Author's Note: For context, this theme takes place during Sonic Rush. More specifically, after the endings to Sonic and Blaze's stories but before the ending of Extra Zone. Always felt like there were scenes missing of Blaze's time in Sonic's dimension, as well as the wasted potential to explore Blaze's negative thoughts on her flames and what changed that.

Also thanks to my pal littleaipom for beta reading this and helping me fix the story up.


Theme 3: Curse


Sonic found Blaze standing alone atop the bluffs that encircled the Mystic Ruins, her posture stiff and tense. She was looking over the forest and only the twitching of her slender tail gave away the anxiety she must be feeling. The moonlight outlined her features and due to the meshing of their worlds, there were now two moons providing it. By pure chance he happened upon the stranger from out of nowhere.

He had a guess she couldn't sleep, not that he could blame her, the crisis right now with their dimensions merging meant they needed a solution fast. Sonic didn't want to admit the whole situation had him antsy, that just wasn't his style. Sure, he had an open heart, but he wasn't the best at expressing the negative parts of himself. Being somewhat of a loner as well, he could relate to Blaze in some regard.

Deciding Blaze could use a friend, Sonic approached her from behind and announced himself to the feline. "Hey, Blaze! Do you mind if I join you?"

She visibly jumped in surprise, her tail fluffing up like something out of a cartoon. Blaze spun on her heels quickly to face him and her hands ignited in red hot flames.

His eyes watched the fire dance on her finger tips. It was hypnotic how they burned, an extension of Blaze herself that was wild and untamed.

It is a fate that forces me to live with my curse! My flames…

The spooked expression fell away as soon as she realized it was only him and she snuffed the flames out with a flick of her wrists. "Apologies, Sonic. I hadn't noticed your approach," she murmured awkwardly.

"Nah, I should be the one saying sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you," Sonic told her with an apologetic grin. He rubbed at his nose to try hiding how sheepish he felt. "I just thought you might like some company."

Surprise lit her face up but as quickly as emotion had crossed her visage, her face betrayed not an ounce of it once again. It was unnerving just how good a facade she could pull off that she felt nothing, Sonic knew Blaze was brimming to the top with emotions she merely repressed.

"Company?" She tipped her head a little and that was the extent of expression Sonic got to see in her confusion.

"Yeah, you know, comradery a good friend can bring?" Sonic gestured at himself to make a point of it, smiling. "You look a little like you could use some."

Sonic admired her strength in which she carried herself but pitied the teenaged girl trapped underneath all that crushing weight. All that pressure all at once couldn't be healthy. Blaze was a lonely soul and Sonic wanted to get to know more of the true Blaze that even she didn't seem to understand herself.

Her silence was deafening and Sonic wondered if she would turn him away, solitary instincts that she knew so long overpowering the beginnings of trust and friendship she was still learning. Her golden eyes flickered thoughtfully, a stark contrast to the darkness enveloping around her.

He expected her to brush him off and Sonic was ready to remind her that she had a friend in him but Blaze's face softened ever so slightly as she looked at him, gaze interlocked with his. A wall that she had up was breaking down right before his eyes. Some vulnerability slipped out just for him. She sighed, relaxing her posture as much as she was reasonably able to.

"You may stay," Blaze uttered in that curt and quiet voice of hers. "It is… nice to see you, Sonic."

It was an incredible shift from the harshness of when they'd first met.

"It's nice to see you too, Blaze," he told her as he made his way over, giving her a grin. Sonic stopped next to her and idly began to bounce on the balls of his feet, feeling tension coiling up in his knees. "So… Not sleepy tonight?"

She regarded him with contemplation "I feel a little restless," she confessed to him after thinking about it. "I decided to try outrunning it."

"You sound a lot like me. I always like going for a run to clear my head too." Sonic looked at his big red shoes as he spoke, the dried mud telling how well worn they were.

She hummed a little but said nothing, just cast her eyes towards the massive expanse of distorted sky and forest. He followed her gaze. Everything warped and distorted like the lines of heat lifting off a hot road in summer all around them. The skies were gorgeous in their ominous way, the blending of two galaxies becoming one right in front of them. It was so vivid and clear like crystal, Sonic could see every speck of star and planet on its celestial tapestry.

Sonic couldn't help but whistle at the sight. "Yanno, this whole dimensional collapse thing looks kind of beautiful in a terribad sort of way."

Blaze shifted her weight. "It is certainly unique, yes." She closed her eyes, appearing frustrated at the situation and its lack of answers. "But it's not sustainable for either of our universes. Like your friend Tails said, our worlds will cease to be if this merging is not prevented."

"Yep," Sonic dragged out the singular word and popped the p with his lips loudly, throwing his arms behind his quills. "That's the not fun drawback of this whole mess."

"I don't know if any of this can be called fun," Blaze sighed. "It's been a disaster."

"I try to find some good in the bad," he told her as he gave a leisurely stretch, his arms pulling over his head as he grasped his bicep. Sonic felt the satisfying pop his joints gave him at the motion. "Sucks the dimensions are merging but it's certainly spiced both of our lives up a lot more."

"I prefer something more… mundane," she told him and Sonic looked at her with concern at just how tired she sounded.

She evidently had a lot on her mind and Sonic wanted to ease the burdens on it.

"Well, that's life for you. It doesn't like rolling how you want it to." Sonic's words were covered in wistfulness before he cast her a grin. "Speaking of rolling… You've done a great job rolling with the punches."

"Are you sure of that?" Blaze didn't sound very convinced, her eyebrows furrowed low. "I made myself a rather rude guest to your world, Sonic."

"I am very sure! Like just look at you and me right now," Sonic said as he gestured between the two of them. Blaze looked at him, arching an elegant brow as he elaborated. "We're holding an actual conversation! I think that's a good thing to come out of this mess."

"T - that is…" Blaze looked a little flustered at his words, looking away to try disguising how his words had touched her. Sonic mentally cheered himself for getting through more of her defenses.

Sonic's grin widened at her as Blaze searched for the right words to say. He liked seeing this side of her, the one that was a person and didn't hide away.

Blaze broke her silence and clutched at her elbows to ground herself. "Friends and bonds are a foreign concept to me. Trust is hard for me to do."

"And just think! Now you got lots of 'em!" Sonic's grin softened a notch as he gazed at his newfound friend. "And that's a pretty powerful thing to have, Blaze."

The topic itched at his mind like a nibbling, pesky little flea. Her refusal for help and the sheer vicious determination she had to push people away, it made him wonder as he drifted back to their all out brawl.

"During our fight on Dead Line…" He spoke tentatively, navigating the conversation in a careful way. Sonic didn't miss how her ears twitched in embarrassment, folding backwards against her skull. "...you said something I was wondering about."

Blaze didn't say anything but nodded her head for him to continue his question. Her face was controlled and blank as usual, Sonic wondered what sort of life the girl had lived to become like that.

However, the fact she was here now, letting him talk to her and attempt to get closer, showed there could be healing from whatever past had broken her.

And he wanted to help her, to understand this stranger from a literal other world.

"You told me your flames are a curse." He hadn't expected her to spew such heart heavy honesty when Blaze was so vicious and aggressive but it had helped him humanize her in the moment she'd let herself be vulnerable. "What makes you say that?"

"...I did, yes." She closed her eyes, only a subtle knot in her brows betrayed any sort of grief. Blaze hesitated for a very long moment and though Sonic was hardly a patient creature he let her take all the time she needed to explain herself. "They've always caused me to be alone. Made me a monster in the eyes of my peers. It was too much destructive power for a young child to have. I learned control now but the damage has been done. Between my duty and these flames, it is all I've ever known, Sonic."

Sonic frowned at her. "It sounds like a sad way to live."

She glanced down at her feet. "I know no other way and all this… leaning on others business you and your friends taught me, is strange to me." Blaze tightened her grip on her elbows, arms still across her chest in a guarded fashion. "And with my stature as Imperial Princess and Guardian of the Sol Emeralds, it can be viewed as a weakness."

Sonic thought back to their battle on Eggman's space station.

I admire your fortitude, he heard himself say, fists clenched and trying to reach out to Blaze with reason. But to carry the whole world on your shoulders?

Enough! The pained cry had burst from Blaze alongside a column of purple and red flame—

"People fear my power, Sonic." Blaze turned to look at him, facing him slowly. He was surprised by the openness there in her golden eyes and how her arms dropped to her sides to destroy the metaphorical barrier between them. It humbled him, seeing Blaze allowing herself to trust him. "Do you fear me?"

"No way," Sonic said without hesitancy, shaking his head vigorously with a grin. "I think your flames are super cool."

"Cool?" She blinked, taken aback by the compliment. Sonic felt a pang of hurt for her, that something as small as praise for her gifts confused her this much. He wanted to throttle the people who had made his new friend feel this way.

"Yeah! You use your gifts to help your world and fight Nega. I'd say that's the complete opposite of a curse, Blaze."

She looked rather torn by his words and Sonic yet again wondered how many people had failed her when Blaze needed them most.

He didn't say anything, just looked at her with sympathetic eyes as Blaze composed herself in silence.

"Sonic?" She began delicately. "How alike do you think we are?"

"Alike? Probably plenty. I know all about curses and what we are isn't one of those."

"Forgive me for saying this but you seem well liked, how could you understand my plight?"

Sonic met her challenging eyes, his posture was relaxed despite the tension of the topic. "Well, because I used to be a real lone wolf myself, Blaze."

"You?"

"Mhm!" Sonic pointed a thumb at himself in all his typical gusto. "Yours truly."

She squinted at him and Sonic grinned.

"So, it's like this. I always took a lot of pride in my independence. I still do, it's why I go where I please," Sonic began to tell her. He felt her eyes on him, their golden glint skeptical. "I liked being on my own, I didn't have patience for people and having them around felt like I was going too slow."

Blaze's surprised expression made him chuckle which caused her to school her face into something much more neutral. It was endearing and frustrating all at once.

Sonic gathered his thoughts in the silence Blaze and he surrounded themselves in, a wordsmith he really wasn't but he was giving it his best shot. "People get attached to places but I didn't, I had itchy feet. So my bonds were short and fleeting but I liked it that way."

"I struggle to imagine you that way," Blaze's soft voice said. "You were pretty persistent to befriend and help me."

He grinned at her. "People change. I was a lot younger. Meeting Tails and all my other buddies really started changing my perspective on things, as well as all the adventures I had too. Showed me what I was missing out on by not seeing the big picture."

"The big picture being…?"

"Nobody's an island, Blaze. People aren't made to do everything alone. Having your space is fine but you can't just pretend there's nobody else around."

Blaze didn't say anything though it was clear the words he said went against her philosophy and she loathed to admit such a thing. He could see it in her eyes, the mixing pot of feelings there.

"You feel like you are different until you find the people who actually get you." He shot her a pointed look to make it more obvious what she had at last amongst Sonic and his ilk. "You understand what I'm saying here, Blaze?"

Blaze scrunched her brows in thought and Sonic decided that the girl just needed time to figure out the meaning. He could spell it out perfectly but he also knew this was something she needed to discover for herself. Blaze wouldn't learn otherwise if she didn't on her own, he could only lead a horse to water before the beast chose to drink it.

"Wanna have a little race around the ruins?" He asked her abruptly, interrupting Blaze's overthinking. Sonic knew Blaze would just overcomplicate and muddy things if he let her stew and overanalyze. She'd never find the solution the way she was comfortable doing it.

"Race?" She blinked at him, stunned where the shift in topic came from.

"Yeah! You know, that thing where you lift one foot after the other and—" Sonic even began to run in place as he pumped his arms up and down.

"I know what a race is," Blaze said with a huff, ears flattening across her head.

"Oh good, that'll make it easier then." He couldn't resist being cheeky, his hands on his hips playfully.

"Is it wise? To shirk off of duty like this, I mean…The dimensions are merging, it could be the end of existence itself and—"

"The world is ending, yeah, but it's not like we got a solution yet anyway." Sonic shrugged his shoulders. When Blaze looked ready again to protest, he lifted his hands in a placating fashion to stop her. "I'm not saying to ignore it. I just mean we might as well have a little breather before we gotta cross that bridge."

"A breather…" Blaze said it like it was a new word that felt alien on her tongue.

"Yup! Sides, ever since our face off on Eggman's space station I've been dying to see you really let loose! Not just anyone can keep up with me." Sonic gave her shoulder a friendly punch that made Blaze stare at him like a deer in headlights from the affectionate gesture. "You've learned about friendship and trust, next thing I wanna teach you is about fun."

"That does sound… nice enough," Blaze conceded shyly. She flexed her fingers hesitantly, gazing at them in a transfixed and thoughtful way before she made a fist to pound into Sonic's shoulder right back.

Sonic had to catch himself, pinwheeling his arms with a laugh when he stumbled from her strength. "That's the spirit!"

For the first time that evening, he saw the corners of her lips lift into a smile. It was super subtle but definitely there.

It made him grin wider back.

Her eyes suddenly widened as she realized what she just did. She timidly looked away as she lifted a hand to her muzzle to hide her slip of emotion, tail flicking at her heels.

Sonic chuckled at her before jerking his head in the direction of the path leading further into the Mystic Ruins. "C'mon, let's see how fast you can go with that fire power of yours."

Sonic didn't give her a chance to protest him and like the wind, he was rushing through the ruins. The world whipped right past him in a blur.

For a worrying moment, he wondered if Blaze wasn't going to take him up on his challenge as he jet across the forest but he suddenly felt an intense blast of heat and there she was running at his side. She didn't look at him, face focused on running but he saw a competitive gleam in those sharp eyes of hers. Her arms were bent low at her sides and tail flaring behind her.

Sonic decided freedom looked good on her, the flames swathing around her and flaring at her heels. The swell of burning heat pierced his skin and the smoke it plumed singed his senses but he hardly cared about that, merely was thrilled to see her power at all.

And maybe one-day she would see it his way too.