactly as that one game that Marine had forced her to play.

In tune with that thought, she found herself in a continent, a land, with a burgeoning castle and a large forest on one side. A mountain with a volcano, a lake on the other...what was going on, why was she so lost? She'd never seen this before-

Blaze's eyes opened, staring at the ceiling. She felt water drip from above her head, leaking into her fur. She felt like someone had stuffed her head full of...something. And then whacked her upside it with a golf club. Followed up by a tennis racket. And then an actual racket.

"You should stay sleeping, Blaze. I think I've almost got it," Tails voice said quietly. There was a mixing of water in a small bowl. "And it smells nasty, so it's probably going to help."

Blaze didn't have the heart to correct him on that.

-Side T-

Tails wasn't sure what exactly had happened, but it resulted in Blaze essentially passing out. Her forehead was burning around the gem or the jewel she had there, but she kept whimpering about how cold it was.

The fact that she was whimpering was what set him off that something had happened. Blaze, the actual, awake, cold as stone when she wanted to be, Blaze would never whimper.

She had fallen asleep quickly, and was talking in her sleep about being cold and warm. He stared at the guidebook, hoping that it had some kind of medicine in it, no matter how bad it was.

Had she gotten sick at some point, and it was just now starting to affect her? Tails didn't doubt it; he wasn't feeling on top of the weather either, but certainly not the point of lightheadedness or passing out!

Fortunately there was a small section on homemade survival remedies for the common diseases. Nothing as good as actual healthcare, but Tails wasn't a doctor or a nurse, but maybe he could narrow it down a bit. The easiest to make was simply called 'Remedy', and it required water, boiled, and a few mosses and lichen, along with a few plants and flowers.

He didn't have most of those, but he used one of his ration bars and crushed it up, knowing the seeds in it would at least give her stomach something to try. He started a quick campfire using the leftover sticks by using the electricity from the two crystals, a spark starting the orange flames. He used one of the porcelain bowls to boil the water, and he poured it into the same bowl as the ration bars and whatever flowers Blaze had picked left.

They had no mosses or lichen, at least previously picked. Lichen grew near water, though, didn't it? He jumped into the water, hoping to find some way to see the green plants, or at least he hoped that. There were a few green things near the rocks on the far end, just barely enough light by the campfire to see them.

He scraped a few off using his claws, wincing as the sound racketed his ears. He had a good handful, and he hoped that's all he would need. According to the guidebook, these had to be boiled on their own, and then added, and then crushed with whatever was left...

He did so, trying to ignore the sounds of Blaze in the tent breathing hard. He could almost feel her emanate her fire from here, although he knew that she was practically unconscious. As he started to crush the seeds and lichens together, making an odd green smoothie thing, she started to wake up.

"You should stay sleeping Blaze. I think you got sick, somehow," he said. Blaze's golden eyes stared at him unseeing, before she pushed herself up, holding her ungloved hand against the sticks holding up the tent to keep her balance.

"No...too much work...need to get back to Sol Emeralds..." she whispered. Her voice was hoarse and quiet, as if she'd been yelling way too much. Tails winced, but handed her the bowl with the...mush.

"Drink this, it should make you feel better," Tails said, trying to convince himself. Blaze held the bowl in her gloved hand, before setting it down and taking off her other glove. She was still out of it, he supposed, but she tried to drink the mush anyways.

She fell asleep almost instantly afterwards. "Good to know, it makes them fall asleep," Tails answered quietly. He wondered idly if there was any way to say what she had for sure.

The Miles Electric. Why was thinking of it so hard for him right now? His head was pounding too, but it wasn't the usual type of headache. He went to grab the tablet, starting up the small but powerful scanner. It was capable of diseases, right? Shit, he hoped so. He turned it on, scanning Blaze's body and ignoring the warnings that her clothes were getting in the way.

It overlaid a scan of her body with a scan of his, with 'no problems found, temperature high. Seek professional medical treatment'.

"Thanks," he deadpanned. As if he didn't know that she needed professional treatment. He needed professional treatment too.

Another whimper emanated from Blaze's throat as her eyes opened wide a second later. She shot up, breathing hard, her eyes unfocused before they laid on Tails. "...?" she gave a questioning sound before a hand found her throat. She blinked, staring at it confused before she saw the glove at her side. "Water...?" she tried.

"Right!" Tails said, shooting up. His head pounded away at him, and he fell headfirst into the lake a second later. The water shocked him back awake, and he climbed out.

He saw her staring at him, one of the bowls with clean water in her hands already. "When I asked for water, Tails, I didn't mean for you to jump in," she said. "What happened...?"

"I'm not sure. You looked as if you'd passed out, but you were burning to the touch. I think you were sick with something," Tails answered.

Blaze blinked. "That would do it...I'm not surprised if my head was hot to the touch though. Pyrokinetic, remember? My body generated the amount of heat needed to kill the infection. I just needed rest. Not...did you try to make a smoothie?" she asked, staring at the green concoction.

"No, I tried to make...this," Tails said, holding out the guidebook in the firelight. Blaze blinked, holding it gently. "But I didn't have all the ingredients..."

"I...can tell," Blaze said. She looked over the green soup. "You shouldn't do that, in the future. Substitute ingredients, especially in medicine. Where did you get the lichen?"

"Just from over there," Tails said, pointing to the point in the far wall. The flickering fire highlighted it in the shadows.

"That's algae. Not lichen," Blaze reprimanded. "Be more careful with that. That could have killed me."

"Wait, what? No, it was above the water line! Algae only lives in water."

"Algae lives around water. Lichen grows on trees, alongside moss. Algae can be extremely dangerous, and it's fortunate that this is the green version. The red-"

"The red is deadly. I know that much. There's a small lake outside my house that occasionally gets a red algae bloom, so I always have to remember to disengage the trapdoor."

Blaze blinked. "You have a trapdoor in your house that goes down to a lake?" she asked. "Why?" She had that tone of incredulousness, as if he was a lot more reckless than he should have been.

"Because sometimes I like sleeping in when Sonic wants to visit? I can fly," Tails answered simply. He answered all her other questions by whirling up his tails, but before he could get off the ground he fell back down, one hand on his head. It felt like someone had taken a jackhammer and was pounding up his skull, or he'd gotten far too drunk one night.

"You alright? Go lie down," Blaze commanded. There was still a sense of not full awareness that he had about her, but his head was hurting too much to really care.

His thoughts passed quickly, and although he felt better quickly, every time he tried to get up Blaze would cautiously put him back down the instant he made any mention or movement of a headache. When he was sitting down though, he felt fine.

He was pretty he managed to doze off at one point when he woke up, surrounded by hundreds of green and violet fireballs. A rainbow of colors surrounded the cave, highlighting it in a rave of light. Blaze was in the center, conducting the symphony, one hand raising to create more lights. Her back was to him, her tail slowly going from one side to the other and back.

"You got it to work," Tails grinned as he spoke up. Blaze turned, the colors and lights contorting around the area of the cave.

"To a degree. I think the sickness helped actually. I feel fine, now. I think your brew worked, honestly," Blaze commented. A small fireball, bright orange, appeared in her hand. "It's not too difficult, once you learn, or re-learn in my case, the secret."

"And what is that?"

"The secret? The fire isn't in control. But it wants to be. So give it some, and commandeer the rest," Blaze answered. As it to highlight, she created a golden flame in one hand, and a bright silver in another. A black flame in front of her, and a dark icy blue behind her.

"I'm not a kineticist, but it sounds valuable," Tails said. He stared at the black flame, wondering how, physically, that was working. Then again, green flames weren't common either, and mostly had to be done with a chemical compound burning. Blaze obviously had none, but that wasn't stopping her from doing it.

"You could be. You never know, Tails. How are you feeling?" she said, waving the flames out with a flick of her tail. She sat down next to the campfire, still the same one he'd made he noticed, and grabbed one of the fish from the rabbit hide pack.

"I'm not. If anything I'd be an explosion kineticist, whatever that's called," Tails said. "No, I'm just good with tech and machines," he finished. He grabbed the Miles Electric and started to fiddle around with it. He opened the app that it had last been on; a small caterpillar game he'd made when he was bored a few years ago. "Have you been playing?" he asked.

Blaze nodded. "Hope you don't mind. Fish?" she asked, holding it out underneath his nose. He grabbed it quickly, his hand accidentally touching hers, and he brought it back in swiftly, blushing lightly. Her hand was surprisingly soft, and the fur was light...he really shouldn't be thinking of her like that. But why were her gloves still off?

"No, I don't mind," he said. He normally would, but for some reason he was more than okay with letting Blaze play with his tech. He blushed harder at that, and he looked away hoping that she wouldn't notice. He was not this way around girls usually! He was not, should not be this bad. He'd been dealing with Amy and Rouge for years, and the bat was practically an expert at flinging around innuendos! "Why are your gloves still off?" he asked, hoping to find something, anything to distract him.

"Honestly? I'm not sure. Something about this place is strange. I usually hated the feeling of anything touching my hands, as most sapients do, and yet here I can't get enough. At first I hated it when I had to put the silver in hand, but then over time I just grew used to it," Blaze answered. She shrugged, going back to another fish. "Once we both wake up well and healthy, we'll check your bandages and get out of here. The storm should be over by now."

Tails nodded, staring at his own hand. That mirrored much of his own experiences. Most sapients hated having their bare hands touched, as they were usually extremely sensitive. Same with their feet. But here...Tails looked over his hand, staring at the way the orange fur carefully went over his fingers, and the small pads underneath on his palm.

He looked at Blaze one more time, and noticed this time she had her hair up now, using some of the rope that they'd managed to salvage as a makeshift hair tie. Four long tails, similar to that of a ponytail, danced atop her head. "How long was I out?" he asked after a long moment.

"Probably a few hours. I lost track of time," Blaze answered easily. "I was trying to not get too bored, and I didn't want to use too much of your tablet's battery."

Tails took a quick glance. Less than half, but still more than good enough. She'd barely used two percent on however long she was playing. "Hardly any, actually. How do you think we should get out of here? I didn't find any exits."

Blaze pointed up. "That's why we wait. I triggered enough of the holes a few days ago, there has to be at least one or two of them still open. We find one, and we fly out."

"And you're going to be okay with that?"

"Probably not, but I'll have to be," Blaze answered simply. She gave a long stretch before she laid down onto her back. "Feel better, Tails."

"You too, Blaze," he answered back as he did the same. He was back to dreaming only a few moments later, the stress of their situation slowly running from his body to appear in his nightmares.

Not the best chapter, but it'll do, I think. I'm thinking of starting to update twice a week, instead of only once, but I'm not sure yet. I hope everyone enjoys it no matter what I end up doing with it. I hope you all are enjoying the characters and their interactions. One more chapter left in Expedition. Until Next Time!