Author's Note:

OH HI THERE! Long time no see, I am absolutely terrible in keeping my audience in tune! Sorry, my annual jam had been clustered with entering graduation, seeking permanent full time jobs and maintaining my own sanity in this big world we're in. Boy, I didn't think it's THIS hard during post-grad era! Freaking adulting like no other.

Here's a revised chapter five. I'll warn you that it's different, but it's got some similar plots from previous chapters of le old story with a blend of new elements. You may also noticed that I had dramatically cut more than a couple chapters of this story, and it's not because my 16 year old self did a bad job (but all that grammer though *tsk). It's because I wanted condense all the highlighted plots from those previous chapters and remove those that almost felt like ongoing fillers of feels throughout. Do you know that feeling? When you watch your favourite anime and look forward to the next episode... BUT NO, IT'S FILLERS LIKE LOL SUCKS TO BE YOU, TROLL AFTER PARTY ON YOUTUBE COMMENTS. Ya, there were certain anime shows that I was completely fed up with fillers taking up the timeline because they won't show the God damn plot point!

Well, end of that rant stick. Now on to reading!

Amy's POV

"All right, Miss Rose. Looking at your chart here, your diagnosis looks good. You lost a bit of weight since you were admitted in the hospital, but otherwise I think you are good." The therapist had debriefed to Amy. "Before you go, I just want to let you know that if you're certainly feeling anxious or depressed, you are welcome to contact me or the support group anytime, alright?"

"Thank you so much for all your help." I smiled, giving my therapist a hand shake before leaving.

"And remember, the contact number is on that brochure and also a website for you to have access to resources." She also added.

"Perfect! Thanks again." I waved goodbye and left.

When I walked out of her office building, I felt I was given another chance. The day I was dispatched from the hospital, I was lucky to have endless support from my friends when I need it. I don't think I would be able to pull my weight through if Shadow wasn't there previously a few nights before. I am surprised to see how much he cares for my well being after the incident, which is very unlikely he would do such thing since we are both not so familiar with each other.

The other day, I wanted to thank him, but I wasn't sure how. I thought a cake would do it, but because I don't know him so well, it's difficult for me to bear courage to (even) talk to him personally - he's a little scary! I knew I needed to give thanks in return, so I just went with the cake. A strawberry shortcake that is - my all time favourite.

I went up to his place the other day and wanted to give him thanks in person, but as soon as his door prompt open, my words froze. I let shyness conquer me, and my confidence became an absolute train wreck. I panicked, I shoved the cake on him, ran after and blurted thanks - so graceful of me! I felt really bad for ruining the moment, but in the end, I think what matters is that I gave thanks for his help. I still could've done better though...

I decided to go for a walk, which is what my therapist encouraged me to do so. My appetite (since being dispatched from the hospital) has been difficult lately, my interest in eating food all day kind of lost its peak.

'But maybe a walk will do.' I have been trying to look things on the bright side since Sonic passed away, but every time I go to bed, my dreams would always refer back to that incident. Sometimes, I am afraid to go to bed, when I know my mind will lure into dreaming that incident, because the more my dreams visioned about it, the more it ruined my sleep. Last night, I only had a few hours of sleep, and no matter how difficult it is to just move on in life, I just don't have that power to turn back time and reverse the incident.

'If only.' I thought miraculously, but God knows... who's got powers to do that.

I took a trail to a nearby park going east, where there were a few people taking the leisure to walk, jog or hang out. Maybe this isn't bad after all. After about 10 minutes of walking, I felt reassurance removing my worries gradually - it's pretty amazing how a small walk can make significant changes of my mood. Baby steps, I guess. As I kept walking along the trail, there was noticeably less people on the trail, and I started feeling alone.

Just when my anxiety had urged me to turn around, I noticed a subtle, warm light appearing in front of me from afar. When I took a few steps to get a closer look, the light also did the same. I decided to follow the light, and the more I continued following the light, the colour hue had changed dramatically to blue. My initial reaction of the colour change made me think of Sonic right away, and I assumed that it might possibly be his spirit lingering in front of me. When the thought of Sonic came to my mind, the light picked up a quick pace, and I was falling a little behind trying to keep up with it.

"Sonic?" I said, trying to keep up with the pace of light. The light didn't respond, it continued to float away from me.

"Sonic, is that you?" I quicken my pace, I started huffing and puffing as the pace quickly turned into a chase for the light.

"Sonic, wait!"

Shadow's POV

"I wonder what's in this dust." Rouge looks up her petri dish.

I ignored her, while typing up a final consensus on the report.

"It kind of looks like charcoal… but with a ruby diamond dust to it." Rouge continues to observe. "That would look lovely for my jewelry collection."

I shook my head and stood up. "I'm getting coffee. Have this printed and ready for our meeting with the General."

"Whatever, boss". Rouge scoffs, still fiddling around the petri dish. "Get me a muffin too, I'm starving!"

Flashbacks from that cargo ship occurred to my mind when I walked out of the office. The last thing I remembered was escaping that cargo ship before it being capsized, but the thought of seeing water flooding inside immediately took my consciousness away from reality and referred back to that incident of that blue hedgehog. I felt paralyzed when remembering that moment. It almost felt as if blood had stained all over my body, which hadn't been washed away since then.

I walked over to kitchen and quickly grabbed the coffee kettle. As I started pouring coffee, I noticed blood being poured into my cup.

"The f-!" I quickly discarded the coffee kettle and cup in the sink. I can feel my heart pounding quickly, like it's about to rip open my chest. My breathing became rapid, I had no time to step back and observe on what just happened.

I quickly looked over the sink and noticed no blood at all. Why on earth am I seeing blood out of the ordinary, God damn it!

Door open

"Hey you." Rouge entered with an unpleasant attitude. "You failed to get me a muffin and we have meeting with the General in a minute. I'm hungry and impatient, hurry up!"

She walked over the table, shoved a muffin in her mouth and left. I rubbed my face and took a few deep breaths. Blood. Fucking blood. Am I seeing this? Am I guilty for letting Sonic get killed in front of me? I looked at the time and noticed I was late for my meeting. I quickly grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and left.

Walking into General's office

"About time, you appeared." The General says, organizing the report in front of him. "You're usually punctual in these kind of meetings."

"He forgot to get my muffin." Rouge finishes her last bite of her muffin. "Which is why he is late."

I shook my head over Rouge's petty comment and sat down.

The General chuckled. "Well, I looked over the report and it's great as usual. I just wanted to debrief with you two and hear what you both had observed or found anything in particular."

"Well, I found this." Rouge handed her petri dish over. "It may look like dust, but it's got a tad of redness shining through it."

"Interesting." The General took the petri dish and briefly observed the dust.

"It's the only evidence we had gathered after infiltrating the ship." Rouge explained. "I also noticed after the cargo ship had capsized, the GUN truck and equipment floating in sea were gone as well."

"Wow, that's quite odd." The General responded. "And what about you Shadow?"

My mind went completely blank, and my words became strangled. I didn't think it would be necessary to let the General about my brief hallucinating encounter during the infiltration.

"… Essentially what Rouge had said." I blurted through the awkward silence.

Rouge looked at me with disbelief and cleared her throat, hinting there was more.

"And… oddly enough, we didn't identify nor find any suspects on board of the ship, and knowing since there was no one, the cargo ship had mysteriously closed its vessel doors on us and started capsizing like it was doing so on its own."

I took a deep breath and sighed – finally back in game.

"Interesting." The General noted. "This is a rare, suspicious occurrence for an incident to be reported. Anything else?"

"Nothing really." Rouge looked over me. "Despite the ship being capsized and the rare disappearance of the GUN truck and equipment, it's hard to distinguish a further what our next steps are in this investigation."

"Well, I could send both of you and a diving team to check out the capsized ship." The General suggested.

"We could… but I think I'd prefer to investigate on land than being submerged under the cold sea." Rouge stated her preference. "Sorry, not my dealio. Plus, it's rather difficult to gather evidence doing that."

"What about you Shadow?" The General looked over to me.

"I uh…" Again, I was drawing another blank space. I normally don't have a problem doing duties in water, but ever since that incident, the thought gives me that same unpleasant feeling.

"You have no problem with the ocean… do you?" The General became little concerned.

"I… don't-" I was cut off by Rouge's hand.

"Why don't we just send the diving team only? And we can wait on land and supervise the area while the team are underwater." Rouge suggested with a smirk.

"Well, I guess I can see that with no problem." The General agreed. "But I do like to get this done immediately before the lab results come in on Monday for that evidence you gathered."

"You know it." Rouge says joyfully with a snap of her fingers. I nodded my head in response.

"Great, good work as always." The General stood up. "Have this report filed to admin and this evidence sent to the lab today. Also inform the diving team to start investigation stat."

"10-4." Rouge saluted.

Minutes after leaving the meeting

"What is with you?" Rouge says, walking alongside. "You're acting strange."

"You don't need to be concerned, I'm fine." I said, trying to out walk her confrontation.

Rouge then grabbed my arm and looked at me. "Spill your beans, Shadow. What's going on? Was it because you felt embarrassed to tell the boss that you freaked out in that little moment that you couldn't chaos controlled to escape?"

"No, you wouldn't understand." I pushed away her hand and walked away. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Are you serious." Rouge shook her head and returned back in the office.

I walked in the elevator and leaned against the wall. I took another drink from my water bottle and sighed. The moment I saw blood had distracted me entirely, and I felt my consciousness was being tormented.

'Fuck.' Should I even seek help if this continues to impact my daily routine? Especially my sanity?

The elevator doors opened on the main floor. When I walked out of the entrance, I noticed a familiar shade of an individual walking from afar – it was none other than Amy Rose. I took a few steps forward and watched her walk going east. Her body looked a little frail and her expression looked as if she was extremely worried, my concern for her had suddenly emerge.

She then took a sudden turn going towards southeast and started running. "Where is she running to?"

I followed quickly to see where she is going, and as I turn to see her continually running southeast, her body had suddenly disappeared. I quickly reacted and ran quickly to where she vanished.

"Amy!" I shouted. "God damn it, what the hell happened!"

I looked around vigorously and searched around from point A to point B. My suspicion began to grow rapidly and my anxiety began taking a toll on my worries. I stood where she had vanished, and it makes no sense that she had mysteriously disappeared into thin air just like that.

'Shit… SHIT'. If I had my chaos emerald with me, it would've been easy to just travel to where she had gone. Nonetheless, I kept searching and wasted no time to think any more.

And that's chapter four!

Totally different again, hey? Again, similar plots from my previous chapters (deleted unfortunately) blended with new plots - hooray! I came to a conscious decision to revise the direction of this story and give it a better plot to look forward to. All same , with different elements and twist to it. Doesn't that make a better innovative impact of the story though? :P

R&R as you wish and again, no flames. Please. It's all love I look for :). Stay tuned!