A/N Like, whoa! Long time since I submitted anything! Don't worry I didn't forget about you all, I just went away for a while. And now I'm back, and trying to finish this before Christmas, because I've been at this for over a year now! Well one chapter a time, say, one every week until Christmas makes room for about 16 chapters. Should be enough to finish it :D Well anyway, here's your chapter.

"I don't think we'll be going back that way anytime soon…" Blaze prodded the hardened metal with a gloved finger. It was still hot to the touch, but not burningly so, and it was cooling quickly in the cold, polar environment.

"We should head this way, maybe we'll meet up with the others later on."

"Not like we have any other option open to us…"

The pair wandered through the rusting, metallic corridors: it was amazing that this place was still in use. But in use it was, until what must have been a few days ago: there were abandoned tools and assorted things lying around the place dropped in use. A couple of machines were still whirring, and furnaces left on. Apart from the 'welcoming committee' there were no robots in sight, who would normally be operating them. They walked in silence, nothing in particular to talk about. In fact there was a certain awkward atmosphere, the two of them, wandering through the place on their own, nobody else around to know what was going on…

"Wait, stop," Blaze froze. She heard something. She grabbed Tails' arm to stop him proceeding further. She adjusted her ears, trying to discern the location of the source. It sounded high-pitched and distressed, like, whimpering, almost crying, even. She turned to one side, to see a few shabby lockers, doors dented and rusting. One of the doors was open slightly, and had a couple of dusty fingerprints on it. The noise appeared to be coming from here. She carefully prised it open, sniffing it slightly to determine what was inside. When the light fell on its sole inhabitant, both her and Tails gasped. There, cowering in the corner was a small child, a cat, clinging on to a slightly ripped teddy bear, holding her knees close to her chest in fear, ears flattened down. She looked about six years old, in slightly ragged clothes. She quivered slightly, terrified of her surroundings and unsure what was going to happen to her. Blaze and Tails were speechless. They hadn't a clue what to do with her, and less so to what she was doing here.

"Uh… hello?" Tails asked, gingerly. The little girl winced, expecting some kind of blow to strike her. When she looked back up and the two were still standing just outside, she loosened up a little.

"Y… y… you're not g-gonna eat m-me?" She squeaked. Blaze giggled slightly.

"Of course not. C'mere," she gestured. The child tentatively stepped out of ladder, clinging on to the teddy for dear life. She was still trembling. Blaze knelt down to get to her level. "What's your name?"

"Umm… I don't know…" She replied, twiddling her oddly familiar purple hair. Blaze looked puzzled.

"Come on, you must have a name," The child just milled around without giving a straight answer. Blaze gave up on the name front.

"How did you get here?"

"I've always been here," She replied. Tails pulled a surprised face, which made the youngster giggle. "Do it again!" She laughed. Tails did so, noting the positive reaction it got from her. Blaze took the opportunity to rummage around the place, trying to find some hint to the reason for the little girl's presence. The first door was an office, clearly abandoned in a hurry, files all over the place. One folder was tossed across the desk, its contents strewn around, but still in a neat pile. She opened it and looked at the first page. On it was a profile photo of the little girl. Heh… first time lucky. She read the profile, picking lines at random and reading off their information in her head. Age, blood type, medical conditions… then something hit her. She glanced over the last couple of details. Blood type… AB+… that's the same as mine! Medical conditions… mild allergy to certain types of pollen… same again… She looked up to the top, the only line she hadn't read yet. Name: … she stopped dead. The three words before her played endlessly in her head, repeating ad infinitum for a few brief moments. Vesta "Blaze" Abascal… that's…

She staggered around the room, trying to get her head around this revelation. It all added up… all the details on the file matched her own… the fur colour was identical… even that same distinctive shade in her eyes… she eventually sat on the floor with a thump. Tails heard this and came inside to investigate. The young Blaze followed him in.

"Blaze, what happened?"

"T… take a look at this…" she weakly passed him the file. He browsed through it quickly, and upon realising its significance, emitted an expletive at considerable volume. The young Blaze looked up puzzled.

"What does it mean Mr. Tails sir?"

"Umm… let's see… how to explain this to a child… do you know what a paradox is?" He asked her. She shook her head. The older Blaze sank her head into her hands.

"Tails, don't bother…" she clambered to her feet. "Let's roll." She said bluntly, her calm restored.

"Diesel! Stop it!"

"Look, it's not like I'm meaning to look down your…"

"What was that…"

"I don't know… but it didn't sound good…"

"I think maybe we should turn back…"

"You might be r…"

CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK

"RUN!"

The pallid hedgehog hurriedly clambered to his feet, having just spent the last couple of minutes gasping for air after the events he had just been through. He was going to waste no more time. Eggman… where did he go? The control room was as lifeless as the frozen wastes outside the base, and there were no signs of any kind of functionality to the multitudes of superfluous buttons. He prodded a few to see what they did, only verifying this fact. With nothing in the room of any use, he looked for a way out. There was a single doorway over on one side, leading out on to a walkway to the other side from the one he came from, which looked flimsy at best. He glanced back at the room to check for anything of value. Seeing nothing, he pushed at the door. This was in vain, because it was a sliding door, and just like everything else in the suspended room, it wasn't going to work anytime soon. He kicked it in frustration. Nothing happened. He ran towards it and charged it, but again, the door refused to let him pass. As he fell to the ground a second time, he saw the way he came in: Of course! With that, he climbed through the hole in the roof (with the aid of a nearby crate) and went round the door. The catwalk was as fragile as it appeared to be from the outside, and he clung to the railings all the way across. He hurried the last few yards to the mercifully open door. He looked over his shoulder at the far-from-sturdy bridge, before pressing on.