Second Chances

I've been having trouble with my email Dx so chances are is you've sent me a message recently I didn't get it. D:

I'ma lookin' for OC's to put in this still. Likely chance is that this OC is gunna end up with Sonic, maybe.

That means it needa be a girl! xD Anywho..

I actually wrote about two pages of this chapter a day or so ago. It was entirely from Diamond's POV, though. (No idea why.) However when I read it over me was really unhappy so I started from scratch... Yay. (Microsoft word wanted me to change an 'I' to 'me'. Sounds funky. xD)

Second Chances

Decisions – Chapter 2

Diamond was stood in the middle of the tense group, all but one looking like they were waiting for sirens to go off and bombs to fall. She blinked idly at Sonic who was still trying to hug Knuckles; she noticed the atmosphere un-tensed considerably. Confused she raised an eyebrow at him expectantly. He'd stopped now, laughing loudly, crouched over with both hands on his knees as he recovered laughing.

Knuckles looked a little pale.

You can hear me, right?

It was weird, if it wasn't Sonic's voice she would have never guess it was him. She'd never really concentrated on his mind's voice directly before, so she never got a feel of it. There's always a feel to someone's mind, it gives away their intentions, their feeling within seconds. And, as she had thought before, if it wasn't Sonic's voice she would have never of guess it was him. He was so serious, but so gentle, so... knowledgeable. Well that made sense; he has been around the houses, fighting every guy under the moon since he was… Diamond didn't know; she couldn't be bothered with maths.

Diamond snapped back to reality, having had a smile on her face and then had been in deep thought the next second, everyone was highly suspicious. It was definitely like walking on egg shells. Oh, Sonic was looking at her funny. Diamond gave a slight nod.

I believe you, okay? I forgive you, too.

It had been a good few years since her throat had dried that quickly and her eyes and nose prickled like that. Oh god, she thought if I cry I'll kill myself.

"So…" Thank you, Shadow. "You're here to say sorry?" He started, clearing his throat sounding a little reproachful.

Diamond blinked three times, nodded twice before bowing and quickly saying; "I'm so, so sorry. You have no idea how sorry I am. I have nightmares, I'm that sorry."

Cream and Cheese smiled, opened their mouths to let Diamond know they forgave her when Tails' scoffed, and suddenly everyone was staring at him. His cheeks flared at the sudden attention.

"What's wrong, Tails?" Knuckles said, being nearest to the fox. Tails shrugged, and scratched the back of his neck.

"I don't trust her." Diamond's eyes widened in shock and sorrow; before she concentrated then flinched back away from Tails', holding her head in her hand.

"Tails! Must you think over every little detail of everything? … Three times?!" Diamond scowled at the huge intensity of her headache, Tails looked plain offended, but drew back and didn't say anything else.

"No," The rumble of Shadow's deep voice brought everyone's attentions back to him, then Diamond. "I think Tails' has a point. After everything…" He trailed off, zoning out in thought. After all, it was him who had been most affected by it, him who got the full blow. Little did he know, Sonic also thought he got the worst of it. Shadow let out a long sigh, "If I, we, forgive you… Will you go, and leave us?"

Suddenly, everyone watched as Diamond bowed her head and withdrew completely from her being for a few seconds, before coming back to reality and looking back up with teary eyes. "No," She admitted, biting her bottom lip. Amy quickly noticed she was shaking.

Rouge frowned. "What, I thought you said…"

"I know," Diamond started, having already known what Rouge was about to say. "But I came here for another reason too. I need your help."

There was a long pause; silence filled the room as everyone's minds raced. It was the loudest silence Diamond had ever waited through. Surprisingly Tails was the first to say something.

"This involves the emeralds, doesn't it?" Diamond stared at him before withdrawing once more; she wrapped her arms around herself. This was so uncomfortable. She gave a silent nod, and there was once again a loud silence.

"Well we might as well hear her out." Rouge said nonchalantly, crossing her arms. "What do you need us for, anyway?"

Diamond glanced towards Cream and Cheese; she took a short breath and sighed. "I don't think they should hear this, or even be thought to come. It's pretty overbearing."

"No," Amy said, blinking lightly at Cream. "Let her hear, she'll be fine."

Diamond simply nodded before launching into a small speech. "You heard my mention about my home planet earlier right? Yeah, the war on there... It's been going on for so long that it's slowly destroying us, and the world itself. My people are dying; the death toll became so great we lost count… So many deaths, so much grief, my head can't take it any more, I can hear them torturing people I know. I can hear them pleading to die quicker. But there's new hope. I've discovered a way to stop it. With the chaos emeralds and the core of my planet I can create a tear in an alternate dimension and banish the opposition there. They wouldn't die… I don't think I could handle them all dying. They'd just, go some place else." She finished quickly, then let out a quickly breath and felt the need to look away, she was so afraid of their verdict.

Sonic spoke. "Well. We'll make our decisions one by one." He grinned softly; it seemed to lighten the atmosphere. To everyone's surprise Shadow made a small 'hmph' sound, while smiling before saying;

"Sure, well, I'm going." No-one had time to react to that decision because another was quickly made.

"Well, then. So am I. I refuse to sit on the sidelines and worry if Shadow will ever come back." Amy quickly crossed her arms and nodded firmly, Diamond wasn't aware that she was welling up again.

"Well I'm going. You know me, always up for adventure!" Sonic gave Diamond a quickly thumbs up and a reassuring wink.

Cream frowned softly. "I don't think Mother would be happy with me going… But someone else could take my emerald?" Diamond smiled softly at Cream and nodded in thanks.

It was Knuckles that surprised Diamond. His eyes were so empty yet thoughtful before they burst to life. "Yeah... Yeah, I'll come too." Diamond found it strange, was it because he was comparing Diamond's situation to his own? Having lost everyone but Tikal… Maybe that's what gave him the drive to help her?

"Well." Rouge breathed softly. "I'll come too; you got any good jewels where you come from? Yeah, I think it'll be just lovely to get some exotic looking gems…"

Diamond, suddenly ecstatic, burst into a grin. "Yeah, we've got loads!" Rouge's eyes shone as she dreamt up various strange looking stones... She'd deprived herself of her pleasure for quite a while…

The lightness of the mood quickly changed as everyone looked back towards Tails, Diamond looked down. "We could really use your brains, you know?" She said softly, in the hope that Tails would agree to come.

But, once again, Tails scoffed. "Why don't you just ask Lilly for that?" Diamond flinched.

"I would, but… Lilly went missing about 6 months ago." Everyone stared in shock, Tails appeared to be saying something but was stuttering over his words so much he started to look like a fish, opening and closing his mouth.

Tails looked down, a shadow covering his eyes before he heaved a sigh. "I'll come." It was all he said before questions started to be shouted.

"What happened?" Amy had asked, a hand over he mouth. Diamond shrugged uncomfortably, it was the best she could do to try not to think about it. Sure, she'd tried to find Lilly, but…

"Where was she last seen?" Shadow put his hand to his chin as he thought about it, Diamond, once again, shrugged.

"Somewhere near the 5th Solar system, she was looking for plane parts there…"

Knuckles shook his head, dumbfounded. "Fifth solar system? You're kidding, right? How many are there?"

Happy for the subject change Diamond quickly answered. "Around four thousand six hundred and thirty-nine on our records. With four hundred or so we know of but haven't been too."

Sonic's eyes were the size of footballs in awe. "… Fo.. Four.. tho.."

"Four thousand six hundred and thirty-nine." Diamond said with a small, amused smile on her face.

"Now I'd understand maybe five or six…" Rouge said, but then blinked three times and put one hand up in a 'hold on' gesture. "But four thousand six hundred and thirty-nine is ridiculous."

Shadow rubbed his head irratably. "Could everyone stop saying 'four thousand six hundred and thirty-nine' it's really starting to confuse me now."

Knuckles nodded, only too happy for that. "Yeah, me too."

Amy and Diamond giggled, and it was weird, they sounded almost exactly the same. Shadow slowly turned his head towards Amy's direction and cranked it down to give her a bewildered look, Amy shrugged a little and scratched her neck.

"So when are you all going, anyway?" Cream said, sounding a little sad. Not having yet asked this question the group looked towards Diamond.

"Well. As soon as possible would be nice…" She asked timidly, smiling awkwardly.

Shadow nodded quietly. Amy thought about it for a second. "If this planet is in another solar system.. how long will it take to fly there?"

Diamond grinned, the thought of flying there… Ugh. "We won't be flying." A hint of laughter in her tone. "We'll be warping. And about 1.346 seconds. Approximately."

((A/N: I find allot more people pay attention to what i say half way through the story Sorry, but. I still need two OC's! Grrr xD I dun wanna use another character I dream up! Kay? Kay. Carry on.))

That was followed by a silence, that was broken by the high-pitched, shaken giggle of Amy who then shook her head smiling. "You confuse me. It's like, we're kids. And you're like this, then we don't see each other for ages and you're bad then that whole thing happened andbeforeIknowityou'rebackbutcompletelythesameagainit'sreallyreallystrange." Amy didn't even pause for a breath, or even gasp after talking around 201mph, Shadow, Sonic, Knuckles and Tails had no clue what she had said. At all. Rouge, Diamond and Cream had understood perfectly well.

Shadow, unsure, let his hand fall to Amy's back as he patted it a little. She looked on the verge of hysterical. Diamond laughed a little and grinned. "How about we go tomorrow afternoon?" Everyone replied with nods, or 'yeah, sure' s. Diamond smiled at Amy and sighed softly. "How about we all have a sleep over, then? We can talk things over?"

"Me too?" Cream piped up, Cheese flying over to Amy and flying in circles around her and Shadow.

"Yeah sure, us girls, yeah?" Amy looked up at Diamond and Rouge, Rouged rolled her eyes before nodding slightly.

Sonic broke into a grin before pouting. "Hey, what about us?"

"How should we know!" Amy said, rolling her eyes. "Do a guy thing." The 'guys' looked at each other, shrugged and looked at Amy for an explanation. After all… They were all completely different. Knuckles would prefer to spend the night asleep by the master emerald, Shadow would like to quietly over think things in his apartment, Sonic would go for a tiring run (possibly saving a cat here and there…) before going to sleep after one-too-many late chili-dogs and Tails would probably be tinkering on some gadget for the trip.

Amy groaned, exasperated. "You're all useless!"

Yeah. So, this chapter was a bit of a clean up, to make everything fall into place and explain the craziness. 8D Thank you for the reviews!! They really helped me with writers block and such.

As I said. I NEED YOUR CHARACTERS! D: Raar- Sonic needs a girl, dude. Chapter one for more details. Okay, thank you. Hope the chapter wasn't too mundane! xD I'll update as soon as possible.

- Emz