Mike Prower the Fox, IHeartSonAmy, HaosBlossom, Moonstone the Wolf, Alyssacookie, poka, Stendylover, Jacklethekitsune, SoNiCrOxMaIsOx, Amyfan111, ferbrocks10, anglepie21, Crails123, Bullet Nick:

Holy snickerdoodles, it's been a long time! (Sorry, I just wanted to say that...)

Yeah, I guess now I should insert a bunch of notes about how sorry I am for keeping you all waiting and how a lot has happened since I updated and all that jazz, but I really think you all just wanna read this, so here ya go. Enjoy, guys and gals. I just hope you all haven't abandoned me...

...xxx...

Chapter 24: Problems

...xxx...

"Wait, you wear heels?" Sonic cocked his head to one side, as if that very truth was the most puzzling thing in the world. "How do you run in those things?"

Blaze closed her eyes. "Wearing high heels helps me keep my balance."

An even more baffled expression overcame Sonic's face. "Heels help you keep your balance," he echoed incredulously.

"Yes."

"O-kay..." Sonic spun around to face Silver, trying to get some sort of answer, but Blaze's boyfriend merely shrugged.

"I don't know, Sonic. I tell her the same thing, that she would be faster if she would wear running shoes, but she doesn't listen."

The cat opened her eyes. "I'm faster than you as it is, Silver. Why would you want me to be even faster?"

Silver frowned, but Sonic chuckled. "That's funny, cause tell Amy the same thing, that she could probably catch me once in a while if she'd wear sneakers, but she's all like, 'they don't match my outfit' or 'I can't wear those with a dress' or something," Sonic rolled his eyes after doing his best Amy impression.

Silver smiled again. "How long have you two been dating now?"

Sonic bit his lip in thought. "I dunno. 2 months maybe? Amy could probably tell you how many hours and seconds." He chuckled.

"Only 2 months? You two seem like you've been together for a long time," Silver continued.

Sonic sighed. "Yeah, well, we haven't always been..." he paused, looking for the right word, "...together, but we've known each other for about 5 years or so. How long have you two known each other for?"

"6 years," Blaze said without hesitation.

Silver blinked. "That many? Really?" He squeezed Blaze's hand, and she leaned in to give him a kiss.

"And I've enjoyed every second," Blaze purred softly so Sonic wouldn't hear.

"So, how are you two liking Mobius so far?" Sonic asked the two visitors once they'd parted.

"It's very different from our world," Blaze admitted.

"Yeah," Silver agreed. "In our world, you can barely sleep at night because there's always a war going on. The government, if you could call it that, is corrupt, Nega is constantly trying to take over, and most of the time it feels like we're the only ones on the side of justice."

The blue hedgehog frowned. "Hmph. That's too bad, really. I guess...you're going to have to go back, soon, huh?"

"Honestly, we'd like to stay here," Silver blurted out, but his ears drooped by a stern look from Blaze.

"But we can't," the cat emphasized. "We have a duty to return and protect our world. If we don't go back, it will be even worse off without us."

Sonic turned away, and couldn't help but feel bad for them. "I'd like to offer you a chance to stay with us, but I have no idea if that's even possible, like with the whole dimensions overlapping and junk. I'd have to ask Tails."

"Speaking of the fox," Blaze said, "do you know if he's figured out what's been bothering him about the tear?"

"Nope. He's been working away as always, though, that's for sure. I guess...I could check up on him, though."

"Would you mind?" Blaze said. "I know the deadline is coming up, and I don't want to miss it."

Sonic nodded. "Sure thing."

...xxx...

Unfortunately, merely leaning backwards, gripping the back of your head, and gritting your teeth does nothing to help you figure out the dilemmas of dimensional travel. But that knowledge didn't prevent Tails from doing those three in frustration and anguish. What he didn't know bothered him immensely, of course, but it was what he did know that was worse. What he did know...was that they were about to have major problems.

And no, these weren't just the everyday, run of the mill, "oh crap, Eggman's about to fail at taking over the world again" problems. These were the "oh crap, two worlds may be about to completely collapse on themselves and all life as we know it will probably end and not even both sets of Emeralds may be able to do anything" problems.

But those were just the fuzzy details gnawing at the back of this little genius's mind at the moment. He knew he was missing something. Something was throwing off his data, in a big way. But even if he could figure out whatever the key to this whole situation was, at the very least, Tails knew that two people were about to be heartbroken. And that was bad enough.

"Hey Tails, what's up?"

The fox immediately snapped forward. Why did Sonic always have the worse timing in the world? He tried to shrug it off and appear to be busy and focused. "Oh, uh, nothing..."

Sonic glanced over Tails' shoulder down at the pages upon pages of messy and half erased calculations spread out over the foxes desk. "That doesn't look like nothing to me..."

Nothing you'd understand. "Really, it's uh, no big deal..."

Sonic frowned. "Look, man, we're all anxious about the deadline coming up. And we wanna know what you've found out so far. I mean, c'mon, Tails, yer supposed to be the brains of this outfit."

Argh, why does everyone always depend on me? "I...I'm still working on it."

The cobalt hedgehog gave him a skeptical glance and crossed his arms. "So what're we gonna do, just stand there? I mean, once the dimensions cross over? That's coming up, right?"

Tails let out a sigh, knowing there really was no way he could hide it much longer. It would be better to inform everyone beforehand. "I...think we may have a problem, Sonic."

Now you come out with it. "Well, shoot."

"No...it's," Tails sighed again. "Look, let's get everyone together."

"Don't look so worried, man," Sonic said and slapped his back. "Whatever it is...we've been through worse, right?"

I really don't think so, Sonic...The fox forced himself to smile, hoping Sonic saw right through him. "You're right."

"Of course, I'm always right. Now, want me to round everybody up?"

The two just locked eyes for a silent moment, lighthearted and carefree green linked with stressed and focused blue, until Sonic's slowly matched. Tails, you're scaring me man... The blue hero tried to shrug it off as he went to round up his teammates.

...xxx...

The atmosphere in the cluttered workshop was a mixture of tension and laughter at first. 4 of the 8 members seemed totally oblivious to anything wrong that could be happening, but when Cream and Amy saw how tense their normally happy-go-lucky boyfriends were, they followed suit. As did Knuckles and Rouge.

"So...I got good news and bad news," Tails finally said. No one even blinked at this. "The good news is that I found what's been messing with my data and confusing me." He pointed to one of his data scanners. "See, right there? Apparently there's a huge energy spike coming from right there. Somehow, it's pulling both dimensions closer together until they're completely aligned." He lifted his hands to form and X and then readjusted them to form a flat surface, indicating how the dimensions would soon be completely overlapped.

"That's the good news?" Rouge asked.

"It's good because we have a lead now," Tails clarified.

"Exactly," Sonic said and crossed his arms. "We go check this puppy out, right?"

Tails nodded. "The only thing is, I have no idea what it could be. It's not any of the Sol or Chaos Emeralds. It's not the Master Emerald." His eyes came to rest on Silver and Blaze. "My only guess is that it's something from your dimension."

The cat and hedgehog locked eyes.

"Any ideas, guys?"

"You say it's immensely powerful and it's pulling the dimensions together?" Blaze confirmed.

Tails nodded.

Blaze bit her lip. She had a theory, but she didn't know if she should bring it up...

"It doesn't matter what it is," Knuckles said firmly before Blaze could share her thoughts. "We'll find out when we get there. Where did you say it was, Tails?"

The fox turned and pointed to the map on the monitor, then locked eyes with Sonic. "Here. At the bottom of the ocean."

Sonic cursed softly, and Amy gave him a look. He sighed. "Alright, then what are we waiting for?"

"Wait," Blaze said. "You said you had bad news, too."

Tails closed his eyes. "I...it's just for you and Silver to know."

Everyone exchanged strange glances.

"You can tell us, Tails," Sonic said, "It's better if-"

"Sonic."

The blue hedgehog froze at Tails' tense expression.

"Go get the X-Tornado ready," he said with grit teeth.

Sonic frowned, but then stood up and headed for the hangar. He knew when Tails got like this, you listened to him. "You all heard him, c'mon."

The others slowly filed out, giving weird glances at Tails, Silver, and Blaze. The door finally shut, leaving the three in an awkward silence.

"So," Silver was about to say in an attempt to break the ice, but Tails cut him off, his icy blue eyes deadening.

"Guys. I really don't know how to say this...but..." Tails looked away, a single sob escaping his throat.

Silver and Blaze both gasped slightly.

"Tails..." Blaze said, trying to strengthen her young friend. "Whatever it is, you need to tell us."

The fox let out a soft sigh, but it came out as more of a gasp. Then he locked eyes with Silver. "You...used the Chaos Emeralds to turn Hyper, right?"

The hedgehog nodded, and Tails closed his eyes. He knew it, but hearing Silver confirm was like a slap in the face.

"And Blaze...you use the Sol Emeralds to...power up?"

She nodded, not quite sure where he was going.

Tails looked down at the ground. They need to know, Tails. "Well...see, when we use my portal to send you guys back...it uses both sets of Emeralds. The only way I could wire it was to use their powers to repel each other and mend the tear, sending both worlds back into parallel with each other. But...we need all 14 Emeralds. And that means both of you will be in your powered up, 'bonded' forms."

He paused, but neither of them seemed to connect the dots. Sighing once again, he continued, "That means, the Sol Emeralds will be sent back to your world, where they belong. But the Chaos Emeralds will stay here."

All the blood drained from Blaze's face as she suddenly realized the problem, but Silver was still confused. "Blaze? What is it?"

She closed her eyes. No. This...this couldn't...

"Silver, you're already bonded, in some way, to the Chaos Emeralds," Tails continued, his voice a mere whisper. "So...when we send the Sol Emeralds back, you will stay here."

His eyes flew open. "What? I get to stay here?" A grin spread over his muzzle, but when he turned to Blaze was stunned to see a single tear in the corner of her eye. "Blaze, isn't this..."

She shook her head, but managed to choke out, "Silver...it means we'll be split up."

The hedgehog didn't move for a full 10 seconds in complete shock. "What? Split up? You...no. No, you're...you're joking, right? Surely." He bark laughed. "Okay...guys?"

Tails looked away, not trying to make it worse by sharing his own tears, but muttered, "Silver, you'll be in your Super form and stay here with the Chaos Emeralds, and Blaze will be sucked back to your world with the Sol Emeralds."

Silver turned even paler than he was normally.

"No. No. But...but...but...Tails...Blaze...that's..." his words were eaten up by the cold reality of truth, and the hedgehog buried his face in his hands, moistening them with fresh tears. Blaze wrapped him in a hug, and the couple held each other for what seemed like a long time, crying softly, fully aware that this would be one of their last days together.

Blaze clutched her boyfriend closer, his strength and soft fur making her heart ache. It really didn't seem fair that they would come all this way to discover their romantic feelings were mutual...and then be split up. It's just the way it is, Blaze. As guardian of the Sol Emeralds, you should have known not to get close to anyone. They may have brought you together, but now your Sol Emeralds will be the wedge between you.

She opened her eyes, but Silver was holding her too tightly for her to bring her hands up to wipe at her tears. No, this was just fate. There was nothing they could do. Blaze would have to do what she did best - suppress her feelings for the sake of her duty.

But oh, Silver...how would he manage without her? At least he'd be the one staying here, with their new friends. But Blaze couldn't seem him doing anything but becoming a shell of himself without her.

And don't fool yourself, you need him just as much. How would she manage to be alone in their world and face those wars and tragedies without Silver? No matter how she tried to hide it... Blaze knew that without the hedgehog in her arms right now, she would be truly lost. They'd saved each other and watched each other's backs too many times to pretend they could survive alone.

But now there was no choice. There was just...truth.

"Blaze...I can't live without you..." Silver said softly. "I can't...You're my...everything...it's just...not fair..."

She felt Silver readjusted his arms, and she knew he must be ashamed of crying, knew that, even now, he was trying to impress her and be strong. Oh...she would miss him, with his naivete, his refreshing simpleness, so much...

"I love you, Silver," she whispered, and gently ran her hands down his back quills, trying to sooth him. She wanted so desperately to purr in his arms once again, but she could find nothing to inspire the loving vibrations at the moment.

"You mean there's nothing we can do?" Blaze asked Tails after a moment.

The fox turned back to them. "That's what I've been trying to figure out. My only hope is that this energy spike has some other sort of clue, but I'm afraid it's just the point where the dimensions are starting to overlap."

Energy spike. A thought hit Blaze again, and with it, a very guarded hope. "Tails, you say it might be from our dimension?"

The new vigor in her voice surprised Tails. "I don't know."

"I think I may know what it is."

Tails just blinked, signaling her to continue, and Blaze did. "I'll explain on the way."

...xxx...

Eek, why am I always so mean to Silver and Blaze? BUT I HAVE A PLAN! So don't be angry with me!

Next chapter's gonna be a doozy, but I will TRY so hard to get it up this weekend...