UPDATE (1/25/2015): Edited to strengthen the writing and to fix a small continuity error that appeared due to the rewrite of Chapter One.
Dec. 20, 2011
Dear Diary:
Sonic is back! After so long, he finally came back, but…ugh, I don't even know how to feel. The Metarex had him for all this time. I can't believe it! Sonic's so strong, and it's so hard to believe that this would happen. I mean…he's Sonic. He's stronger than anyone else I know, but the Metarex caught him and…used him. I want to be excited and happy. My heart feels fluttery when I think about him being in the same room as me for the first time in five years. But my stomach squeezes tight when I think about how he's been a captive for so long. It scares me.
But then again, Knuckles came up with an explanation that makes it a little less awful: the only reason Sonic got caught was because he was alone. Which makes sense, since he didn't have backup, but he's managed on his own before. Like I said, I don't know how to feel.
But I'm also scared about Sonic, not just the fact that the Metarex caught him. Like…who he'll be now. He's been gone so long. I don't know if he's changed. If the Metarex did truly awful things to him…I'm so scared to find out how damaged he is. I mean, depending on what he's been through, it's not like I'd be surprised.
But a broken Sonic just doesn't make sense to me; it doesn't fit with my idea of the world. What if he's not so daring? Or cocky? Or what if he starts going absolutely CRAZY about me, like obsessively (which, honestly, would disturb me more than anything else). I just hope he's the same as he was before. Or…at least not irreparably damaged.
Cream's waking up. Got to go.
Love,
Amy Rose
Amy dropped her diary down on the nightstand next to Cream's bed, the pen she wrote with bouncing off the diary's surface and to the floor as she did so. Amy ignored it and looked at Cream. Cream smiled up at the ceiling as her eyes opened. Amy narrowed her eyes in confusion. After being knocked unconscious, most people did not wake up with a perfectly aware smile on their face. "My wish came true," Cream whispered.
Amy blinked. "What?"
Cream turned her head to look at Amy. The skin at the edges of her eyes crinkled as the smile spread through to fill her face. "My birthday wish came true," Cream explained. "I wished that Sonic would come back, and…now he's here."
Amy frowned. When they'd found Cream knocked out, Sonic had still been in his Metarex shell, hiding who he really was. "How did you know that he's back?"
"Because that Metarex—Sonic—was fast and then…he hesitated. Like he started moving toward me, and then stopped and stepped back." Cream said. She reached out and grabbed Amy's hand in her excitement as the words tumbled out. "Because Sonic fought the Metarex part of him. I could tell. It…it couldn't have been anyone but him. No Metarex would have done that. I don't get how he could be a Metarex, but Sonic's kind of unique, isn't he?"
"He is," Amy whispered. She watched the bright glimmering of Cream's eyes. Her exclamations reminded Amy of Cream's youth…how she'd held on to it despite the war. How Cream was now the age Amy had been at the end of the first war, and she still clung to the innocence Amy had long forgotten by that age. She remembered holding Cream as Cosmo died. For some reason, time had made no impact on them. Which made Amy wonder when she hardened her heart.
Cream frowned, pushing herself up into a sitting position. "Are you okay, Amy?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said quickly. It surprised Amy how unfazed Cream was by the fact that Sonic was a Metarex. Did they not realize what that meant for Tails?
Amy's heart skipped a beat. They didn't realize. Because they didn't know yet.
Amy glanced away and caught Chris's eye as he passed behind her. "They don't know," she mouthed. Chris frowned at her, wrinkling his forehead in confusion. "Tails," Amy mouthed to clarify.
Chris's eyes widened and he nodded. "Just wait one minute," he said and walked out of Amy's line of sight. He soon came back with Cheese and Cosmo following behind. "Tell them too," he said and left the curtained off section, turning in the direction of the still unconscious Sonic.
Cosmo, Cream, and Cheese all stared at her. Cream glanced at Cosmo before returning her eyes back to Amy. "What's going on?" she whispered.
"You look like you're going to faint," Cosmo said.
Amy felt like it too. The room rocked ever so slightly around her, and she took a moment to be thankful she sat rather than stood next to Cream's bed. She took a deep breath and breathed, "Tails got some…uh…disturbing intel when he snuck on to the Metarex base."
"What kind of intel?" Cream asked slowly. "Something to do with Sonic?"
Amy shook her head. "No, nothing like that. We knew nothing about Sonic before this. It's just that…Sonic complicates things. 'Cuz it turns out that…the Metarex's next target is Tails."
Cream and Cosmo fell silent. Amy stared at her hands in her lap rather than at their faces. She heard Cheese chattering away in frantic shock, but Amy heard no words from either of the girls. She interlocked her fingers to keep them from shaking. Saying it out loud like this made it that much worse. "Why didn't you tell us until now?" Cream said finally.
Amy's cheeks heated up. She wished she could curl in on herself, make herself so small that the chaos would forget she existed. "Not to make you feel bad or anything," Cream added quickly.
"That's okay," Amy said softly. "You're right." She forced herself to straighten and meet Cream's eyes. "Anyway, I didn't tell you because we didn't want to worry you. 'We' meaning Tails, Chris, Knuckles, and me. Of course, saying that out loud just sounds stupid. I'd say we did it because you're young, but that's even worse." Amy sighed. "I mean, the only reason Chris told me was because…well, Tails thought it sounded like the Metarex were saying Sonic was dead, and they thought I should know. It's just complicated."
Cosmo rubbed her hands against her arms as if she were cold. "Is Tails okay? Why wouldn't he say anything…to me?"
Amy frowned and shook her head. "Honestly, he only told Chris. Chris told Knuckles and me. I think Tails is kind of freaked out; still processing it, you know? I don't think he was hiding anything from you. He's not secretive like that. He just wanted to decide it was real to himself first."
Cosmo nodded slowly. "It does make sense now why Tails broke down more than anyone when he saw Sonic," Cosmo said. "If the Metarex got Sonic, then…he…"
"Yeah," Amy said, cutting her off before the tears glimmering in Cosmo's eyes spilled down her cheeks. "But if we stay with Tails, everything will turn out all right, okay? We stick together and no one runs away and we survive to see the end of this. Together."
-(-)-
Several hours after revealing the news to Cosmo, Cream, and Cheese, Amy lay back in her bed staring at the ceiling. Cosmo insisted on making dinner on her own to give Amy a break, but as that had been her only responsibility for the day, it left Amy alone in silence. Cream rested in the infirmary, Sonic continued sleeping under Chris's careful watch, Knuckles guarded the Master Emerald as per his norm, and Tails slept in his room, which, after the night that they'd had, was far from surprising. With everyone preoccupied, Amy found herself isolated in her room, silent and alone.
Her muscles twitched in the stillness, anxious from not doing something about the chaos surrounding her. Her heart battered unevenly in her chest. It became all she could hear until it drove her to the edge of madness. She shoved herself up into a sitting position and stormed out of her room. Pacing the halls seemed a better option than sitting still, even if there was no one with whom to talk. She wandered through the halls without a destination in mind when she saw Chris approaching her from the other end of the hall. He jogged toward her when he noticed. She froze where she stood. "What's the matter?" she asked. Her mind ran through every possible thing that could go wrong. Had something happened to Sonic?
"Someone wants to see you," he said. Chris grabbed Amy's arm and dragged her down the hall before Amy could say another word.
Amy followed Chris, her legs moving beneath her despite how dumbstruck she was. It took her a moment to realize what Chris must mean. She sped up behind him so that she jogged beside him instead. Amy followed Chris into the infirmary. She stopped, hesitating in the doorway as unfamiliar warmth filled her veins.
Sonic lay in bed, eyes open, smirking at her for the first time in years. "Sonic!" she cried and, able to move again after her initial shock, ran toward him. She felt the urge to wrap her arms around him but held herself back. He looked far too weak to handle her usual energy level.
"Hi, Amy! Been a while, hasn't it?" Sonic said, trying to sound casual. Red rung the edge of his eyes, and Amy wasn't sure if his eyes were just dry or bloodshot from tears. His voice cracked as he spoke, as though it had not been used in a very long time. It scared Amy to think that for all she knew, that was true.
A lump clogged Amy's throat, blocking her voice, so she merely nodded. She felt the tears glossing over the surface of her eyes. Sonic's smile refused to fade. "And if I'm right," he said, his voice cracking, "I'm really freaking you out right now."
Amy let out a short laugh. "Are you kidding? You came back from the dead!"
"Yeah, no kidding," he muttered. His smile faded slightly, but then he forced it back, pulling himself out of wherever his mind had gone. "I'm sorry I left. That was…the stupidest thing I've ever done."
Amy frowned. "It's okay," she whispered. "I mean…are you okay?"
"Been better," Sonic admitted, "but I've been way worse. So yeah, I'm okay. I'm just glad I'm here and not…where I was."
"What happened to you?" Amy asked. She wanted to reach out and take his hand, offer him some sort of comfort, but he looked about ready to fall to pieces right before her eyes.
"Doesn't matter," Sonic said quickly. "What matters is what happens next. 'Cuz I've spent five years regretting everything, and it's about time that changes. I've had too much time thinking and no doing something, and you know I hate that. So I'm going to do something."
"Sonic?"
He smiled at her. "I missed you, Amy Rose. I don't want to miss you anymore."
"I…I don't know what that means."
"It means that I like you. And that I have for…some time"
Amy stared at him, feeling disconnected from her body. Each breath escaped her body without first filling her lungs. She never expected Sonic to say that to her ever, much less now. "So you're not kidding then?" Amy choked.
Sonic laughed. "Of course not! Like I said, I had too much time to think. And all I could think about was if I died, you'd never know. And you deserved to know."
A smile spread across Amy's face. Her heart eased its rapid beating for the first time since she had chased after Sonic at Never Lake. It filled the space with easy warmth instead. "So am I, like, your girlfriend then?"
"You tell me; I think you have the expertise in this field."
Amy laughed and sat down in a chair next to Sonic's bed. "Then I think I'm going to go with yes."
"Cool," he whispered. He turned his hand over to expose his palm, and Amy accepted the invitation to take his hand. "I know it's not the most important thing we have to deal with right now, but with the way things are…I can't let things like that go unsaid anymore."
Amy nodded. It felt weird to be so close to him without him edging away. And while this was what Amy had waited for her entire life, she agreed with Sonic that this was not the most important thing right now. She took a deep breath, preparing for the serious question that needed asking. Sonic noticed and quickly sobered. "What is it?" he asked.
Amy lowered her head, looking up at Sonic from under her eyelids. "Do you know anything about Tails? About how the Metarex want him? And how they're planning to send Blue Seed after him?" she asked.
Sonic winced and then closed his eyes. "I remember only a little from the last five years. Only sometimes did I have very slight control over what I did, usually when I was out of that robotic skin. And even when I was out of the skin, all I really had was awareness of what was going on, not actually any control over what I did."
Amy's jaw dropped, and she struggled to find the right response to such a revelation. "I—I'm sorry."
Sonic opened his eyes and turned his head to face her. "Don't be sorry; it's not your fault. I think I remember a little something, about them telling me to go after Tails and capture him. But that makes sense since…" He swallowed hard and released a shaky breath. "…I was Blue Seed, so…."
"Oh," Amy breathed, staring at him. She tried to process an image in her head of how such a conversation between Sonic and the Metarex could go with Sonic as their soldier. She shivered. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, waiting for the proper words to come, but they never did.
Thankfully, Sonic didn't wait for a response and continued, "I'm not under their control anymore, and it's not like anyone but me had any clue where to look for you guys. That information the Metarex didn't manage to steal from me. So the Metarex have no chance of finding Tails for the time being. Plus, now that they've lost me, they'll go to the ends of this world to get me back. That should distract them from Tails for a while."
Amy let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad for that—well, not that they're going to be after you just…the everything else, I guess." She shook her head. "Wow, that just made me sound like the worst."
"Nah, that's fine," Sonic said smiling. "You're just worried about him; I am too, way more worried about him than about me. I'd say everyone is. Anyway, I heard Knuckles sang to Tails yesterday, and if that doesn't tell you how much everyone's prepared to protect him, I don't know what does."
Amy giggled. "Yeah, Knuckles mentioned something about that to me. I think just so I wouldn't find out about it later and make fun of him for it."
Sonic laughed. "Well, he's not wrong. He must have been pretty desperate to get Tails to stop worrying." Sonic frowned in thought. "I wonder if he'd sing for me to prove that he can actually sing and not, you know, sound like a dying cat.
Amy laughed with Sonic, harder than she remembered ever laughing before. She felt on the edge of hysterics. Her body felt too light in the best way. She wanted to cry while she laughed. Though she held Sonic's hand, though he lay in bed right before her eyes, she feared that if she blinked, he would disappear. His being there felt too normal to be real.
