Chapter 6:

Discord and Hope.

Normal POV:

The blue fox sat in her bed, her heart in disarray. The fox was puzzled by what her grandfather had said to her. Free him? How would she do that? She wanted to know. She wanted to prevent it from happening. Was there something she was missing? So many questions and no answers. She felt so much regret for smashing that crystal orb. She knew that his soul was bound to it and if it were to be destroyed, his body would die. It did just that, but now he lived on inside of her. She expressed her frustration through her tears, crying, wanting to cry this problem away. Her soul...what was going to happen to it? If she was the harbinger death, of this dark creature, would she be condemned? Such a thought terrified her. As she sat in her bed she brought her legs to her breasts, curling up into a fetal position. No fear was worse then the one she was experiencing. Even in the sun's light darkness was claiming her. Her head lay on her knees. Her tears were all she had to express her sorrow. So many bad things had happened without explanation. It all started with the death of her parents. In so many ways did she need them to hold her. She needed them with her right now.

"I'm so scared..." The kitsune whimpered into her lap.

She couldn't stop her tears from falling. Such is the fear of loosing one's soul to darkness. In her sorrow arose anger. With her left arm she grasped her mechanical right arm she now bared, pulled with all her strength, and tore the metal flesh from its socket, tossing it across the room. The fox wailed in agony. Her life was decaying slowly. Everything around her was decaying. She wanted to die, hoping that would prevent this nightmare from claiming anyone she loved dearly. Amy, she needed her right now. She needed all the comfort in the world. With each death, with each time her hand bled, she could feel her grandfather's power grow stronger, and his grasp tightened over her.

"Mother...Father...I can't hear your voices. Why have they stopped? Are you shunning me? Please...say something. I need you..." The fox cried, her tears flowing heavier.

She hurt so badly inside. She placed her mortal hand on her forehead, claws reached out, and she dragged them down her face, cutting it, bleeding it. She hoped that pain would drown out the one she harbored in her heart, alas it did her no good. The pain of her heart outweighed her facial wound. Her life was like a shatter pane of colored glass. Everyone around her tried to rebuild it back together, but it was becoming deformed and misshapen. Could she take much more? She didn't think so. She lived on because others wanted her to. She no longer had a say in whether she could live or die. The fox had left that choice in the hands of others. Love for her family, hatred for her grandfather, she was torn in two. The divertimento her heart once sang had stopped. She felt frozen inside. She could see very little to live for, especially if that demon she brought upon the world took the lives of the ones she held near and dear. The fox leaned forward, laying belly down, crying onto the fur of her arm, soaking it.

"What should I do...please...someone tell me what to do." She whined.

Her arm reached out and grabbed the steel frame at the foot of the bed, she squeezed, twisting the hard metal. Yukiko wasn't sure of anything anymore. Reality from dream, they were the same, she couldn't wake from either one. Amy stood, looking in the window to Yukiko's room. The tears from the hedgehog poured out as the fox's did. She didn't love Yukiko any less, but her wife's grandfather inside the her, she feared Yukiko. Ivy approached the crying hedgehog.

"Amy? What's wrong?" Ivy asked.

"Everything...everything is so screwed up...Yukiko is in an endless sea of pain and we can't do anything for her." Amy turned to Robotnik and fell into the doctor's arms, crying in anguish. "Why does she suffer? Why has she lost so much? No one should be born to feel the rawness of pain. It's not fair...it's not fair..." The hedgehog whined.

Ivy embraced the sorrowful hedgehog. "I know it isn't fair. Her life has been nothing but a coin toss. Fate is like luck, it is unprejudiced. Just as she lost her parents, she was reunited with her sister. Through the burden of her past she met you. When you kissed Sonic she was roboticized, when you went to be with her, a being like her, you both were turned back the way you were."

"What are you trying to say?" Amy asked tearfully.

"What I'm saying is that even though there is much pain right now, the toss of the coin will eventually land on something beneficial. It has always been her life. With everything bad, there is something good that follows it. Take me for example. I was a tyrant, then I turned into this, and now I'm a national model for women's clothing." Ivy smiled.

"What good could possibly arise from this torture though?"

"Be patient, keep your eyes open. You'll see it when it comes along. We all will." Robotnik comforted.

Amy's tears quelled and she wiped her face of them. "Okay. I believe you." Amy gave Ivy a small smile.

Yukiko's room door opened and the fox walked out. Her one arm using the wall for balance. From where her mechanical arm once was, wires hung down from them. A fluid leaked from it, possibly a blood oil mixture. It ran down the wires and dripped to the floor. Yukiko started down the hall with no set direction.

"Yukiko...Yukiko! Stop! You shouldn't be out of bed." The hedgehog cried out.

Amy ran up behind Yukiko, grasping her around the waist.

"Amy...you...I don't deserve you. Go, you need someone better for you. I'm becoming a demon. I love you so much, but I don't want to cause you any harm. This is my burden, I must face it alone." Tears fell to the floor from the fox's eyes.

"No! I need you, I don't care about what happens. We made a promise, Yukiko, a promise. A vow at our wedding that we would be there for one another, thick and thin, through darkness and light. We vowed to be there for one another. Please, I can't live on without you. You mean so much to me. I'm yours and you are mine. Don't leave me to be alone, I need you." Amy whimpered.

Yukiko turned to her wife and wrapped her one arm and tails around her. Holding her close. "Amy...why do you love me?" She asked.

Amy shook her head gently. "There is no reason. I love you because I do and I will never stop loving you. You and I, our hearts are the incarnate of compassion, understanding, love. Yukiko, we are love."

Yukiko's and Amy's foreheads leaned against one another's. Through the windows of their eyes their souls danced, merging into their pure incarnation of love. The kitsune's grandfather could not compete with this flame. The lips of the lovers met, eyes shut, tears of joy, not sorrow, trickled down their faces. They felt whole. The intensity of their fire was palpable. Ivy gasped silently, perceiving a fire, pink and blue, envelop around the two. To say that this was the power of love would be corny, but it was happening.

"Looks like love is the ultimate power." Ivy smirked to herself.

Maybe this was a key to defeating Yukiko's grandfather. Ivy grinned, almost certain this was the way to beat him. Yukiko's grandfather fed off of the pain and suffering in her, but compassion and sacrifice from Amy was its equal opposite. Perhaps all hope was not lost. It just took a pink rascal to demonstrate that it wasn't. Both Amy and Yukiko, together as they are, the balance between love and lust. Tails, with a fire extinguisher in her hands, coming to douse the lovers. Their fire was most definitely put out as the yellow fox coated them with the freezing foam.

"Tails! Th-this i-is f-f-f-freaking c-c-cold!!" Amy shouted at the fox.

Yukiko wrapped her tails and arm around herself, shivering violently, nose starting to run. "K-K-Ko-k-ko-ruh-ro! Why did you do th-th-that?!" Yukiko yelled.

"You were on fire! Why else? You didn't notice?" Tails explained.

"N-nuh-no, w-we did-dn't." Yukiko said, still shaking badly, her teeth beginning to chatter.

Robotnik was having a laughing fit. The best part was, Ivy happened to have a pen camera in her pocket, pointed at them when it happened. It was always on and linked to a recording machine on the Albatross. Talk about a Christmas card. She couldn't decide which frame she would use. Why not all of them? she thought. Ivy could make a video greeting card. She was going to have so much fun.

"It's not funny Ivy! Damn I cold!" Amy scolded.

Ivy calmed herself down then walked over to the three. Frost covered Yukiko's fur. The doctor brushed the two furry icicles from the extinguisher's frozen foam.

"Yukiko...why did you tear your arm out?" Ivy asked with a glum expression.

The blue kitsune didn't say anything. She shifted her eyes elsewhere. Ivy understood her frustration, she knew it was that, but she felt she needed that arm. Robotnik walked into the fox's room and returned with the robotic limb.

"Come on, let's get this back in there." Ivy said. The doctor held it horizontal to the arm socket. The loose wire stood up and treaded into the arm, pulling it back into attachment. "Yukiko, I know you're angry, but it's just helping your grandfather to win. You and Amy, that fire, it conquered over him." Ivy hugged the distraught fox.

Yukiko hugged back. "I'm sorry. I know it's just aiding him, but I needed to get my anger out."

"Yukiko, just try to keep your anger at bay from now on. It's not your style, mkay?" Ivy said.

The blue fox nodded once. She was baffled as to what Ivy and Kokoro were saying about a flame. She would just have allow Ivy to explain. Suddenly, her stomach growled loudly, interrupting any thoughts that may have been in her head. She was starved. Amy giggled.

"Go lay back in bed, hon. I'll go get you something." Amy said, pushing her gently in the direction of her room.

Yukiko walked in that direction, the entire time Amy stared at her butt. Yukiko may not have noticed that the posterior of the hospital gown was open. The hedgehog almost squealed happily, but she held it in, that could wait for later. Tails walked to the room with Yukiko and helped her into the bed. The yellow fox started to giggle.

"What's with you, Kokoro?" The blue kitsune asked.

"Your wife, Amy, she was staring at your naked butt as you walked back into the room." She smirked.

"I thought it was a bit drafty back there..." Yukiko said.

"Yep, the hospital gowns don't have backs on them."

"Where's my chastity belt? That's another thing I want to know."

"Andrée, took it off. She was a thief, picking locks was a specialty of hers." Tails clarified.

"Uhm, Andrée?"

"Sorry. Rouge. Her name was changed."

"Oh, that's French, isn't it? It's the same case with Alice." Yukiko said.

"Mhm."

Amy stepped into the door. "Hope you like hospital food." She said, smiling, and trying to get a look at the fox's rear end.

Yukiko sighed, stood up, and bent over on the bed. Amy squealed, grabbed, and rubbed on the kitsune's tush momentarily. "Thank you." She grinned and brought her hands away.

Yukiko sat back down on the bed, Ivy placed the food over her lap on a tray. Amy took a seat next to the fox. The meal had a brothy appearance, most definitely chicken soup. She set her spoon in the soup, brought it to her mouth, and sipped at it.

"I'm disappointed, it doesn't taste like it should. I don't mean to complain, but this is obviously canned food. Good broth comes right from the juices of the chicken, slowly cooking it in the oven. Getting every fresh flavor." Yukiko frowned.

Amy kissed the fox's forehead. "I know, but how about I cock you something when we get outta here."

"Amy...you said cock, not cook." Yukiko pointed out.

Amy blushed, covering her quickly developing smile with her hands. "My oopsie." Amy said.

Yukiko shook her head. "It's fine, I know you have something on your mind. How about after our dinner?"

"Okay." Amy agreed.

The fox soon finished her soup and now sat with boredom written all over her face. Amy found the look somewhat amusing, but she had brought something along in just the occasion. The pink hedgehog pulled out, from where ever she gets these things behind her back, Yukiko's book. The blue kitsune smiled brightly as Amy handed it to her. The blue kitsune tenderly kissed Amy's silky, smooth lips as a thank you. The fox opened her book and her mind became wrapped in the pages of fantasy. Amy was always conscious about Yukiko's likes, and the fox with her. Probably why they got along so well. Amy's words stirred in the fox's head, even though her sights were set in the book. The words repeated themselves: You and I, our hearts are the incarnate of compassion, understanding, love. Yukiko, we are love.

We are love...

We are love...

We are love...