LEGACY OF THE SURVIVOR
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in the fanfic that follows, Only the concept of the story that surrounds them.
"Why me?" I couldn't help but whisper between the sobs.
It's a question we all ask ourselves in times of hardship. I've uttered it a handful of times in my own life as I was bound, trapped and captured.
This was the first time I said it because I was lucky, chosen and free...
As the stars, planets and emptiness of space swirled and spun around and past me faster and faster, I could almost call it beautiful...
If only he could see it with me...
"Sonic..."
It was supposedly just another crisis, another adventure, another battle where good would triumph over evil.
And again, there I was, useless as ever...
As my friends and fellow refugees cried at the loss of all they had known, I cried myself to sleep that I was too weak to stand out there, on the front lines with my comrades and make even the tiniest difference.
No one knows when they arrived, Tails and Robotnik say that the extreme cold of the north pole had slowed and restrained their progress. But once that they had reached the warmer parts of the temperate north, and finally were discovered, it was already too late.
The Nameless...
Looking like little more than some dark purple ooze that dissolved all it touched, it all belied its terrible sentience and malice.
Had it been mindless, creeping slime, maybe then things would have been different, but it moved strategically, methodically. Taking its time to slowly consume the planet moving from the north pole southward, forcing us to 'Final Haven', the last outpost of humanity, at the south pole, with the Nameless moving ever closer, surrounding us on all sides.
As a friend of our champions, the bravest warriors who battled the impossible fight to protect what little remained, I was granted the highest level of clearance to the military outpost. I kept myself busy, filing, running minor errands and such, but one could hardly call it helping...
Not when my friends returned every day in ever-dwindling numbers...
So many had already fallen, Shadow, Silver, Blaze, Knuckles, Rouge Robotnik...
Yet we continued to fall, and as the remaining few survivors wept in despair and hopelessness as we slowly realized there would be no victory for us...
I wept as well, not in mourning of those who had bravely sacrificed their all, not in despair as even my hopeful demeanor crumbled in the face of our bleak reality, not even in anger at these Nameless for all they had done...
I wept at how high the stakes were, and how I was all alone as the one too weak to help...
So carried on the last few days in our dying world... Until I woke up there for the last time...
If you could somehow lump me in with them, there were only three of us left, Sonic, Tails and myself.
The pathetic remnants of the worlds military and the ones left alive were particularly somber that day. Those who would cry, those who would scream, all were silent that day, as though they all knew something I didn't...
"Amy Rose?"
I turned in a bit of surprise, as the lieutenant who had addressed me had uttered what could only have be the ninth phrase I had heard all morning.
"Yes?" I replied.
"They are requesting your presence in bunker theta, ma'am."
I was taken aback. They could only be Sonic and Tails... But Sonic had been avoiding me for the longest time, always out there fighting during all the waking hours of the day, and nowhere to be found at night.
And Tails... He had become so terribly reclusive after he had lost his left arm in a battle against the Nameless a week ago. Never leaving that bunker, and saying so very little to anyone that entered, even me...
"Ma'am?"
"Oh..." I shook my head, chasing the terrible memories from my mind. "Thank you, I'll head right over..."
The lieutenant nodded and saluted me. "Always for tomorrow," our rallying cry, motto and a constant reminder of our goal, to survive for one more day...
"Always for tomorrow," I replied with a respectful bow before I walked towards the bunker, in the very heart of Final Haven.
The base remained eerily silent, despite the large number of people I passed. Countless soldiers marching in the opposite direction, towards the defensive line. Many civilians, who looked so empty inside, accepting the inevitable.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I swiped my I.D. card through the security device outside theta, I did realize how terrible our situation was, but I always held that tiny little light of hope deep within my heart. Sonic had always come through, had always done the impossible, how could this time be any different?
The door before me slid open, the light of the sun illuminating the otherwise dimly-lit room. I had respected Tails' wishes and not visited him in the bunker for the last few days, and it was almost like a completely different place. Mechanical parts and electronic bits lay scattered all over the floor, a symbol of how the injury had changed Tails, usually the biggest neat freak of us all. The room was dominated by a large glass sphere with countless cables, diodes and monitors over its surface. Below it, connected by the cables and components was Knuckles' charge, the Master Emerald.
"Hey Amy," I turned to Tails' greeting. His robotic left arm large, bulky and ugly. "Glad you could come so quickly," he said with a hollow smile.
I nodded and tried my best to return a smile, but the misery and despair that permeated the air probably made it even less genuine than his. "Of course, I'm always glad to see you guys," though I silently noted that Sonic was nowhere to be found in the room.
Tails walked over to the device in the middle of the room, resting his organic right hand on the sleek glass. "How to you like it? Project Legacy..."
I of course know nowhere near as much about technology as he does, but anyone could tell at a glance how hard he had worked on it. "It's awe-inspiring," I replied truthfully as I slowly and carefully maneuvered around the parts on the floor towards him.
"We're not going to survive, you know," he said suddenly as he continued to stare at his latest creation.
I froze in mid-step. Of course I knew, we all knew, but somehow actually hearing it, especially from someone like Tails really drove the point home. Yet I couldn't bring myself to respond.
"I'm sorry," he continued. "I tried, I tried so damn hard to think of something, anything to stop the Nameless. But in the end, this is all that I could do, this is the culmination of all I can do... This is my legacy..."
I stood there, unsure of what to do. He spoke without sadness, without any emotion at all. Had he burst into tears, I could of walked over and hugged him. But the void in his voice seemed to say he had already died long ago...
"Tails," I finally said. "What..."
The room was suddenly filled with red spinning light as an alarm sounded, breaking us out of our somber trance.
"No..." he whispered. "No no NO! Not now, dammit!"
The door behind me hissed as it slid open, the klaxons across the base resounding in the distance, mixed with the sounds of weapons, shouted orders and battle filled my ears. I turned to the doorway, though I already knew who it had to be.
His blue quills seemed greyer, though still in his youthful prime, countless scars and wounds covered his body, and his voice had grown horse. None had given so much in this war, and it showed.
"Is it ready?" Sonic asked his friend as he walked to a compartment on the opposite wall.
Tails hung his head. "It is,.but... Amy... SHE isn't yet... She just got here..."
"Ready for what?" I asked. Though the door had shut and the alarm silenced, they acted as though they hadn't heard me.
Sonic punched in a long series of numbers into a keypad on the container on the wall with his trademark lightning speed, and it snapped open. Suddenly, the room was flooded with light of many colors, and the air suddenly pulsed with a familiar energy.
"The Chaos Emeralds..." I spoke in a hushed tone, filled with the awe of their power as always.
"Project Legacy is a go." Sonic said as he gathered up the seven gems and gently laid them down in a circle around him. "The Nameless know... somehow. They're mounting one more offensive. Hell or high water... They're going to end it now..." He chuckled softly to himself. "I'm authorized to use my full potential, we're going to carry out Operation Scorched Earth."
"I know..." Tails solemnly replied before finally turning to face and address me. "Amy, this is all we can do now, please try to understand."
My mind raced to place the puzzle pieces together. "But... Super Sonic's full potential? You've both explained to me countless times that while channeling the chaos energy, Sonic has so much power, he could easily destroy the entire world..."
Sonic stopped as he was carefully placing the third Emerald, though he did not turn to face me.
"That's right," Tails finally answered, and Sonic continued the ritual. "Amy, this war is long since lost. We don't know when the Nameless landed here, but we think we know how. A meteor crashed at the pole ages ago, and its safe to assume that the Nameless arrived on it."
"I know," I said. "In the earlier days, the meteor was attacked and destroyed in an attempt to stop them, hoping it served as some kind of hive mind..."
"Please Amy," Tails interrupted, a strange kind of anger burning in his eyes. "There's no time, so please, just listen."
His temper had grown short since the incident, but he had never spoken with such anger before, and I obeyed.
"We analyzed the remains of the meteor, and found an entire planet's range of elements in it. But the vast majority of it was almost like a crystalized form of the Nameless itself. It's safe to say that when the Nameless completely devour a planet, it metamorphasizes and becomes unstable. The entire planet is destroyed , and the remains of the Nameless is shattered and blown across the universe."
"We are not the first planet to fall to them," Sonic said as he carefully placed the final emerald, but we're damn well going to be the last."
So that was it... Everyone had known of this plan but me... That's why they had all become to somber, so accepting of it all...
I wanted to protest, to scream, to demand that we seek some kind of alternative. But as he stood back up, Sonic clutched his fists so tightly they shook. Yet still, he didn't turn to face me...
And just like that, the tiny, dimming light of hope in my heart went out...
Yet the fire in my soul burned brighter than ever, and I raised my head to look Tails in the eye. "Okay," I spoke with reborn determination. They had called me here for a reason this day, they needed me. "What do you want me to do?"
Tails opened his mouth to speak, but before he could find the proper words, Sonic said a single word as his hands unclenched and a frightening sense of peace entered his voice.
"Survive."
The room was so quiet, even through all the steel and concrete, the distant fighting could be softly heard.
"What?" I finally managed to say.
It was Tails who answered me. "Project Legacy is just that, this world's legacy. Amy, you are the only one that can escape this planet, the only one who can have a tomorrow. As another hedgehog, even if you cannot channel the energies of the emeralds like Sonic can, they still hold a resonance with you. Using the combined power of the Chaos and Master Emeralds, Project legacy will be able to break through the fabric of reality itself, carrying one person through to another dimension entirely..."
The room blurred as I began to tear up, my mind struggling to understand all that he was telling me. "So that's it then?" I interrupted. "Your great plan, this wonderful 'project' is all just a way to save me, while you and all the others here die?!"
Though it got harder and harder to see by the moment, I could vaguely make out Tails form shaking and his head drooping even lower.
"You want me to just turn tail and run?!" I continued, my voice becoming ragged with sobs. You want me to abandon all I've known and cared about? Rather than stand and fight?! Well fuck that! I'm staying here! I don't care about my life! I don't care about survival! I want to help strike that last final blow! I want to help!"
In a blue flash Sonic was before me, and he slapped he with considerable force, literally knocking the tears from my eyes as I fell to my knees.
"THEN FUCKING GO!" He screamed at me, looking me in the eye for the first time in a long, long time... And I saw it in his eyes, what I never thought I'd see in them.
Real, genuine, fear...
"Think about all our friends who went out there to their DEATHS!" He roared at me. "Think of how many had suffered, lost and died because of this! They all died for one, simple reason. They died so that others may live! You think we want to save only you?! You are the ONLY person that can survive this tragedy! And if you want to be selfish, if you really do want to stay here and die, all because of some stupid sentiment of love, then you shame them! You shame them, you shame yourself and you shame us! Is this what you think they would want?! For you to stay and die a meaningless death?!"
"Sonic!" Tails interjected, but his call was silenced with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"If one, just one single person can live..." Sonic continued. "If we can save a single life ... No matter how important or insignificant... We give their deaths meaning... And they did NOT die in vain..."
Tears that were not my own fell to the floor before me, but I could not bear to look up at my love's face in such suffering.
"Amy..." His voice suddenly gentle as he lifted my chin to look him in his eyes, and for a single, fleeting moment I saw that expression of defiance and determination that I loved so... That I hadn't seen in so long... "If you die, then we all die. Nothing we have done will matter, nothing we have done will be known, nothing will have changed." He raised his other hand to point at the spherical glass chamber. But if you go, and live, and remember, then we will all live on, in your heart and memory. And we will matter..."
"Sonic..." I whispered, the sobs continuing, but the tears long since cried out. "I'm sorry..."
And then, a miracle...
He smiled at me, a real, true, happy smile. "Don't be." He said. "This is the zero hour, hardly the time for regrets."
"Guys..." Tails spoke up. "It's now or never, we're losing power and the first lines have been breached..."
Sonic nodded at him, turned back to me, and offer me his hand...
Shakily I took it, knowing I would never feel his touch again...
After helping me to my feet, he returned to his ring of Emeralds, and in a flash, was Super Sonic, one last time...
He walked over to the glass and placed his hand on it, causing it to waver and ripple, like it was water.
Tails scrambled over computer panels and keyboards, as the ceiling opened above us, he looked to me and saluted me, a look of genuine respect and determination on his face. "Always for tomorrow." he said.
I nodded weakly as I walked to Super Sonic's side before the Project. "Always for tomorrow."
Super sonic looked to me and nodded at the shimmering glass bubble. I reached out tentatively, and touched the side of the bubble, gasping as it gave way and parted at my touch.
Once I was inside, Tails hit a large switch on the wall, and I was suddenly floating.
Super Sonic nodded and withdrew his hand, and the walls were solid again.
Though I felt none of it floating in the center of the chamber, I could see the entire device begin to shake and rise up through the open roof.
As I rose up into the atmosphere, I gasped aloud at the sight below me.
The nameless lay about us as far as the eye could see, with only a tiny ring of soldiers holding them a handful of yards from the bunker that was quickly shrinking below.
As we soared ever upward, the Bunker became a smaller and smaller speck...
Then the barren, white dot that was all that was left of our home was aflame, Tails and the others must have detonated all the munitions they had to buy us the last few moments we would need.
I wanted to cry out, but no sound came, my dried up tears refusing to flow, so I could only look in horror as the atmosphere broke around us, Super Sonic himself pushing Project Legacy upward.
Then somehow, the Nameless, now covering the entire planet massed together in a massive swell to cover the last bit of soil and snow.
But it wasn't enough...
As the swell converged and grew, it became a massive column, stretching, reaching out for us...
And gaining...
I watched in horror as it chased us into space, farther and farther...
Then suddenly Super Sonic's face twisted in agony, as the Nameless had reached and began to consume his feet. He looked up at me through the glass and grinned...
With incredible force, he then launched me outward and plummeted back downward right through the center of the pillar of the Nameless, causing it to split, and fall back downward away from me in his wake.
As the pillar collapsed farther and farther down, the Master Emerald began to pulse and hum with light.
The now purple planet shrank below me as my capsule moved faster and faster, until it was suddenly enveloped in a blinding light...
Sonic had ruined the entire planet, and all the Nameless upon it...
And I was alone...
And finally, my voice weakly found itself. "Why me?" I whimpered. "Sonic..."
I did live... I did survive, here on this new world, this planet called Earth. I dedicated my life to the only thing that was left, the memory of my friends. I made it my personal quest to spread and tell the tales of Sonic and his many adventures...
If I had anything to say about it, the world would know, and never forget him...
And so that's why I am here, telling you the last story of Sonic...
And bringing some small sense of honor and meaning to their lives...
I won't ever forget...
Will you?