Hello, friends!

It very exciting and humbling to finally be finishing what I started. I think it all turned out pretty well, and I think you all will too. So for waiting all of these years, I give you EIGHT CHAPTERS, AHHH!

Ok, so technically there are only three new chapters. I revised the first five chapters for grammar/flow (although knowing me I probably missed some things, so please don't judge me), but only chapter 6-8 will be new material. I should be updating every few days or at least every Wednesday with about 2 chapters at a time hopefully. The finished story has about 30 chapters, but the chapters themselves are shorter than the ones I had in Sleeping and Dozing. Not to mention, the story is also divided into two parts.

Although the story is technically finished, I'm still looking for your insight. I encourage you are to offer your critiques and criticisms. As much as I love your words of encouragement, expressing your concerns is really essential. I know that there are quite a few ways that this story could have gone, so I really want to hear your thoughts! Also, since I'll be updating this first set of chapters in bulk, this will probably be the only author's note for the next eight chapters. I mean, you waited two years, and I probably should have stopped distracting you a paragraph ago. So get at it!

Disclaimer: Sega and their characters do not belong to me. There.

Go!

PART I: THE END

Chapter 1

Because I was the champion of poor choices, sometime after graduating law school and landing a new job, I had failed to pay attention to one important detail. Like where the job was.

"Aren't you excited to come back to your hometown?" my friend Clarissa asked me, nudging my shoulder. She sunk into the airplane chair, beaming. "I still can't believe we're done with law school..."

I gave her a small smile, suppressing my distress. I still couldn't believe that I let her talk me into taking it. Maybe if we weren't heading back home—back to the town that I had abandoned years ago, filled with friends that would probably spit in my face if I referred to them as such—I could be half excited. But instead I was completely overwhelmed.

"Amy..." The ash-furred bobcat gave me a bemused look—matching the one I was trying to hide. "What's wrong now?" My eyes left the window. My thoughts scattered like the clouds next to us. "Hmm? Oh, nothing."

"We're lawyers, Amy." She lifted her brows before granting me a smug, bitch-you-can't-fool-me smirk. "You'll have to do a lot better if you want to lie to me."

"I shouldn't have come back, Clarissa." I gulped down my unease, feeling my ears pop. I shook my head. "I mean, the pay is good, but it's not like I need it—"

"Well, some of us who aren't ex-heros actually have to work for a living." Clarissa replied, swirling her cosmopolitan in her glass. "F.F. Corp flew us here first class. So cheer up, would ya?" She downed the rest of her beverage before extending an arm out to a flight attendant. "Hey, where are my complementary peanuts?"

I took a sip from my wine; the cool liquid unable to freeze over my mind and kill me. My stint at University of Mercia—Law was over. I had survived the Bar. I had gotten a job at a fancy, private law firm. Life was supposed to be perfect. Just not for me.

My eyes flickered over to Clarissa. I knew better than to sigh at her passiveness—she'd just pick up on it and try to give me another pep talk. I wish I could be as lax as her about the near future, all chomping away on free-snacks without a damn, but returning was like ripping a Band-Aid off a gaping wound. I clenched my fists over my knees, hoping it would release my tension. But it intensified. Three years. Why hadn't I healed already?

"You know," Clarissa said between chews, "I think this'll be sort of cool. Clarissa and Amy on a new adventure. As if law school wasn't crazy enough."

Oddly, it wasn't as crazy as my home life. It was straightforward: doing homework and research. Volunteering. Not pissing off my professors. Law school was a relatively painless, sobering experience.

This?

Now that I was returning—my stomach sank like the plane beginning to descend to a landing position—it felt like I was relapsing. I took another swig of the alcohol. Clarissa said I needed it to get off or on the edge or something. Hissing, I set the drink aside, closing my eyes. But I really wanted to close my thoughts on the matter.

Thoughts. Words. If I could just stop being affected, maybe reality wouldn't seem so scary. But I was flying back down to it; I would be back home in a matter of minutes. The thought should have been thrilling; I really wanted it to be. But it wasn't like this was one big—

"It's like a homecoming!" Clarissa said with a clap, her voice up an octave. "To think I'll actually get to meet your friends. You guys will always be legendary to me." She smirked, but it was more innocent than devious, like a child excited to see a mall Santa.

"If they're even still my friends..." I said in a mumble, slouching further into the stiff chair. Even an idiot knew that chaos would break loose. Missed weddings. Missed baby showers. Lost communications. I tried my best to be there when I thought the fire had died down a couple years ago, but I could always sense the hostility, even over the phone. I knew that I could never repair the fabric that I had ripped apart, but that didn't mean that I did it intentionally.

And maybe they knew that too, but they had a horrible way of showing it.

Clarissa's hazel eyes broadened. "You seriously think they're still mad at you? Any real friends would welcome you with open arms," she said, before pausing. "Well, even if they didn't want to. But it's still the right thing to do."

"The right thing to do?" I mocked her before scoffing. "If my friends had even a shred of righteousness, they wouldn't have practically exiled me."

Clarissa's eyes narrowed at my words. I shook my head before saying, "No, I don't mean that you're my default friend or anything—"

"Too late," she said, pretending to sniffle. "I knew you just wanted me for my body."

This earned another scoff from me. "Whatever. You came onto me first."

The bobcat's mouth widened before she shrugged her shoulders. "What? I thought I was a lesbian and pink just so happens to be one of my favorite colors." She puckered her lips at me and I broke down in a laugh.

Funny thing was that she made me wonder if it was best to swear off men all together. Sonic. Scourge. Parker. Shadow. My heart plummeted. What they had done to me…What I had done to them… No wonder I felt so sick.

"So," Clarissa began, probably picking up on my somber vibes. "What's your goal?"

I blinked at her. "What do you mean?"

She pursed her lips again at my ignorance. "The jaded girl returns back home after a thousand years," she said, using her hands to draw out my dramatic situation. "Does she search for love, happiness, or herself?"

"I already found myself," I said, moving her arms away from me. "I'm a lawyer. I'm a grown-ass woman. Why don't you ask the world to search for someone else to bother?"

"Oh...someone's bitter..." Clarissa teased, her mouth forming into an O. I rolled my eyes at the feline. Of course I was bitter. But was it bad that I didn't completely know why?

"I'm not bitter," I lied, turning my gaze to the window. Just confused. But that was nothing new.

"Sure you aren't," she said, shaking her head. Before I could reject anymore of her claims, the pilot announced that we had landed. A sigh left my lips. Smooth landing. This was probably the only smooth thing that would ever come from returning here.

Because as we exited off the plane and walked down the jet way, my past emerged before I could even think about turning the other way.