A/N

I'll specify ahead of time that this is based on the issue description of Issue 4 of the upcoming IDW Sonic series. Obviously this is entirely projection-based (including Tangle) and it'll be redundant two months after writing this (one month after posting), but figured I could have some fun in the meantime.

It Will End in Fire

The badniks were less than nothing to her.

Granted, that was the same as Eggman Nega's creations. They were nothing. The doctor of her world was a bit more than nothing, but she defeated him all the same. These badniks though, these egg-shaped walking automatons that existed just to be destroyed, were less than nothing. Two-hundred years of development (and dimensional flux and all that) didn't seem to have given Eggman Nega significantly more advanced robots than his counterpart in this world, but even then, the difference was there. Eggman Nega's creations were nothing. These badniks were less than nothing. And so, in a brief rush of fire and fury, she had destroyed them. Scattering their metal husks over the scorched earth. Either their metal would be salvaged, or would be returned to the earth from whence it came.

She could have taken some satisfaction from that if not for the knowledge that defeating these badniks was but a drop in the ocean. And that she wasn't the only one responsible for their defeat. Sonic was there as well, destroying the badniks, making up for in speed where he lacked in fire. Plus there was that lemur whose tail was being used like a club – Tangle, or Tumble, she couldn't be sure. She didn't particularly care either. She was here, in this world, and this world, from what she could tell, had nearly been destroyed, and might still be destroyed as the legions of Doctor Eggman fought over the ashes.

"Wassup?"

And Sonic didn't seem to care, she reflected, as he screeched up to her, grinning like an idiot. Perhaps he did care, and was just that good at hiding it. Or perhaps he didn't care at all, and was one step short of psychopathy.

"Hello," she murmured.

She didn't believe either explanation could really be applied to the hedgehog. He didn't seem to fit anything. She'd wondered if Sonic could be considered her dimensional counterpart, but it was a counterpart that only fit in by half – similar speed, similar sneakers, similar doctor enemies, but different species and personalities.

"I asked wassup."

Case in point. She sighed, and said "fine, thank you."

"No need to be so formal."

"And is there a need to be as blasé as you are?"

"Bla…what?"

"Never mind."

She looked at the village – Greendale, Greenvale, Green…something? Another name that she'd forget by the time she returned to her world. Not that it was very green, rather a mix of red, black, and brown. Red from the fire, brown from the dirt, black from the few trees that had been left standing. The badniks may have been nothing to her, but to the people here, they'd been their potential end. Would have been their end if she, Sonic, and Tangle/Tumble hadn't intervened.

"Yo."

And there came the lemur, Blaze thought. Using her tail to bound up through the air. She didn't think lemurs could do that. Then again, most cats didn't possess pyrokinesis (well, most people of any species didn't possess pyrokinesis anyway), so who was she to judge?

"That was fun," the lemur said. She looked at Blaze. "Why so glum Princess?"

"I am not glum, Tumble."

"Tangle."

"What?"

"Tangle. Name's Tangle. One word, two syllables. Pretty easy to remember."

Blaze forced a smile. "I'll do my best to remember that."

"Hmm." Tangle looked back at the village. "Well, anyway, what do we do now? Get back to the Resistance?"

Sonic shrugged. "Amy's got it handled."

"Yeah. So handled we had to step in."

"It's what I do."

They did a fist bump, and Tangle headed off. Blaze watched her go, wondering if irreverence was somehow linked to this dimension. Probably not – Marine was still in her world – but even so, when Eggman Nega had attacked, the people partitioned her for aid in a manner befitting their status as subjects of the crown. The people here were either quivering in fear, or in the case of Sonic and company, dealing with the fear by not showing any of it and treating the world like a joke.

She didn't understand it. Years of dimension hopping, trying to open up, even being sucked into white space by the Time Eater, and she still didn't understand it any more than as to how she'd ended up in Sonic's world yet again, and what she might do this time to return. She crossed her arms and frowned – fires were still raging in Greendale/vale/gale/something. Fires that she couldn't put out.

"What's up?"

Blaze looked at Sonic. "I believe you already asked that question."

"Yeah, well, like an answer now. Like why you're here, how you're here-"

"I cannot answer."

"…and how you've been."

She stiffened. "Fine," she murmured.

"Fine? That all I get?"

"I have been fine." Her eyes narrowed. "There. You get a sentence."

"But not a paragraph?"

Oh for goodness sake! Blaze steadied her breathing as she felt her right hand twitching. She didn't know why she was here, or…well, she realized, she didn't know much at all. Only that she was here, and Sonic's world was in ruins, and wasn't sure whether she could do anything about that. Or if she should. She'd heard rumours of yet another hedgehog popping into this world – maybe dimensions were breaking down or something. If so…

She sighed, and licked her paw. She wanted a shower. A nice long shower where fire would be far from her mind. She-

"What?" she asked Sonic. He was staring at her.

"Um…"

"Yes, I clean myself, thanks for asking."

"Oh. I didn't…um…you don't have showers?"

"Don't you?"

"Well, running water isn't that common these days."

"And what is common?"

"Badniks, badniks, and more badniks." He stretched. "Figure I can have some fun while I save what's left of the planet."

Blaze opened her mouth, but no words came out. She had been going to comment on his apparent lack of care for his world, but looking at Sonic now, how he looked at the people, at the fires, at the badnik wrecks that littered the ground…he did care. In his own way. Perhaps the lack of care was his way of coping. Perhaps the lack of care was natural, and that made saving the world an easy feat for him. She couldn't say. And yet, looking at the fires, looking how smoke was carried into the sky, a reddish glow being cast by the setting sun…

Fires. Cities. Demons. Ruins.

"I've been here," she murmured.

Sonic looked at her. "Huh?"

Rent earth. Blackened sky. Death. The end.

"I…" She shook her head. "Nothing."

Iblis. Trigger. Chaos. Silver.

"Go on, you can tell me."

She shook her head. "Nothing to tell."

"Liar."

She hissed as only a cat could, but bit her tongue before any claws came out. "I…oh, dreams, I used to have. That I was in a destroyed world overrun by monsters. No sun, no life, no hope. Monsters everywhere."

She expected Sonic to laugh. The hedgehog could find a reason to laugh at anything, so why not now? Except he didn't. Instead he had a hand under his chin, and looked deep in thought.

Trying something new then?

"Fool's dreams," Blaze said. Silently telling herself that she was telling Sonic that, and not her.

"Oh, I dunno…" He looked at her. "Think I saw something like that once."

She blinked. "You did?"

"Yeah. Back with the Time Eater thing. One of the worlds I visited was…well, it was gone, y'know? A ruined city, everything burning, monsters everywhere…"

She didn't ask him for more details – she feared the possible answer.

"And it was weird," Sonic continued, frowning. "I mean, every other place I went was somewhere I recognised, but not that city. I'd never been there. And my shorter, tubbier counterpart doesn't say much, but he hadn't been there either. And yet, it was like I knew it somehow…like…"

"A dream?" Blaze asked.

"Yeah." He stretched, and by the time he'd done, that goofy grin was back on his face. "Well, no biggie right?"

"No biggie," Blaze said. "Provided that the world here and now doesn't become like that."

"It won't," Sonic said.

"Really? Because I-"

"It won't," Sonic repeated. "Eggman tried, Infinite tried, Eggman Nega tried. And it won't. Not on my watch. Not now. Not ever."

Blaze nodded. She didn't doubt his words, or at least the sincerity behind them. But the results behind the intent? She couldn't say. But as memories whispered within her mind, as Greendale (yes, it definitely was dale) smouldered, Blaze was reminded of one of the facts of the multiverse.

Everything burned.