A/N: First and foremost, I am deeply sorry for leaving everybody out in the dust for so long. When the holidays arrived, I basically dropped the story off my to do list and instead focused on spending time on my friends and family considering I was hope for a good three weeks.
Anyway I'm glad everybody seems to be enjoying the story so far, I'm having a ball thinking about idea for what I wanted to do with it. Recently though when I started back up again in writing the next chapter (this was back in the beginning of January) I ran into writer's block on what exactly I wanted to write about for the next couple of chapters. I had a firm idea of what I wanted to do in the future chapters, but I didn't feel like rushing the story.
So I decided to completely re-read and envelope myself into one of my favorite stories on this site, which is Cold Compassion by Anzgirlchbi and The Queen of Aces. It's one of my favorite stories, and it's a crying shame it isn't finished. But nonetheless, reading it provided me with plenty of different ideas on how I wanted to continue the story, and now I think I'm back on track. Oh and I highly recommend reading it if you never have.
I won't do shoutouts for this chapter due to the gigantic paragraph that I wrote for the author's note. Sorry about that.
Anyways, here's the next chapter.
Cedars of Lebanon
Chapter VI
Most of the people were caught off guard when they heard what resembled a pack of rhinos running across the hospital hallway. Now of course the sheer thought of a rhinoceros barreling its way through a hospital is downright outrageous and ludicrous at that. But then again, there were no wild Odd-toed ungulates in the hospital, only the mad rush of the friends of Amy Rose. Their excitement of her awakening could be compared to a homeless man winning five million dollars from somebody's dropped lottery ticket.
But here was Amy, finally alert and awake in her hospital bed, with her friends and close companions alike coming into her hospital room to greet the pink hedgehog.
Amy's hospital room was a rather amusing sight to the onlookers who were walking by at the present time. Sure, a bunch of friends excited to see a patient awaken was nothing out of the ordinary, but it was more the look of the room that most couldn't help but smile at.
Curtains hung off the window, followed by Amy's bedspread, lamp, books, and a multitude of other things. One had to be impressed with the job that Tails did with arranging all her things, not to mention that he was strong enough to bring a gigantic amount of her possessions to begin with.
Now one would expect Amy to be in a cheerful mood again seeing all her friends around her, plus the fact that she was actually awake even quicker than originally thought. The nurse and doctor who had been to her aid mentioned the severity of the injuries that she suffered and how much pain she was experiencing due to this. They ended up giving her a very strong painkiller as well as a sedative so this way she wouldn't have to be awake to experience the stark pain of her injuries.
The doctor was standing outside of the room as he watched her friends gather around her, a smile on his face at the little reunion. He did keep an eye on her heart rate on the monitor by the bed; unbeknownst to the rest of them, it seemed to be rising ever so slowly. He worried that she might not be ready to stay awake just yet, and that the pain was still there.
Meanwhile everyone inside the room was chuckling as Cream was trying to give Amy the biggest hug she possibly could without hurting her. Noticing this Amy did smile a bit, although she was feeling sharp pain throughout her body, not as significant as earlier on though.
"So don't hurt me for asking, but how do you feel?" asked Knuckles, who was still a bit sleepy considering he bolted upright from a deep sleep when Tails exclaimed that she was awake.
"It hurts… a lot," she croaked out as a response, her voice very shaky due to her weakened state, "I'll be okay I think though."
"We all hope so, you did scare the heck out of all of us," added Rouge, stroking her bangs while cautiously avoiding the bandage that covered the one that had been torn off. She and Amy had gotten a lot closer as Amy got older and matured. When she was still the fan girl that followed Sonic's every move, Rouge found her more to be a pain in the ass, no offense being directed to her. Anytime they interacted with one another they both ended up in an argument. Amy thought that she was trying to steal Sonic away from her, when in reality she wasn't even doing anything of the sort. Rouge knew that her looks made Amy jealous at the time.
Now however they would hang out much more often, with Amy turning into one of Rouge's best friends. Rouge herself considered it amazing how much she changed once she stopped pursuing Sonic. She stopped wearing the pink dress and red boots, and opted for mostly jeans and various t shirts. She stopped keeping her hair at the same length and let it grow out to her upper back, something Rouge wondered why she never did earlier. She even joked about how she couldn't be jealous anymore and how she looked just as beautiful as her now.
It was this reason why she nearly broke down into sobs when she first saw the damage done to Amy. The way her beautiful body was downright mutilated, and even just her complexion, it looked like she had nearly died, as her face was a light as could be shade of pink.
Rouge could only imagine what Amy's state of mind would be when she woke up, but surprisingly as she laid awake before her, Amy seemed to be okay.
However, Rouge did notice something about the look in her eyes.
There seemed to be a strong sense of fear that she never noticed before.
"I made you something just in case you need me!" Exclaimed the twin tailed kitsune, who was holding out a small device that looked like similar to a call button a normal hospital would have to signal for a nurse. Only this one was the size of a lid of a coffee cup, and had multiple buttons.
Amy looked at it a bit a bit puzzled, "It's… a button?"
Tails and the others just laughed, "Actually it's a signaling device I made for you to alert us if anyone of us is needed. See, each one of us has our own name under one of the buttons. So if you want any of us, just press said button and…" Tails paused while showing her the bracelet with a bright LED light built into it, "This will light up and also make a noise that lets us know to come help you. I made it while I was waiting for you to wake up."
Amy, although still in a great deal of pain even with the additions of the painkillers, couldn't help herself from smiling a bit at just how giddy and enthusiastic Tails was getting explaining this gadget to her.
"See it has Tails for this button, Shadow for this button, Sonic for this one…" He went on, pointing to the respective button while unaware of Amy's sudden change of expression.
Suddenly an all too familiar beeping was heard, and everybody's head turned sharply towards the origin of the noise… her heart monitor.
Tails eyes went wide in fear.
"Amy…?"
As if on cue, the doctor who was keeping watch yelled down the hall for a nurse to help him as they tried to calm down Amy, who was starting to spasm while her eyes rolled back into her head. From the looks of her movements and how high her heart rate was climbing to, a dangerous seizure was beginning to strike her now fragile body.
Thankfully the doctor swiftly pulled out the medicine needed and injected it into the IV that was attached to her arm. Slowly but surely Amy's movements died down completely, and the heart monitor returned to the value it was supposed to read.
Outside Tails, Rouge, and everybody else watched in horror as this occurred, with Cream hiding her head in Knuckles shoulder, afraid to watch her friend in pain.
"Cream Amy's okay," Knuckles said, turning her back around so she was facing the window of Amy's room, "It was just a little problem. She's might have some things like this happen while she's getting better."
"Are you sure Mr. Knuckles?"
He nodded and put his arm on her shoulder, Rouge watching and smiling at the small exchange between the abnormal pair.
Xxxxxx
The first thing Sonic thought of when he looked at the room he was in, was a business office.
In reality he wasn't that far off.
The walls had that same sort of grayish color that a normal business office had, coupled along with white tiled floors. Identical wood doors with what seemed to be a barcode on them lined the walls in the same position on each side, with equal spacing between each one.
Other than this, Sonic didn't see anything suspicious about the room in the slightest. He looked in every corner and space of the hallway from where he was sitting, but did not find anything that looked to be a camera, or a device that detects intruders. The walls and ceiling themselves were barren with the exception of a coat of paint and an air vent here and there.
Sonic began to wonder if this entire ordeal was just a decoy, a trap that would result in him aimlessly wandering the vicinity until he figured out that Eggman wasn't here at all. In fact, all this time could have been wasted while the doctor was escaping to another far off place where he would be impossible to track. He couldn't let that happen, but something was telling him that Eggman was indeed inside this maze of a place somewhere, he just sensed it in the back of his mind.
Anybody else he knew would call him insane for trusting a little sense in his mind, but he did anyway. It was just his nature to always go with his instinct, even if he even didn't think he was right. Amy gave him a ton of backlash because of this, especially when it regarded decisions that threatened his safety… and his life.
But it wasn't his life he was worried about now. It was Amy's, and for good reason.
He wondered how she was doing while he slowly made his way through various hallways, trying to find any sort of clue of which could be used to find the doctor. Sonic felt like it had been a day or two; he could feel it throughout his body, a contributing factor of his lack of nourishment since he first found this place. It's not like Eggman was going to leave him a snack to have though, and if he did it'd probably be jacked up with some dangerous chemical or poison.
But every time he thought about something, his mind continued to trace its way back to Amy. Sure, she had overcome injuries sustained in battle as well as psychological stress and other things, but a savage rape? Even with the will power she possessed, Sonic couldn't help but worry that she might be permanently scarred from such a nightmare, a nightmare that became all too real. Just thinking about how badly bruised and cut her body made him flinch as if he was mutually feeling the pain that she felt.
And if she was able to overcome this, how long would it take her?
Weeks…?
Months…?
Years…?
Sonic started to feel the room getting warmer, although it wasn't due to any change in the temperature of the room itself. Instead, he could feel some of his pent up rage over the incident flow through his veins.
And if almost on cue, he slammed his fist into one of the identical doors in the hallway.
The door responded by completely caving into itself in the center, its sections bursting into thousands of tiny splinters that flew across the room at multiple angles.
He stopped and for what seemed like hours, but was only a few seconds, and stared at the now partially demolished door and the wood fragments that littered the floor. Sonic then lifted his hand in front of his face, noticing many of the same tiny wood fragments embedded in his fur. A couple drops of blood fell onto the neutral color of the tiled floor, standing out like a sore thumb.
"Since when do I get this angry?"
Sonic felt… strange to say the least.
He never bothered to express anger when he felt it, as he always assumed it to be a dangerous emotion that only causes more problems than it does fix them. Shadow nearly destroyed the world when he was riding his anger fueled tenure with Black Doom years ago, but then again he ended up saving the world in the end, so no complaints.
The problem Sonic had with what just happened was not to do with the pain of the multiple amounts of splinters digging into the flesh on his hand, or how he actually enjoyed letting out some of his frustration.
No… the problem was that he didn't even know his own action until it happened.
Sonic just saw the door and hallway in perfect undamaged form one second, and then all of a sudden he looked again to find a smashed up door, and a floor littered with wood fragments.
It was clearly evident that he did punch the door, but he didn't remember or feel it.
The cobalt hedgehog decided that maybe sitting down and taking a rest wouldn't be out of the question.
Xxxxxx
When I was first created, I always seemed to ignore the elements of emotion most people embrace. I never really got scared, or happy, or excited, or worried. The only two emotions I ever remember feeling were anger… and love. Maria was the single living soul I ever experienced both of these with.
But now, over the past few days I felt like the indestructible wall holding back the rest of my emotions finally just decided to cave in on itself. With it doing that, came the flood of different emotions I was not used to feeling, ever.
I felt sadness when thinking about how I was the cause of all the suffering Amy has gotten. If only I had accompanied her to the pharmacy, instead of making her walk over there alone late at night.
I felt happiness in seeing her eyes finally open back up to the world, her gentle pupils looking at mine while I tried to tell here everything would be okay.
And finally, I felt scared.
Scared.
I wasn't sure if I should be angry at myself for feeling such a worthless and useless emotion like fear. I was always fearless, willing to take on anything or anyone in order to achieve whatever it was that I was after. Never had I been afraid or fearful of Eggman or even the time where Sonic nearly got killed. I wasn't afraid of that; I knew he wasn't going to die. My strong sense of pride shoved any fear I had out of the way.
But this was a different situation entirely.
When Amy suddenly blanked out and nearly went into cardiovascular arrest, my mind blanked out as well. I could only stand and watch as the doctor came in, shouting loudly for a nurse to come assist him as Amy continued to spasm. At least everybody seemed to be alert enough to get out of the way and let them take care of Amy, but I just felt this sense where I was fearful of leaving her out of my reach. I just had this thought that if she got out of my touch and sight, something bad would happen that could have been avoided. I almost nearly cost Amy her life with a stupid mistake, I was going to make sure that nothing like that ever happens to her ever again.
And I made a promise to myself.
When Rouge mentioned how Amy should stay with me due to me being in a similar emotional situation once, it made me think. Maybe having her with me could perhaps help me process and even aid me in escaping the endless pool of guilt I was feeling. Not to mention that I haven't really had a close companion stay with me for some time, it would be nice to have somebody I knew to talk to once in awhile, depending on if she wanted to listen or not.
Now though here I was, seated bedside to the pink hedgehog, holding her hand in mine while struggling to keep my eyes awake. I hadn't slept in what seemed like forever, but there was no way I was going to without seeing Amy awaken first.
I thought about going into her mind again.
I was able to do it before, the only difference being that she hadn't quite registered the shock of what had happened yet. Now she did, and her mind was most likely very unstable because of this. I could probably still communicate no problem, only I wasn't sure what would happen if the connection between our minds suddenly cut off. I hadn't actually failed in doing this ever, so I wasn't sure what to expect.
Her red clock on the wall currently read 3:30 in the morning, so if I did do it now, there most likely wouldn't be anybody to disturb us or walk in on us.
I started shifting around in the chair, trying to get the most comfortable position possible since I wouldn't be able to move my body once I firmly inside her head.
"I figured you'd be in here."
I opened my eyes and looked at Rouge's shadow centered in the doorway, her facial expression telling me that she hadn't gotten proper rest either.
"Shadow she'll be okay, you know that. She has the most willpower and determination of anybody I know."
That I definitely did know for sure. Her never give up attitude rivaled Sonics, and she was that continual driving force behind us all, even when it seemed Eggman would win.
"Yeah… but how cracked with this leave her?"
Rouge remained silent as I watched her eyes for an answer.
"I don't know. Nobody does Shadow, not even Amy."
"What if she can't…?"
I felt a pair of hands cover my mouth as if I was saying something very wrong all of a sudden. Rouge looked directly into my eyes, and when she did, I couldn't help but notice a sense of anger present behind her stare.
"You need to stop beating yourself up over this. You cannot blame yourself for anything that has happened over the past couple days," she started, putting a more stern tone into her voice, although I could detect the sadness behind it.
"If you blame yourself, you won't be the only one suffering. Amy will feel your pain just as much as you will. She'll start to develop the mindset that she should have been more careful about walking in the city at night.
Shadow, she has enough to get over and worry about. One of you has to stay strong you know.
If you're going to help her recovery from this, your attitude needs to change sooner than later, otherwise you'll only be causing more harm than good."
I hadn't thought exactly about this until she made mention of it. I blaming myself over this hurts both of us in the long run. I didn't realize just how selfish this made me look until now.
We both just sat in silence with one another for a few moments. It was as if we were communicating just by looking at the expressions of one another; no talking or any speech at all. It reminded me just how close Rouge and I really were, even if we weren't romantically related or something. Now, we were just good close friends. Maybe I really do have close friends.
"I'm guessing you were going to talk to Amy right?" She did a little air-quote when she said the world talk.
She had fired an arrow in the dark, and it hit directly into the bull's-eye.
"How did you know that I was going to communicate using our minds?"
Rouge got up and was slowly walking out the door when she turned around
"Shadow, I still know a lot more about you than you think." And with that she made her way back to the waiting room.
I sat in silence smiling at nothing due to her comment. My focus returned as I began settling down into a comfortable position for when I tried to communicate with Amy.
After a couple of attempts, I found a position I considered fit. Closing my eyes I started to alienate myself from everything around me, eliminating any outside thoughts I might be having until I had one focused thought, which was Amy. Soon I could feel my mind making the connection with hers.
Opening my eyes, I found myself on the same cloud from before when I had last telepathically talked to the pink hedgehog.
Only there was major problem.
The cloud was a dark gray, almost a light black if it was a better way to describe it. Most of the clouds that were surrounding us were torn as if they had been sliced repeatedly and frantically with a sharp knife.
I only realized just how dark it was now with everything not being white like beforehand.
I got up and attempted to look for Amy, and found her way in the corner almost wedged between two of the broken clouds. She looked normal and didn't have any of the scars, cuts, and bruises she currently sported on her real self, but something seemed strange. I could only make out her back and the back of her head, as she seemed to be facing away from this area on purpose, as if she was trying to hide from something.
"Amy?" It's me…"
She looked over for a second, and when I saw her expression, the worry and fear I had earlier returned in full force.
