Chapter 23

"Did the walk go okay?" Amy asked, sitting cross-legged on her couch as Blaze and Silver came back in through the door, hand-in-hand.

"Yeah, everything's fine," Blaze nodded, sitting down next to her and putting a hand on her knee. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay," she smiled. "A little strange. I'll probably have a lot of questions later."

"I'll be back in a second," Silver offered, going into the kitchen in search of Sonic.

"Amy," Blaze began, turning to face her. "I never thanked you."

"You don't have to," Amy shook her head.

"Of course I do," Blaze argued. "I mean, Amy, if you hadn't come along when you did, I'd be dead by now. And now you have to deal with all this, and I…. I just feel horrible." She gazed down at her lap, the end of her tail flickering with flames. "This shouldn't have to be your problem."

"Blaze, listen to me very carefully," Amy gazed at her friend. "There is NOTHING I wouldn't do for you. And the same is true for the rest of my friends. I don't have any regrets, and I'll be damned if you do."

The girls both cracked a smile at that and soon found themselves laughing.

Sonic had busied himself in the kitchen, taking things out and putting them away again, just so he could have something to do with his hands. In normal circumstances, he would have gone out for a run, but he didn't want to go too far in case Amy needed him.

God, how things had changed since he was younger. What an idiot he had been back then.

"How's she doing?" a voice came from behind him, startling him. He almost dropped the clear glass he was holding. Turning, he saw Silver behind him, leaning against the doorway.

"You passed her three seconds ago, I'm sure you asked her," Sonic smirked to himself.

"I did. I want to know how you think she's doing," Silver raised his eyebrows.

"I think she's pretty capable of expressing her own emotions," he replied, turning his back to the silver hedgehog and placing the glass safely in the cabinet above him, where he had already moved it from at least twice before.

Silver moved silently towards the kitchen table and sat down in one of the chairs there. "Did I ever tell you what happened to me after Blaze merged with Iblis?"

"I've heard the story," Sonic shook his head. "You lost your memory of her, she ceased to exist from your timeline, eventually you two met again, blah blah."

"Actually," Silver hesitated. Nobody but Blaze knew this, but he knew Sonic was going to need some sort of help here. "…no."

"No?" Sonic questioned, turning to face him, leaning his weight back against the countertop.

"No," Silver affirmed, nodding. "I never lost my memory of her."

"What are you talking about?" Sonic narrowed his gaze. "She went back to her own dimension. You told us you didn't remember a thing."

"Because that was the better option," Silver said firmly, meeting his gaze head on with no more doubt. "It was either that, and everything went on around me like nothing had happened, or sit there and deal with the fact that I was in love with a girl who had just completely disappeared from my own timeline."

Sonic pinched his forehead and shut his eyes. "Mobius. Why'd you keep that from us? We could have helped you, you know."

"And if Amy had died an hour ago?" Silver pushed. "Would you have wanted help?"

Sonic sighed before sitting down in the chair next to him, folding his hands on the table. "No. I probably wouldn't be here."

"Exactly," Silver pointed out kindly. "Blaze was as good as gone for me. It was just the easier thing to do."

Sonic was quiet.

"And then…" Silver continued, smiling to himself. "I found her again just a few years after that."

Some things never got any easier, Silver thought to himself, grumbling as he sifted through the rubble. Two years later, and his entire planet was still mostly a pile of ash and twisted metal. There were very few of them residing there now. He and a few of the other people who had survived the entire ordeal constantly dug through what had become of their daily lives, looking for any new sign of survivors. As the days had passed, they were finding more bodies and fewer living souls. Past day twenty, they hadn't pulled anyone else out of the piles who hadn't already died.

One of the younger kids, a rabbit with light blue fur, came rushing up to him. Silver quickly recalled her name. Lily.

"Mr. Silver," she panted, her eyes wide with panic. "You better come see this."

He followed behind, sprinting after her, down towards where the docks used to be. The water, once a clear and peaceful blue, was now stained permanently red with dust and blood. Two lone docks stood standing, their brethren having long since been destroyed.

A crowd of about five of the rescuers stood whispering around a lone figure in a long, light purple cloak. It had a hood covering its head.

"Who is that?" Silver breathed, slowing down to try and catch his breath.

"Dunno," the bunny shook her head, her long ears flopping almost comically. "She jus' showed up, asked us if we knew where you was."

"Where you 'were'," Silver automatically corrected. It had become somewhat habit for the older survivors to raise the younger ones over the years.

"Sorry," Lily shrugged, grabbing his arm and pulling him over to the dock where the figure stood. She was surprisingly strong for such a young girl.

The rescuers saw that Silver had finally made it, and quickly backed up to give him room, still whispering amongst themselves. Silver stepped forward, eyeing the figure warily. "You asked for me?"

The figure turned and Silver almost fell backwards in shock. She was a few years older now, but the girl under the cloak was, unmistakably, Blaze. Her gold eyes met his and she breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Holy Chaos, Silver, you have no idea how long I've been trying to find you," she exhaled, running at him and embracing him tightly, her cloak hood falling off as she did so. Her outfit no longer consisted of the short purple dress and white leggings she used to wear. Now she instead had on a tight purple t-shirt, black running tights with a sheer panel tracing the sides, a pair of purple and white cross trainers, and her same ponytail that she always wore. Her red gem glinted in the center of her forehead like always, and her face had changed, looking wiser and more seasoned now.

Shocked, Silver just stood there.

"Mr. Silver, do ya know her?" Lily asked, reaching back for the tiny knife she always kept on her just in case.

Blaze, confused, released him and took a step backwards. "Silver…? Do you…. do you remember me at all?"

He shook his head as if trying to clear it. "I… Mobius, of course I remember you, Blaze. I just… I thought you were gone."

Blaze's face fell slightly. "After… what happened, I somehow ended up in an entirely new dimension. I figured you'd sent me there, but I don't think it would have looked familiar to you, either. So I spent the last two years finding different ways to go from dimension to dimension, looking for you." She glanced down at her feet, and Silver noticed, for the first time, a faded scar extending from her collarbone to her neck, almost five inches long. "A lot of the people I met weren't nearly as welcoming as you were."

Lily looked up at the cat with amazement. "Hey, wait a minute. I know you!"

Blaze glanced down at her, looking a bit worried. "Huh?"

"My mum used to tell me about you, before she died last year. You're the girl who plays with fire!" Lily exclaimed. Silver, knowing how sensitive Blaze was about her pyrokinesis, moved a bit closer to her.

Blaze felt her breath catch in her chest. "Oh." And this was where nothing ever changed. Everyone would either start running away, or would make fun of her. She closed her eyes and waited for the ever-present teasing to begin.

"You're the coolest!" Lily jumped up and down. "She says you saved this whole entire planet! If you hadn't a been here," and here, she made an exploding motion with her arms and hands. "KABOOM!"

Silver grinned at the bunny. God bless that kid.

"…really?" Blaze asked, feeling a tiny ball of hope forming in her stomach.

"Yeah!" Lily cried. "Oh, man, you worked with her, Mr. Silver? You're the luckiest guy ever!"

Blaze turned back to the silver hedgehog. She realized he was no longer shorter than her, but had at least two inches on her now. His once childish form had filled out, now showing the beginnings of a man's body, more built. He wore a black t-shirt that looked like it hadn't been washed in ages, and a pair of camo-patterned shorts, along with some black sneakers being held together with black electrical tape. His hands still glowed with the familiar blue light she'd gotten so used to in all the time she knew him, and he sported some battle scars of his own. Most of all, the naivety in his eyes had been replaced with… something else, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. Sadness, maybe.

"I'm sorry I didn't find you sooner," she confessed. "I tried, I really did. I saw Sonic once, when he was making his rounds, and I saw Shadow a few times. I just asked them not to mention me to you, and they said you'd lost your memories of me anyway.

"Chaos," he murmured, stepping forward and grabbing her up into a hug, almost lifting her off her feet. She squeaked in surprise. "I can't believe you're even alive."

"Okay…" Sonic sighed. "Why are you telling me this now?"

"I'm telling you that so you realize how hard it was on me after Blaze sacrificed herself to Iblis," Silver told him. "And, you know, I knew immediately that I had feelings for her. It's not the same for you and Amy, but-"

"Yeah, definitely not," Sonic snorted, changing the direction of his gaze so Silver couldn't see that he was nervous.

"Just don't be dumb," Silver warned him, earning a glare from the blue hedgehog. "She's gonna need someone, no matter how much she swears she won't, because you and I both know Amy, and she's going to do everything in her power to stay independent."

"Jeez, ten years ago, and I would have burst out laughing at the mention of 'Amy' and 'independent' in the same sentence. Now?" Sonic continued. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"Let her do what she needs to do," Silver advised, turning and heading out of the kitchen, "but don't let her go like you did last time."