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The applause for Rouge after her announcement was nearly deafening. I guess the audience wanted to apologize for laughing at the song, in a way. Her attack on Knuckles during the song was rather brutal.

I had finally made my way back to the audience and to my chair. The teahouse seemed to have swelled since the night had started. There were definitely more people here now than there had been at the beginning of the event. I could see why, though: the performances were a ton more entertaining than they would have been had this been at a bar and we all had been drunk.

The announcer took the stage once the applause had died down, and tapped the microphone as he cleared his throat. According to the program, there were only two performances left: a mystery guest, and then that Stealth guy. I guess that Stealth was known enough to not be considered a mystery, but I was still puzzled about him.

"Ahem. Next up to sing is a very special guest from an alternate dimension. Give it up for the princess Blaze the Cat!"

The announcer stepped away from the microphone as the curtain rolled back, and the audience broke into applause as Blaze stepped forth into the light. I clapped as well, being polite. Blaze surely fit the 'mystery guest' stereotype. We had only had one or two encounters with her, and Sonic really had more experience around her than I did. I admit I had been too caught up in my grief over Cosmo to pay attention to her.

She pulled up a bar stool to the microphone, sat upon it, then adjusted the mic to fit her height. She had an acoustic guitar with her, and I could see Silver standing on stage behind her with a violin, apparently playing background music for the song. I was shocked to see Silver, though. We hadn't seen him around in ages.

There wasn't much known about Silver either. We'd never had an adventure with the psychic hedgehog, and really only knew him through stories Blaze had told, and pictures she carried. It was obvious she held high respect for the hedgehog, and possibly more than that, but her being royalty and him being commoner, Blaze was obviously afraid of the ramifications.

"Greetings. As announced, my name is Blaze the Cat. I will be performing the song 'Already Over,' as popularized by the band Red. I hope you enjoy my performance." Her voice was soft, but regal. She was nervous, but in her eyes there resided a spark of determination. I had a feeling this was going to be another one of those heartbreaking songs as seemed to be popular tonight.

She picked up her guitar and adjusted the strap on it, letting it rest across her legs. It was already tuned, and she ran a hand over the strings, letting its tone echo throughout the establishment as a sign for silence. She was obviously waiting for Silver to start, but the hedgehog looked troubled. He walked up to her and whispered in her ear, his words completely inaudible to the rest of us. Blaze blushed, then leaned into the microphone again.

"Uh... can anyone play the drums? My backup here needs a beat to play with..."

A spattering of laughter rippled through the audience, and I looked around. Stealth had his hand in the air, and Blaze pointed him out.

"You, with your hand in the air. You know this song?" He nodded. "Okay, we can use you, please."

Stealth spread his wings and flew from his seat to the stage in one gentle leap, barely disturbing the air around him. I would have been amazed had I not already seen him do the same movement in battle. He had the curtains opened further to allow the drum set to be revealed, which was smart on his part; the curtains would have muffled the sound and threw off the music for the rest of the teahouse. He took his place on the drum throne and picked up the drumsticks that had been left by the Chaotix, then adjusted his height until he was comfortable. Once everything was in order, he nodded to Silver.

Silver began the song with a gentle stroke of his bow over the strings of the violin. A sufficient tone echoed throughout the teahouse, and Blaze followed the intro with single plucks of the strings from her guitar. I'd heard the song before, and it was obvious the part that the cat was playing was normally played by a piano player. A few seconds into the intro, Stealth began playing the drums, in a perfect imitation of the rhythm used for this particular song.

The violin slowly grew louder, and the guitar playing faded from the piano part into a custom acoustic part. It was quite genius, actually. The drums followed the swell of the music, and it was obvious that Stealth very much knew this song.

Silver's eyes were closed by now, losing himself in his music. I could see Blaze looking at him out of the corner of her eyes, as if she was expecting him to falter, even though she hadn't begun singing yet.

She contented with his playing, she leaned gently into the microphone.

_ "You never go... you're always here..." _

Her singing voice was shaky, yet sultry. It sounded like she was used to singing... at least to herself.

_ "Under my skin... I can not run away... fading slowly..." _

The music began swelling, and I was already on the edge of my seat, as was most of the people in the teahouse. Her voice had that much of an effect. Even Rouge and her mother looked intrigued.

_ "I'd give it all to you, letting go of me, reaching as I fall... I know it's already over now! Nothing left to lose, loving you again... I know it's already over, already over now..." _

Blaze's eyes were closed now, the cat becoming lost in her own music. It was amazing, the amount of chills that were cascading down my spine. I knew I wasn't alone. I could see people shivering in the crowd around me, and even Stealth's drumming seemed to be slightly affected. It seemed perhaps the only people unaffected were Silver and Blaze herself.

"_ My best defense... running from you..." _

Heh, that sounded a lot like Sonic. Then again, Blaze was from an alternate dimension, where she was acting the part of Sonic in our own world. But then...

_ "I can't resist... take all you _ want _ from me... breaking slowly..." _

If Blaze was the alternate Sonic, then Silver's part was that of...?

_ "I'd give it all to you, letting go of me, reaching as I fall... I know it's already over now! Nothing left to lose, loving you again... I know it's already over, already over now..." _

It was beginning to make sense to me now! Sonic came here tonight to profess his love for Amy. I could guess that this song was the same thing for Blaze, to profess her love to Silver. True, it was only a guess, but the lyrics were affirming my prediction...

I was too far lost in my thoughts that I had looked into my lap rather than at the stage. A bright flash of light interrupted my thinking and caused me to snap my head back to the stage. Blaze had erupted into flames!

_ "You're ALL I'M REACHING FOR! It's already over... ALL I'M REACHING FOOOOR! It's already over now..." _

The flames died down around her body, and I realized that she had briefly broken into her super form, probably as a way to catch the attention of Silver. It had worked. His playing had been interrupted and he was having trouble getting his bearings again, but that was fine. Stealth continued to play, albeit quite a bit softer than he had been playing. Blaze continued the song more or less alone on her guitar.

_ "I'd give it all to you... I'd offer up my soul... It's already over now..." _

She deviated from the song here, continuing her solo playing but allowing her singing voice to die off. It looked like she was crying, and her voice began to crack. She sounded as if she was filled with sorrow.

"_ Give it all to you... letting go of me... reaching as I fall... I know it's already over now! Nothing left to lose, I'm loving you AGAIN! It's already over, ALREADY OVER now..." _

The music died from her fingertips and from her voice, and Stealth stopped playing. Silver had long since quit trying to catch up, instead taking the time to listen to the lyrics of the song his friend was playing. It looked as if he had never heard the lyrics before, and had just practiced the song itself, at Blaze's urging.

Blaze was sobbing into the microphone, and trying to hide it. But muffled sobs are sometimes louder than sobs that are not muffled. The teahouse was silent, unable to say or do anything, not knowing how to react. Granted, this was not the first time tonight someone had erupted into tears on stage, but it was the first time someone had erupted into flames while doing so.

The fires burned fiercely, but didn't do anything to the stage or the stool. They were concentrated on Blaze's person, seemingly just an illusion. My vision was focused solely on Blaze, so when Silver touched her shoulder it surprised me as much as it surprised the princess.

She jerked her head up and looked directly at the silver hedgehog, her eyes full of tears. He placed his other hand on her chin, lifted her face gently, and kissed her.

It would have been really funny if someone had broken wind right then. Thankfully, nobody did anything of the sort. For almost a minute nobody breathed or moved a muscle. The kiss between the two broke, and the fires died down, Blaze once again reverting her normal form. They stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like an eternity, and they I heard Silver speak, his voice picked up by the microphone.

"It's not over."

They kissed again, and the teahouse exploded into applause.