A Flaming Hope

    {➹} – IT DIDN’T SURPRISE the hero either. He knew his world’s energy was…different. Selective, some might say and temperamental towards strangers. That much the hedgehog had learned for himself, but his bond had changed with it over the years. Now? He was just as much a part of it as it was of him. And so far next to no one who wasn’t native to the Zone could seem to tap into it.

     “Porker would be the easiest,” he said, pointing in a southern direction away from The Shrine. “He’s in the desert a few miles from here, in a…well, I guess ‘s technically a pyramid, but the inside is a bit weird. Regardless, you’ll find him there, just don’t be surprised if he doesn’t talk right away. Guy’s as shy as they get.

     “As for Tikal? That’s going t’ take some time. She doesn’t come out for anyone, an’ even then you’d have t’ earn Chaos’ trust t’ get the full experience.” 

Her gaze turning southward she spent a little moment thinking upon those options. Before all of this happened a few miles would have been a quick jog for her. But now that trip would take some considerable time if she made it on foot. The princess did not know the area either so her own warp ring would be little help on the first trip.

However even with all that, Arrow still made this Tikal out to be the more difficult of the two options. Blaze had never met an alternate of Chaos but had heard plenty of stories. They were enough to give her pause as she wondered if disturbing them really be worth it?

“Porker then.”

And if that did not work out then Tikal and Chaos would be the last resort, even if the idea of getting Chaos them self involved frightened her.

     {➹} – THE HERO HAD FROWNED when they arrived, not because of the feline’s actions but because The Shrine was utterly quiet. Empty, and that was unusual. Then again, with how vigilant Chaos was he imagined the demi-god had hidden the chao and then themselves after sensing a strange energy with the hedgehog. It was enough for him to pause for a moment, to send a reassuring thought before looking back to Blaze.

     He didn’t understand what she was doing, not until she explained, but even then he took a breath before shaking his head. “”S not a bad idea, but I’m afraid even we don’t know how it works. Not even Knuckles. There’s a chance that Tikal might but I wouldn’t place bets on it. Your best shot would be t’ see if Porker managed t’ dig anything up with his research in the bunker…

     “When Angel Island fell this last time, a few years ago, a structure appeared in Sandopolis and we found out it had a lot of older tech from the tribe that used t’ live here. So far we haven’t come up with much, other than the chao eggs that were in stasis, but Porker’s been trying t’ solve some of mysterious here ever since.”

“Were it your world’s people depending on you would you leave any stone unturned, Arrow?”

Tikal, that was not a name she was familiar with. The princess wondered just what kind of person they were or why they might know about the shrine. But quickly came to the conclusion that the how or why did not matter for her purposes.

Closing her eyes she made another attempt at focusing on the surrounding chaos energy. Yet again she met with failure. Though that was not unexpected, the last time she had tried anything with Chaos Energy was long before her current transformation. This form was still so much of a mystery to her.

    {➹} – THE FACT THE FELINE seemed set in using the past tense for the gems worried the hero. He feared the worse until she brought forth one of them, a puzzled look on his face not just at the shape, but the lack of color. The sight nagged at him, like a long forgotten memory, but he pushed it aside as he frowned. So her gems were dead, or so it seemed…that couldn’t be a good sign.

     Though it made him wonder. If there was one thing he had learned in recent years, it was that energy didn’t just disappear like that. It had to go somewhere, it was always that way in his experiences, and yet he didn’t get too much time to ponder over it as the feline suddenly grabbed him and snapped him back to the present.

     "I…don’t think so…?“ The suddenness of the request had thrown the hero off considerably, and he had to duck from the feline’s hold in order to really process the question. He didn’t get it, not really, but she did seem determined and that was new.

     A brief glance at his communicator, or rather the clock that came up, told him it was about time for the echidna to check on the Chao so now was as good a time as any, he supposed.

     "I guess we can find out. C'mon.” And again he would lead them across the island, though fortunately The Shrine wasn’t too far away and came into view before too long.

Putting her own, much smaller, stone back away she would silently follow the hedgehog along. Though once the Master Emerald came into view Blaze picked up her pace the best her oversized body would allow her. How she wished she was back to normal. The speed she had then would have made this trip last only seconds.

“It’s beautiful.”

The princess only went as far as the first step, from there she admired the soft green glow of the gem for a moment before she closed her eyes and attempted to focus. Although with little success, frustrating her as she sat down upon the ancient stonework, realizing that Arrow was probably wondering at exactly what the heck she was trying to do by coming here.

     {➹} – IT DIDN’T SEEM RIGHT to the hero, to have such a vital piece of information missing to the point where many thought it was nonexistent. Of course he knew frighteningly little about the feline’s Zone, much less the energy it held or where it had come from. In that sense the hero was useless, not a common thing, but something Blaze said did get him to hum.

     He didn’t think for a moment that her Zone had been cursed from the beginning, and gave her a look to say as much, but it was a curious situation. Though, he did have one thing buzzing around his head by the time he spoke again.

     "Maybe you’re looking for the wrong thing. You said it yourself, after all, just because one Zone works in one way doesn’t mean another does.“

     The hero didn’t think it would be quite that simple, but it did make sense. Things did vary greatly from one place to another at times, in a way that was almost flooring at times. But perhaps that was the key. Maybe the princess needed to take a different route, think in a new light.

     "I mean, even something as fundamental as the emeralds are different here compared t’ other Zones I’ve heard about. An’ I still haven’t heard anything close t’ our history.”

That was certainly an interesting idea, perhaps a change in perspective was what they needed. But the princess was unsure if they themselves could truly make such a change considering just how stuck they’ve been so far.

“Our Emeralds are different, or were to be more accurate. They’re what Nega used to power his machine that broke the world apart and freed Gaia, I was able to get them back but-”

Reaching under her hoodie she fumbled around inside there for a little bit, before pulling out a flat, square stone. It was darkened with several deep cracks snaking their way across its surface.

"Like my the Chaos Emeralds of my Sonic’s world they’re completely drained, I’m supposed to have a connection with them, a lot like Knuckles and the Master Emerald I fathom, however I can’t feel any thing from them any more. It’s like they’re dead.”

Flipping the gem through her fingers a few times, the hedgehog’s words still echoing through her mind. Looking for the wrong thing... An idea striking her like lightning, she snapped right over to him, arms grabbing at the sides of his shoulders in apparent excitement.

   {➹} – IT WAS A STORY THAT WAS vaguely familiar, and he did recall a friend of his having to go through a very similar event years ago. But his knowledge on it all was scarce and even the feline’s explanation only brought up more questions. Ones he held for the time being as he slowly pieced together what Blaze was saying.

     "So…without Light Gaia you and your world can’t go back t’ normal…“

     That’s what he thought it meant anyway, but it confused him. It sounded like the two Gaias were part of one whole (and, Chaos, if that idea didn’t bring up memories the hedgehog would have liked to bury deep down forever) but with one of them seemingly missing things were only getting worse. It was strange, and he understood, at least a little bit, the feline’s frustrations. But it only brought up another slew of questions and this time his tongue was quicker than his head. 

     "And there was nothing about them? Nothing at all? Can Dark Gaia even exist with the other one…?”

      It seemed unlikely to him but, again, it had been beaten into the hero that those of dark and light had to coexist. That the world couldn’t properly function without both sides of that so-called ‘coin’. And the worse part that, deep down, he knew it was true. At least for his Zone. 

“As far as anyone is aware. But we only have information from my Sonic’s zone to go off of, and using information from one zone for a whole other is far from reliable.”

Her chin staying within her oversized palm, Blaze’s head finally turned to meet the hedgehog’s gaze with her own.

“We’ve looked through every text, every historic document, tracked down every village elder we could find for their oral histories. All to see if there was anything about them, to see if there was anything that even vaguely resembled them, to gleam some clue that could save us. But there was nothing.”

A feeling of anxiousness growing within her once again, she rose back up onto her feet another time. The outlet of constant movement and change of position was giving her enough stimulation to help her deal with it, and at this point she did not care how odd it made her seem. Not like she was not odd already.

“We didn’t even suspect any Gaia existed in our zone until Eggman Nega unleashed them. So I don’t know, maybe my zone is just weird and has been doomed from the start.”

    {➹} – IT HAD BEEN THE BASE for the hero’s own training, and something that worked not just for him but others as well. He knew he was odd case, and again it wasn’t something he planned to tell Blaze at that moment, but he had meant what he said. Finding a type of balance was crucial in those situations, otherwise there would be nothing but internal fighting and that benefitted no one.

     While the hero believed he knew, remembered, parts of what her powers entailed, he didn’t remember the bulk of it. Something he chalked up to the last few years being what they were, and what had happened to him.

     “If you mean Light and Dark Gaia, no. I’ve…only heard about them from a friend, an’ even then I can’t say I know much about them other than them being two sides of the same coin.”

“Yes, I do indeed mean those two. “

This was just going to extend this dreadful talk out even further, but it was yet something else that needed to be done, despite how terrible this all made Blaze feel.

“Before I lost contact with my Sonic and his zone he explained that they went through something similar. Eggman had broken their planet into pieces in order to unleash that God of Destruction and bind it to his will, before Dark Gaia broke apart into pieces scattering all over the planet. One of which went into Sonic, transforming into something similar to what I used to turn into at night.”

The princess would gesture to her own body, from the horns on the side of her head down all the way to the tips of her toes, as she said the next part of this long winded explanation.

“However he never went through a transformation quite like this, unsurprisingly he was able to solve the crisis fairly quickly, I suppose he just never spent enough time with the infection for it to progress to this point. Finding Light Gaia right at the start of his journey they were able to use the Chaos Emeralds in various temples located on each piece of the planet to restore the world, reform Dark Gaia, and send the two back into slumber.”

     {➹} – THE HEDGEHOG’S EYES never left the feline, not as she discarded parts of her disguise and not as she spoke. There was a rare stubbornness about him, at least in this sense, one that said he wasn’t going to be shifting away from the topic until he saw some inkling of progress. Yet with it came no fear or judgement, just the hero’s usual consideration, even as he gave a small snort.

     “So are mine, an’ yet me and my team have saved the world a few times over, and continue t’ do so even now. At least until a few more things are sorted.”

     It was something he wouldn’t get into at the moment, and while he did feel for her he was puzzled by her actions to say the least. Perhaps it was because he wasn’t in her shoes (that he hadn’t taken innocents lives) but he didn’t understand letting a problem like that fester. It clearly wasn’t working, and the feline wasn’t the only one suffering from the choice. Still, he was quiet a moment while she regained her composure, and even after she finished talking. 

     It was a minute or two before he did speak, namely so he could be sure the feline heard him and so he could say his peace firmly. “Sometimes ‘s not about keeping things bottled up. It may seem like the safest option, but it doesn’t lead t’ anything but more problems down the line. If you ask me, ‘s not about you having control over your powers or them controlling you, ‘s about the both of you working together.”

That was an interesting way to look on it. The princess wished she had heard it before Eggman Nega had returned to her zone and caused the disaster which lead to her people coming here. Perhaps she would have been able to handle some things differently having trained under that kind of outlook.

However it did seem that the hedgehog and herself were not on the same page when it came to certain things. Had she never explained them before? Blaze really could not remember, but in either case she felt going over it again might help her in some way.

    {➹} – HER ANSWER ONLY MADE the hero roll his eyes and, for once, it wasn’t in a way to suggest humor at the situation. It was anything but, really, and yet the hedgehog’s expression remained oddly calm. He wouldn’t take back what he said, and frankly it seemed to him like this door needed to be opened anyway so he merely stared at her as she got to her feet. 

     “Unless you know a quick way t’ Sandopolis, we’re staying here.” Was his answer, quick and simple as he shifted his weight ever so slightly to suggest he wasn’t going anywhere. They had already started this, so they might as well finished before the feline decided to change the subject. Like she just had.

     “It might not be their home, but even you have t’ admit they’ve all settled in nicely. All but one of you, anyway,” a look was given to the feline then, a raised brow and a question that the hedgehog would have left unspoken if he didn’t think that she would avoid the real problem here. 

     “What are you going t’ do, Blaze? You can’t keep avoiding them.”

“Arrow...”

With one hand she pulled that hood down, while the other took that mask off of her muzzle. While the light of the sun may have hurt her eyes, the warmth it provided did feel good on her darkened fur.

“Growing up I was only taught how to be a pretty face and I don’t even have that any more. But if this was my only problem we wouldn’t be here talking about it, I’d at least be out there trying to lead them.”

Stuffing the items into a pocket she sat down, not even bothering to look at the hedgehog, instead choosing to keep looking out over the settlement. 

“My powers are tied to my emotions and even before I became infected with this Dark Gaia... crap it was always a struggle to keep myself from hurting anyone... to keep myself from killing anyone again.”

Sounding like she was beginning to choke up the princess coughed heavily in an attempt to clear her throat before continuing on. It seemed to have helped her voice stay clear and stable at least.

     {➹} – IT WASN’T QUITE the talk the hero meant, but to him it was clear the feline had needed to get some of that out and wasn’t bothered in the slightest by the tone she took. He knew it wasn’t entirely directed at him anyway, more the situation and the last few years, and he didn’t blame her. 

     Rather than rush over, he let a flow of energy come between them. The controlled gust of wind that sprang from seemingly nowhere cushioning her fall and placing her far more gently on the grass. Something told him keeping his distance was better for the time being, especially with what he had to say next.

     “Or they’re wrong, and you’re not helping things acting the way you are,“ his words were terribly blunt, a trait he had picked up from his brother, as he looked in her direction. “What did you expect? You had a few bad days and ran for the hills. You don’t show your face, you dumped your people in a new world and left them without a direction or an explanation. How would you feel if you were them?”

The princess was so out of sorts that she really did not notice Arrow’s interesting little trick to soften her fall. Too focused on what of the grass she could feel through all those clothes, the grip of it through those gloves. Before the hedgehog started which got her to slowly sit up to face him.

“I would probably feel like we should get someone that was actually capable of leading the people and giving them that direction they want.”

Digging her cleated boots into the earth she got back up onto her feet. That outburst at least seemed to have cooled her down somewhat.

“If we’re going to go through all of this are we going to keep on here or shall we do Knuckles a favor and move somewhere with less I can burn?"

Letting herself slouch those oversized fists of hers rested down on that soft grass, making her look like some kind of beast as she took another look at that view, even pulling those sunglasses off to get a better look despite how much the light hurt her eyes.

   {➹} – THE SHARP LOOK was given a small frown, worried of course but hardly offended. The answer was a little expected but left a lot to be desired, though the hero made no move to stop her as she started walking away.

     Probably a bad time to mention he had only scouted for the hill so they could stand and talk there.

     For all he knew she needed to walk off some frustrations so he merely tailed after her, just a little behind to give her space but not enough that she couldn’t hear him speak.

     "Do you want t’ talk about it…?“

That little question got her to snap right around on one of her heels, facing the hedgehog with both arms outstretched wide, her voice was close to yelling. Luckily the top of this hill was much more sparsely compared to the crowded mess they just made their way through, so there was not anyone near enough to overhear.

“What’s there to talk about!? Nega break my world apart, I wasn’t able to fix even a single piece of it, all I could do was get my people out of harm’s way, one little comment turned me into this freak, and what do I get for it all? My people believe I’m a monster... and ya know what, they’re probably right!”

    {➹} – AT FIRST, THE HERO didn’t even notice the trance, too busy looking out at the village with an interested expression. Not for the first time he wondered how those below felt about everything that had happened, if they were happy with how things were or just the opposite. Surely it had to be better than what they had been faced with, right?

     He had turned to ask Blaze that very question when he noticed her state and, gently, reached out to nudge her arm. 

     “Are you alright…?”

Staring at the view had helped calm her nerves somewhat. So the little nudge to her arm did not get much of a reaction at first, before her head sharply turned to look at him. At least her speech was no where near as rushed now.

“No, I’m not.”

     {➹} – IT WAS INSTINCT that made the hero squeeze her hand, gently, when it found his. A silent sign that things were okay, though he doubted she would take it that way given her current state. Maybe she did have a point, maybe they ought to get to where they were heading and not dilly-dally too much more. Offering a quick apology to the koala the hero was quick to start walking again, the feline in tow.

     The further they got from the small town the more Arrow hoped the other would perk up. Regardless, what he had said before was true, their trip through was village was short lived and before too long they were climbing a cliff that overlooked it all at its apex. It was odd to the hero to see something so lively on the island but, at the same time, he felt it could use the touch.

     "See? ’S not so bad from up here, is it?“

Once the pair had finally made some distance between themselves and the settlement, making her lose that feeling of having so many eyes on her, Blaze was able to make better progress on settling herself back down.

“Ye-yeah.”

   {➹} – THE DISHES HITTING the ground did make the hero pause, and he would have been lying if he said he wasn’t a tad bit anxious that it would send the princess into a frenzy. Perhaps if they had broken it would have but there was some relief felt when she picked them up and nothing else seemed to come of it.

     Except her running into the hero of course. Thank Chaos he was facing her and not the other way around. Somehow he thought a face full of quills would have undoubtedly ruined their outing, if it wasn’t already from that small misstep. 

     It was habit that brought both of his hands to her shoulders, concern and just a touch of humor in his bright eyes as he quickly looked her over. Just a quick glance was given around them, just in case, before his focus was back on her. It seemed there was no harm, and thus no foul. 

     "Are you alright?“ A fair question, and one that wasn’t intended to only address how she was physically either. They certainly hadn’t made it very fair and he didn’t want her to start panicking now, or ever really.

Even through that thick hoodie Arrow would be able to feel the princess’ body shaking, and as close as he was her mask would do a similar job at hiding just how shallow and rapid her breathing was. It took a moment for her to reply but when she did her voice was low and fast.

“NoCanWeJustHurryOnToWhereWereGoingPlease?”

    {➹} – ARROW WASN’T SURE if he should chalk the feline’s pace up to eagerness or something entirely opposite but he followed without much question. Even as she seemed to ignore his question altogether. He didn’t hold it against her, merely nodded when she agreed. He knew she was nervous, and her next words only confirmed that. 

     “Fair enough, just stick close and this’ll all be over with before you know it, alright?”

     Another reassurance before he waited a moment, just to make sure she was ready, before heading into the village itself. Again, he couldn’t stop himself from looking around, impressed by what the people had done in what seemed like such a short time. It was something to behold, but his main focus was on getting to the small path he had found first and foremost. He didn’t want to linger in case the feline had a…poor reaction.

Blaze, more or less, ignored everything that her people had built in their time here. Instead all of her focus was on following the hedgehog and avoiding bumping into anything or anyone, lest she draw even more attention to herself than she might already have. She really had no idea how many, if any, of the people were paying attention to her but be it real or just her own anxiety getting the best of her, the princess could feel eyes all over her.

Which only intensified when her side bumped into a stand, sending some dishes falling to the ground. Luckily they were all sturdy enough to prevent any damage but Blaze still nearly jumped right out of her skin. She was quick to reach down and pick them all back up, so quick in fact she forgot about not drawing attention to herself. Rather than bending over or kneeling down, her arms stretched out unnaturally long to pluck them up off the ground and messily place them back where they had fallen from.

“S-sorry.”

     {➹} – ONCE OUTSIDE, the hero wasn’t in a particular hurry to advance forward, mainly for the feline’s sake. Well, that and there was always something fascinating about Angel Island, no matter where the hero found himself on the floating isle he usually adored the area. Save for Hydrocity of course. He spent a moment or two looking at the surrounding wilderness, despite the fact he had just seen it, before turning back to Blaze at her question.

     “Well, we’re already friends so ‘s not too much of a white lie.”

     A wink was flashed her way, his way of saying yes, before he took a slow step forward. He would go as slow or fast as she wanted but they did have to move sometime today. Nice as the island was, they had a mission that they had to see to. 

     “I did find a little place a little ways from here, we’d have t’ go through the village a little bit but ’s a nice cliff overlooking everything they’ve done so far. If you want.”

It could not be seen but the feline was smiling under that mask. She took a deep breath before she started walking off towards the settlement at a rather brisk pace. Though Blaze made a good deal of progress in the trek before she realized that she never actually said anything.

“OH, yes! That sounds wonderful, Arrow.”

Mentally kicking herself now she thought about perhaps putting this off, taking even more time to mentally prepare herself for this. But they were already in sight of of the makeshift village, it would be stupid to turn back now.

    {➹} – A PART OF THE HERO had to wonder if this was really a good idea, if it was wise to hear such things directly from the source so to speak. Given the hedgehog had a tangle with something similar not too long ago, and it could have gone better, he had his doubts. He knew the situations weren’t exactly the same but close enough that he did worry a little bit.

     Still, another part felt like the feline needed this, hence why he nodded at her question. True, the outfit did look a tad suspicious but if it made her feel better, so be it.

     "’M hardly an expert on fashion, but I think it’ll do just fine,“ he assured her, making a brief motion to the door before extending a hand. It was an offer she could take or bypass but he felt it needed to be extended if only for his friend’s sake. She wasn’t alone in this, and he hoped she knew that much.

     Arrow would be right there with her.

Taking a moment in order to look the hedgehog over she could not help but tilt her head quite a ways as she thought. Before a little laugh escaped through that cloth mask.

“Yes, I suppose there is something to say about asking fashion advice from someone that doesn’t really wear clothes.”

Giving herself a last shake, all the way from the top of her head down to the tips of her toes, she made her way to the door. Coming to it there was enough hesitation to make her stop for a moment, but she did eventually take that last big step outside. She was grateful she asked Knuckles for a place that was a ways off from everyone else. There was no one else around, no one to see her leave, and then spread the word about it. Blaze was unsure how she felt finally being out here after all that time inside.

     {➹} – THE HERO, MEANWHILE, had wasted little time getting to know some of the residents in the area. Given that he already knew the island relatively well, finding spots to take the princess hadn’t been too hard with the exception of the fact avoiding the many villagers wasn’t going to be easy. But that was one point to this outing anyway, to reacclimate the princess to her people and the world outside her current residence. He didn’t expect it to be easy, but it would be a start.

     Arrow let a few more minutes tick by after the hour just in case before making his way back, knocking on the door once again before entering. He probably should have waited for an actual response, something he realized when he saw Blaze adjusting her very different outfit but thankfully it didn’t seem like there was any real harm done.

     "Taking the ‘hiding in plain sight’ approach, yeah?“ Amused, he looked at her choice of ensemble before smiling. He wasn’t going to question it all too much. "Ready t’ go?”

Having not heard him come on in, the princess made a small jump upon hearing the hedgehog’s voice. She took a quick moment to regain her composure.

“Y-yes, hehe. I... I want to hear what the people think of me when they believe I am not there, as well as not agitate anyone with my presence if I can help that."

Still making little readjustments to her clothing, those tweeks and tugs were more to give her hands something to do, give her mind another thing to focus on, before setting out of this place. However there were still a couple things she could do to hide her true appearance. Opening up a drawer she pulled out a pair of wrap around sunglasses that were dark enough to hide that glow from her eyes, as well as a cloth mask that she put over her muzzle.