(UPDATE 9/20/2014: I recently put up a poll on which of my main Sonic Blades OC's do you guys like the best. The Poll is locaded on my profile and you are free to cast your vote! Poll closes on October 17. Please place your votes and thank you all for the support!)

A/N: I AM BACK! Well then after a PAINFULLY long hiatus I managed to gather all of my thoughts into this chapter and get back into the swing of things. I've been focusing more on my Sonic X Okami fic and also I decided to re-write one of my other fics. Also I recently got into the Tales of series and I have had Tales of Xillia on the brain as of late. Seriously that is a great game, if you haven't played it then I highly recommend it, it's good, I mean REALLY good.

Also I have some other ideas I plan on working on and on doing some more fan art. But remember I do plan on continuing all of my works so I can finish them. I might not be able to update as frequently as I would like due to college. So please forgive me if this came out on the short side, this is just what came into mind at the time. I promise the next few chapters for the end of this arc will be longer and a bit better. I'm just building up to it.

My next update will be Okami Chronicles, and also be on the look out for my next Sonic human AU called Heroes' Rebirths: The Astrial Warriors.

Well go and read the story and remember NO FLAMES.

NOTE: I DON'T own the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, trust me if I did then everything would be A LOT different and It wouldn't go below the T rating.

Chapter 27: Closer

It was almost noon when the young fighters woke up. Tails and Rin were still tiered from the events of the night before and so were Sonic and Blaze. The others decided to let them sleep in more while the others prepared for the day. Sally, Bunnie, Antoine and Julie-Su dropped by and Satoshi explained to them what had happened. To say the least they were shocked that Sonic almost let his dark half take over but were relieved when he told them that he gained Spirit Force. Now everyone else needed to work harder to gain their spirit force so that they could face the Necks in full power, so they decided to spend the day in training and helping each other out, also to let those who suffered the horrible night rest for a bit.

"So Sonic and Blaze are still sleeping?" asked Sally.

"Yeah, both of them were exhausted last night" said Rin. "Heck Tails and I are still kinda tiered"

"Yeah" said Tails with a yawn.

"Man last night had to be the worst night of my life" said Amy.

Isao then came to the living room with a huge grin on his face and with Yuffi behind him. Both were trying their hardest to contain their laughter. "You guys need to see this!" said Isao.

Confused Rin, Tails, Sally, Amy and Tails followed Isao and Yuffi until they go in front of Sonic's room. They were confused on why they brought them here and Isao slowly opened the door while Yuffi turned on her camera. What they saw was shocking and at the same time adorable. On the bed, all cuddled up with one another, Sonic and Blaze lied there asleep with Sonic's head on her chest and her arms wrapped around him. Both were sleeping soundly and had a look of peace on their faces as they slept. A blush crept onto Rin, Tails, Sally and Amy's faces when they saw this but Rin was grinning like mad as she resisted a squeal on how adorable it looked. Amy looked shocked and slightly angry.

Isao let anime tears fall down his face. "He has become a man!" he whispered.

"Don't let your perverted thoughts wonder too much, I highly doubt they did anything" whispered Sally with a blush.

Yuffi then slowly crept into the room and took a picture of both of them sleeping. Man she was definitely going to bother them for this. After taking the picture she crept back out as they left. Once they returned back to the living room Yuffi let out a squeal of excitement.

"I knew it! I freaken knew it!" she exclaimed in pure joy while jumping up and down in chibi form. "Sonic does like Blaze!"

"Pay up Isao!" said Rin with an impish grin while turning her gaze to Isao.

Isao sighed and handed Rin the bet money. "I should have known that this might have happened, but a part of me wished that you were wrong" said Isao. "Guess I underestimated the intuition of two Otaku's"

Sally and Tails face-palmed, they should have guessed that those three had made a bet. Amy just stood up and walked out of the work-shop with an unreadable expression. Isao notes this while Yuffi and Rin were gushing over the picture.

"Is something wrong with Amy?" asked Isao.

Once those words left Isao's mouth Tails and Sally both paled and Yuffi and Rin stopped their gushing. Tails and Sally looked at each other and then back at Isao. "Well, the thing is that Amy has had a HUGE crush on Sonic for the longest time and she has tried EVERYTHING to get him to notice her" said Tails.

"I guess seeing him and Blaze like that must have hurt her" finished Sally. "She usually gets very jealous of any girl near Sonic, heck when I showed her the picture of you two she was pretty upset"

"That all depends, which picture?" asked Rin, then she thought about it for a moment and it hit her. "O that one"

"So in other words she must have thought that by pursuing him, he might gain feelings for her" said Yuffi, and then she sighed. "I'm going to be blunt but she knew that her feelings weren't being accepted and kept on pursuing it, I think that this might have been her wakeup call"

"Yuffi that's being harsh!" said Tails in annoyance.

"You wouldn't like it if it happened to you!" yelled Sally with the same tone as Tails.

Yuffi just stared at them with a serious look on her face. "You would be right, but remember all of us had to restrict our bonds"

Isao then stood up and walked to the door with a serious face. "Yuffi is right" he said with a tone that had a hint of sadness. "Trust me relationships don't belong in the field of battle, because there is no pain greater than losing someone you care about" and with that he left.

"What was that about?" wondered Sally.

Both Rin and Yuffi had serious looks on their faces, they knew why Isao had said that, and it was their lesson on the horrors the Necks had put them through and the cruelty of people who didn't understand.

"It's a long story" said Yuffi. "As surprising as it is, Isao actually had a girlfriend"

"WHAT!" yelled Sally and Tails in utter shock, to think that the perverted Isao had a girlfriend was unbelievable.

"Yup, her name's Saki" said Yuffi. "They were actually part of the same club so that's how they met. She was the only girl Isao didn't act all perverted around and she was the one who asked HIM out. Anyway long story short, she was put into a coma a year ago and Isao, although may look like he's alright, is actually still blaming himself for what happened and it's cause of what happened that we all learned that in order to protect those we care about and to prevent others from getting hurt it's best to stand clear of others"

"That's why he said that relationships don't belong in the battle field" replied Rin with a sad look on her face. "We need to be focused and we can't do that if we get into relationships now. That's why on that day a year ago we all decided, that no matter what, we wouldn't fall in love"

"Enough of that already" said Yuffi while standing up. "I'm going to go train" and with that she grabbed her sword and left.

"Same here" replied Rin while strapping her sword on her back and leaving.

Sally and Tails were left in shock. The fact that they had sacrificed so much due to the Necks of Orochi was sickening. Sally herself couldn't believe that they had literally said that they wouldn't fall in love because they didn't want anyone to get hurt. But the more she thought of it she couldn't understand why they would make such a decision. Was it really that bad?

"Sally?" asked Tails when he noticed that Sally had been lost in her train of thought.

Once her name was heard she snapped out of her train of thought and gave him a weak smile. "Sorry I was lost in thought. I think I'm going to train for a bit too" she said with a small laugh. "After all we need to gain spirit force in order to fight these guys"

"Alright then" said Tails, still not fully convinced her behavior but he let it slide for now. "I'm going to work on the X-tornado for a bit with Mioko, she said that she would help with some modifications"

Meanwhile Junichi was working on his hand-to-hand combat skills in the forest. Occasionally he would charge up electricity in his hands to strike and some sparks would fly out. He also focused his electricity to the area around him to get a better charge. This very much required intense focus and it required him to be very careful, because he was dealing with a very high voltage of electricity in his body here!

*Crash*

When he heard that crash he ALMOST lost his focused and a small rail of electricity escaped from him and hit a tree, leaving a rather noticeable burn mark on the side of the tree. He sweat dropped and laughed nervously to himself. "Well at least it wasn't a huge spark"

He decided to walk to the source of the crash and then he heard many repeated crashes as he got closer. At first he thought that it was Rin training with ether Sally or Espio but he was surprised to see that it was Amy with her Piko Piko Hammer. From what he saw she was practicing her swing but he's been around his female friends long enough to know the difference of practicing and venting anger. A part of him wanted to just leave until she was calm but there was this other part of him that wanted to help her out and figure out what's wrong. So, being the nice guy that he was, he cautiously walked over to her, being careful not to get hit.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID!" she yelled over and over while swinging her hammer. She then slammed her hammer down hard on the ground making the earth shake a bit and creating a very noticeable crater, guess Mioko's improvement worked when it comes to power on her hammer. "SONIC YOU FREAKIN IDIOT!" she screamed to the top of her lungs.

Just when she was about to slam her hammer against the ground again she was halted by the voice of Junichi behind her asking what was wrong. She stops mid-way and slowly turns to see the blond hedgehog staring at her with a puzzled look on his face. She laughs nervously at him while a sweat drop forms on the side of her head.

"Oh…Uh…Hi Junichi" she said nervously while putting her hammer behind her.

Junichi blinked a couple of times before asking. "So is this how you usually deal with anger?"

Amy started to sweat a bit as a blush covered her face. She couldn't believe that he saw here little 'episode' and was completely embarrassed. Junichi sensed her embarrassment and couldn't help but let out a small smile. "Want to talk about it?" he asked.

Shocked by his question she let out a noticeable sigh. She thought that maybe talking about this might help her cool down a bit, but she was still pissed off beyond belief. They eventually sat down near a tree stump and Junichi offered Amy a bottle of water to cool her head. She drank some of the water and then started explaining to Junichi why she was so mad. At first his face spread with embarrassment at what she was saying, but then it faded when she had also said that it looked like nothing had happened between Sonic and Blaze. He also didn't find it surprising that Isao, Yuffi and Rin had made a bet considering the matter.

"…For some reason I've kinda known that Sonic had feelings for Blaze and that he only saw me as a friend but, I don't know" she said with a sigh.

"I've had a suspicion that Sonic did have feelings for Blaze and something did tell me that the feelings are mutual. But the only thing that I have to say is that someone you like, likes another is always hard, but sometimes something's aren't meant to be" replied Junichi.

"Yeah I get what you mean" said Amy. "But that doesn't make it hurt less"

"Sometimes the person you least expect is actually the right one for you" said Junichi. "But know this, relationships don't belong in the battle field. It will only cause pain if you do, so I would stand clear from those feelings if I were you"

"That's kinda harsh" she replied with slight anger. "Why would you say that Junichi!?"

"It's the truth Amy" he said back while standing up. "There is no pain greater than losing someone you care about. Isao went through that pain and he still suffers to this day, he just doesn't show it"

Amy looked at the blond hedgehog with slight sad eyes. She wondered if what happened to Isao was so bad that they decided to shut themselves from everyone except themselves. She also took what he said before into consideration. After all she was wondering why she wasn't all over Sonic since they came back from Kamihime. Also she found herself spending more and more time with the said blond hedgehog. The same thing happened with Junichi, he always knew that he was a person who was easily embarrassed but he always found himself blushing whenever Amy would smile at him or even hold his hand. He knew what he was feeling but he also knew that he couldn't feel such things, at least not in this situation. He decided to put that thought in the back of his head for now.

"Anyway, want to spar with me" asked Junichi.

"Yeah I don't see why not" said Amy while standing up. "Might get my mind off of things"

Junichi couldn't help but let a small smile come to his face and a slight laugh.

"Come *Pant* on, once *Pant* more"

"A-are you sure Asami you're almost out of breath"

"Just one more time, I think I've got it this time"

"Ok then"

Silver closed his eyes and focused another attack in his hands. He's been training with Asami for a few weeks now and they were steadily getting stronger and discovering some new abilities along the way. In their last training session Asami noticed something with her teleporting powers and she wanted to see if it wasn't just a fluke. Part of her was hoping that it might be a sign that her powers are improving. Asami dusted off some dirt from her short purple dress and sleeveless black and pink hooded jacket. She clenched her black gloved hands and waited for Silver's next attack. Once his eyes opened he sent a large arch of psychic energy towards her and she, in response, held up her hands in front of her face to block the attack. She focused her spiritual energy into her hands as the attack made contact. She was being pushed back by the pressure of the attack but she was determined to keep her footing. Sadly she was having trouble keeping the attack stable and it blew up in front of her. The impact of the explosion sends her flying back and after rolling in the ground for a few moments she managed to gain her footing again. She let out a loud sigh of frustration.

Silver fixed his black and teal gloves and also the neck of his gray jacket with white fur around the edges, along with a black shirt and dark jeans tucked into his usual boots. He ran over to the red fox to see if she was alright.

Asami punched the ground and cursed under her breath. "Why doesn't it work!" she said while panting a bit.

"Well it could be that you're trying to hard" said Silver. "Anyway we shouldn't try to force it Asami, who knows it might just have been a fluke"

Asami stood up and looked at the silver colored hedgehog with a stern look. "Silver, in the battle field there is no such thing as a fluke" she said. "I know I can do that move again, I just know it" she clenched her fist. "That one time I blocked your attack while we were training, I have no idea what happened b-"

"You were able to teleport 'Psycho Cutter' behind you, completely missing its target, yeah I know!" said Silver. "It shocked me when I first saw it but you haven't been able to do it since"

"This is the only lead I have into trying to obtain Spirit Force" she said. "Maybe, just maybe this is the key that I need to unlock it"

"I'm not too sure about that" said Silver. "And besides, you need to rest and calm down. If what Rin and Tsubaki said, if your too tense it disrupts the flow of spiritual energy right?"

"Yeah you have a point" she said as she whipped her brow. "Might as well take a break from this. Thanks for helping me though"

"No problem" said Silver with a smile.

Asami returned the smile. She didn't know why but whenever she wanted to train she always asked Silver. She didn't think anything of it but something in the back of her mind was nagging her about it, but she couldn't place her finger on it. She decided to ignore it for now.

Near the waterfall of Leaf Storm, Rin was sitting on a rock with her legs crossed and her sword on her lap with her eyes closed. She was meditating with Hakudoshi in order to keep the flow of energy around them clear and also to strengthen their bond. Hakudoshi knew that something was bothering his mistress due to the incident the night before but he also knew that there was something else bothering her. Rin then opened her eyes and she found herself back in the plain where she had her trial with Hakudoshi, only this time she was in front of what looked like a destroyed manor surrounded by shrine like gates and she was standing on a stone tablet in front of the manor. She turned around and saw Hakudoshi standing before her with a concerned look on his bishonen face.

"Bocchan, I know there is something bothering you" said Hakudoshi with concern.

"There's nothing wrong Hakudoshi" replied Rin. "I'm just trying to channel my spiritual energy so it can link with yours"

"You know better than to lie to me" he said sternly.

Rin turned her gaze back to the destroyed manor and stared at it. There were many thought running through her head but the one that was most prominent was the one about Sonic and Blaze. She had been thinking on how their mutual feelings for each other might end in tragedy since she knew that what the Necks were capable of. After all, the memory of what happened a year ago was still fresh in her mind and it scared all of them, but Isao was the one who was scared the most. She let out a sigh. She also remembered that it was the first time she ever saw Yuffi crack.

"Rin"

She and Hakudoshi heard a faint voice that Rin recognized and she told him that she was going to head back to the physical world. Before she left, Hakudoshi told her that if she ever needed someone to talk to that he was there always by her side. She smiled at his words and thanked him.

Rin opened her eyes and after her eyes returned focus she was met with a pair of blue eyes. She recognized those eyes as being Kaiko's and she blinked in surprise. He was standing before her wearing a sleeveless black shirt with a silver cross pattern on the left side, dark gray knee long pants with matching boots and lastly dark blue gloves on his hands. Rin couldn't help but let a small blush tint her cheeks when she noticed how close they were. In response Kaiko only cocked his head to the side and moved back a bit.

"So what were you doing just now?" he asked.

Snapping out of her thoughts she responded. "I was trying to channel my spiritual energy with Hakudoshi to try and put our wavelengths in sync"

Kaiko only had a look of confusion on his face. "Is that something ninja's do?" he asked.

"Sometimes but its more common with Shinto Priests and Priestesses" explained Rin. "Tsubaki taught me how to channel spiritual energy a few years back"

"Mind if you teach me how to do the same?" asked Kaiko.

Rin was at first taken back at what he said. "You want to learn how to channel spiritual energy? But you already have control over your powers"

"I know but I feel like I'm not taping into my full extent. I think that I need to learn more about channeling in order to discover the full extent of my powers" explained Kaiko.

"Well you'll need to talk to Tsubaki about that. She knows more about spiritual energy better than I do, but I can teach you the basics though" said Rin.

"Alright" said Kaiko while sitting on the rock in front of Rin and crossing his legs. "So what do we do first?" he asked.

"You need to clear your mind from any thoughts and focus on your spiritual energy once that happens you need to try and feel the energy around you" explained Rin. "Just close your eyes and focus"

Kaiko did as he was told and closed his eyes. Further away from them Tsubaki was about to ask Rin for a sparring match until he saw that Kaiko was there with her. She saw the two of them and couldn't help but smile at the two of them. She decided to let them be as she started walking back to the workshop.

Tsubaki let out a small giggle as she was walking away. "What is so amusing Tsubaki-sama?" asked Konohana in her mind.

"O nothing" responded Tsubaki. "Just that there is nothing more precious than seeing young love bloom"

Blaze's eyes slowly fluttered opened as her eyes took a few moments to focus. She felt something snuggled up to her and a slight breathing on her neck. Her eyes shifted downwards and she saw Sonic's sleeping form beside her, with one of his arms wrapped securely around her waist. It took a few moments for her mind to register until she remembered what happened the night before. She was a bit shaken up on what had happened but decided to put that in the back of her mind as she saw his sleeping form. In a few short moments his eyes fluttered opened meeting her amber colored eyes. Both of them just stared at each other until a light pink blush tinted their cheeks as their eyes went wide slightly since they had realized their current position. Also Sonic could hear Zephyros laughing in his head. Awkwardly both of them got out of the bed and Sonic scratched the back of his head.

"Well…did you sleep well?" he asked not knowing what to say.

"I slept fine, you?" she asked back.

"Yeah" was his reply. "Well everyone is probably up, we should go"

"Right" was her reply.

The two of them walked out of the room and started walking to the garage. "Well master I didn't know you had it in you" said Zephyros in his mind while letting out an amuse laugh.

"Shut up!" replied as his cheeks started heating up again. "Nothing happened!"

"But you were very bold last night" he retorted back. "Grabbing her and then asking for her consent"

His cheeks reddened even more with what the wind spirit said. "Stop it! You're making it sound perverted" he yelled in his head.

"But you are a growing man; it's only natural to feel such things with a woman" he said again.

"END OF CONVERSATION!" Sonic yelled in his mind.

Blaze didn't notice the redness in his cheeks because she was in a conversation with Iblis. He was unpleased by the fact that she and Sonic spend the night together. Iblis was slightly grinding his teeth. "I told you Iblis nothing happened" she thought sternly.

"I still wonder what you see in that blue hedgehog" he retorted. "And furthermore he practically forced you to stay with him!"

"He had a rough night so it was only natural he would want my company" she replied again in thought. "Besides my decisions are my own and I don't see why this bothers you so much"

"I still think you're a bit too young and for the time being I must protect your innocence" he said with a slight huff.

Her cheeks started to heat up a bit at that comment. "I can handle myself perfectly thank you!"

The spirit of Iblis only puffed his cheeks out more and crossed his arms. This was one of the few times that Iblis acted more like an elder brother since he was insanely protective of her especially since his views are a bit old fashioned. She knew he meant well but it can annoy her sometimes.

They soon got to the garage where they saw Tails and Mioko working with a plane and Aya helping out. Aya was the first to notice and ran over to them. This time she was wearing a black short sleeved top with a white ruffled skirt and black leggings. She also had her hair styled in two ponytails, white gloves and red sneakers.

"'Bout time the two of you got up" she said with excitement.

"So you guys have been working on this since this morning?" asked Sonic.

Mioko turned and gave them a kind smile. "Yes. We've been working here while the others are training" she said.

"Yeah Sis is training with Silver and Bro is training with Sally" said Aya with a smile. "The others are training too!"

"I heard that Chikane is training with Rouge and Knuckles and I think Team Chaotix is training with Satoshi" said Tails. "Not sure where Tsubaki went off to though"

"Wow it would seem that everyone is working hard" said Blaze with a small smile. "We should do the same".

And with that Sonic and Blaze stormed off to do some training. As they left Mioko let out a small laugh and smile. "Ah how nice it is to be young" she thought.

"Mioko is something wrong?" asked Tails.

"Nothing" she said. "Anyway let's get back to work"

Sonic and Blaze dashed around Mystic Ruins, looking for a very secluded spot to train since he wanted to try and tap into his Spirit Force again. Blaze just wanted to see how long it would take for her to obtain Spirit Force. The two of them eventually stopped in a large plain, but they saw a familiar figure sitting on a rock.

Yuffi sat on a large boulder with her eyes closed, one of her legs was hanging down from the boulder while her other was up, with her elbows on her knee and gripping her sword. She opened her eyes when she sensed two familiar presences and her eyes focused to see Sonic and Blaze walking towards her.

She jumped off the boulder and grinned at them. "So how did you two sleep?" she said with a chuckle.

The pair blushed and looked away from each other while Sonic scratched the side of his head. "Ok I guess" he replied with a not so convincing voice.

Yuffi couldn't help but let out a laugh as she turned her head to look at the plain. "I have to say, this place is perfect for training, you really have nothing to worry about in terms of destroying anything" she said.

"Didn't expect you here, so have any idea where the others are?" asked Sonic.

"Well Rouge and Knuckles are training with Chikane and Aya. I have no idea where Ichiro went though I have a guess he's with Chaotix trying something out, Satoshi is probably training as well. As for Isao and Junichi I can't say" she explained. "Rin also went to do some training and I think Mayu and Tsubaki are looking for medical herbs"

"Wow seems like everyone is keeping themselves busy" said Blaze.

"Well who could blame us, considering what happened yesterday I bet everyone is on edge" she said. "So you two going to train too?"

"Yeah I want to see if I can tap into Spirit Force again and this time control it" said Sonic.

"And I want to try and obtain mine" replied Blaze. "I bet your trying to do the same"

"Yeah, but so far no luck" said Yuffi. "I was never good at focusing spiritual energy so Kageboshi is helping me out"

"That's weird I always thought you knew how to focus your powers to flow within you" said Blaze with a noticeable shock in her voice.

"I've always had trouble controlling my powers, as embarrassing as it is to admit it. The root cause of it is because of my temper" explained Yuffi. "Kageboshi says it's because they rely heavily on my emotions"

Blaze and Sonic stayed quiet. Blaze knew how she felt since when she was a child she had problems controlling her own flames. She had managed to gain some control over them and she was able to fully control them once she made friends with Sonic and his friends. But she was indeed shocked that Yuffi still had problems controlling her own powers.

"Why can't you control them all that well?" asked Sonic.

Yuffi's eyes became distant as she clenched her fist. "Because who I am, hates what I'm becoming"

She decided not to tell them anymore than that and she started to walk away. She stopped for a moment and told them. "Oh and one more thing I need to tell you guys" both Sonic and Blaze's ears perked when she said that. "Don't go getting yourselves killed, alright" and with that she walked away.

Sonic and Blaze were a bit in shock with what she had told them. Blaze had a suspicion that deep down, Yuffi hated her own powers. She wondered if it was because it gave birth to the darkness in her heard, Kura. If that was the case she then started to wonder if Rin had a similar thought to her own powers.

"Hello earth to Blaze" said Sonic while waving his hand in front of her face.

"Huh?" she asked as she faced Sonic.

"You ok?" he asked.

"I was just thinking, I wonder why Yuffi said that" she replied.

"She has her own issues to clear up, and I don't think she's ready to talk about them yet" said Sonic. "I think if we poke our noses too much we might end up losing them"

"Your right but still, something is troubling her" said Blaze.

Yuffi continued her path back to the workshop until she felt an all too familiar presence behind her. She stopped and gripped the hilt of her sword and prepared herself. Then she felt a cold breath breathing down her neck.

"Why do you continue to resist me?"

"Because you're that annoying thorn on my side that I just can't get rid of" replied Yuffi with a cold voice.

"Now, now, don't be mean, after all you can't get rid of me, because if you do then that means putting an end to your life"

"You better not harm my friends" said Yuffi.

"Deep down them will betray you in the end. So why not beat them by attacking first"

"Because that's not the way of the samurai. I'm born to protect those around me" she said.

"Stop with that bullshit already it gets old. The reason you resist me is because you fear me. But don't worry about that, because the moment when you least expect it, that one shred of weakness you show me, that's when I will strike you down and crush you"

"And why are you telling me this?" she asked.

"Just a reminder" and with that the presence left.

Yuffi took a deep breath and released the tight grip on the hilt of her sword. She looked at her hand and opened and closed it to ease the slight pain she had on it from holding the hilt to hard. She was glad that she's wearing gloves now, because of she wasn't then her hand would have been covered in blood right now. She continued walking as one thought ran though her mind.

"Just how long can I keep this up?"