C h a p t e r N i n e

A m a n d a

Sonic decided he must have gotten hit in the head pretty hard, because he suddenly found it very hard to focus on anything. He was drifting in and out of consciousness at random, and definitely not under his control. He caught glimpses of various things every time he became conscious enough to open his eyes, but not really enough to figure out where he was. All he knew was that he was being moved somewhere.

Once he caught a rather pretty view of one of the many cities that apparently covered the planet in this universe, which was rather odd, considering that those cities were breeding grounds for pollution, corruption, and trouble. Another time he caught a glimpse of some kind of chamber, probably a room in some kind of craft, which was shaking gently.

But this didn't tell him where he was being taken, which was the question that was bugging him the most. And, his mind felt so rattled that he couldn't focus on it long enough to figure it out. Finally, after what had to be several hours of this, Sonic's mind finally start to pull itself together, and the light, but pressing, ache his head had been generating began to dissipate. He awoke once again with the sensation of something wet lying on his forehead.

Moaning, Sonic pressed a hand to his forehead, and found a wet cloth had been laid there. Pulling it off, he opened his eyes, looking around. He was lying on a cot in a small, sparsely furnished, bedroom. It was dimly lit. In fact, the only light there seemed to be was the yellowish glow from a small lamp on a bedside table, and a faint glow from a pair of windows next to the bed.

Windows. Curious as to where he was, he looked out the window to try and determine where he was. All he saw was stars, however. Sonic was surprised at first, but then guessed he probably could've been out long enough for night to fall.

Still, he couldn't stay here, wherever here was. He had friends to find, and an alternate reality to return to. He sat up, but his head spun suddenly, forcing him to clamp the wet rag still his hand back on his head.

"Oh, you're awake!" a voice suddenly said, and he heard footsteps coming towards him. a gentle hand suddenly reached forward and pushed him back down into a lying position. "Easy." the voice, probably a female's, soothed. "You've got quite a bump on the head."

Sonic knew this, he could feel it under the rag. "Where am I?" he croaked out, his voice sounding a little weak, more than he would've liked.

"Never mind that now, how are you feeling?" the voice asked. Whoever it was, took the rag from him.

"Could be better." Sonic admitted, squeezing his eyes shut to try and lessen the throb his head was producing. "Still, I feel better than I did earlier."

"Good, that means the medicine I gave you is working."

"What medicine?"

"Just pain killers and something for that bump. Luckily, it's not anything worse than that. But Sonic really walloped you."

"But I'm Sonic." Sonic objected without thinking, then, mentally scolding himself, added, "Wait, you mean the other Sonic, don't you?"

"Yes." the voice said, wiping at Sonic's forehead.

The motion soothed the throb, and finally Sonic was willing to open his eyes again. Before him was a female hedgehog, with her quills pulled back into a ponytail. Both her quills and fur were a cerulean color. Sonic squinted his eyes at her, but couldn't identify her.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"You mean you don't know?" the hedgehog asked, looking surprised.

"No." Sonic admitted. "Should I?"

"Apparently not." the hedgehog admitted. "Pity." she sighed, and said. "I'm Amanda."

"Amanda, huh?" Sonic said, sitting up again, this time more hesitantly. "Amanda who?"

"You don't need to know."

"Really? Who said I shouldn't know?"

"Me, for one. Sonic for another."

"The other Sonic."

"Yes."

Sonic studied her for a moment. "What's with this other Sonic, anyway?" he asked.

"Well, he's you, in a sense." Amanda replied. "Although, there are notable differences."

"I got that." Sonic said, rubbing the bump on his head. "I don't particularly like him."

"The feelings mutual, I assure you." Amanda said.

"I got that too." Sonic said. He looked around the room for a moment, before looking at Amanda again. "So how do you fit into this?"

"Sonic wants you alive." Amanda said. "And physically fit. My job was to insure that, although he had little to fear."

"Can we stop calling him Sonic?" Sonic asked. "It's throwing my mind for a loop every time. You know, I share his name."

"I know." Amanda said. "That's why you were brought here."

"For what?" Sonic asked, repositioning himself so his legs dangled off the bed.

"Interrogation." Amanda said. "He knows you're from a different universe. He wants to learn more about it."

"Oh, I'll bet he does." Sonic grumbled. He got up. "Well, thanks for the help, but I gotta be going now." he headed for what he presumed was the door.

"You shouldn't leave." Amanda said, going to stop him.

"I know, I know, I've got a bump on the head." Sonic said, waving her off. "Trust me, that's not going to stop me."

"I'm not talking about the bump." Amanda said, following Sonic. "Perhaps I should've said that you can't leave."

Sonic approached the door, only to find it was locked. He struggled with the latch for a moment, but it wouldn't budge.

"See?" Amanda said. "Sonic left explicit directions that you were to stay here."

Sonic glared at her. "What are you, his sidekick or something?" he asked, turning to head back to the bed.

"No, I'm his girlfriend."

Sonic froze. "Say what?" he asked.

"I'm his girlfriend." Amanda repeated.

"Not Amy? Not to say Amy's my girlfriend or anything, just...not anybody like that?"

"Amy who?"

"I'll take that as a no." Sonic flopping back down on the bed. "Great. I suppose you're here to keep an eye on me too, huh?"

"You aren't supposed to know that." Amanda said.

"Didn't take a genius to figure it out, though." Sonic pointed out.

"True." Amanda admitted.

Sonic shook his head. "How can you be with him?" he asked. "I mean, sure, he's got way past cool looks, but he's kinda more...how shall I say it...bad?"

"Not bad, he just has more power than you." Amanda corrected.

"So you don't like me, then." Sonic guessed.

"I see you as someone a bit weaker than him, if that's what you mean." Amanda said. "That's not to say you don't have potential, though."

"So I take it you're bad in this reality too." Sonic said, realizing there was no escaping it.

"That's a relative term." Amanda pointed out.

"Oh, I'm sure you don't think you're bad." Sonic said, exasperated. "But you are."

"If you say so." Amanda said.

"But if you really are bad..." Sonic said, sitting up to look at her, "...then why are you being so nice to me?"

"Perhaps there's more to being 'bad', as you put it, than you think." Amanda said.

Sonic frowned, and got up, starting to pace. This conversation wasn't getting him anywhere. He was getting bored by it too, and annoyed at the fact he wasn't moving. Looking around the room, though, it seemed the only ways out would be to break down the door or to break a window. But, doing either could take time.

"Where is my double?" Sonic asked. "You know, the darker of us two Sonics?"

"He left for a period of time to report your capture to Emperor Robotnik." Amanda said.

"So he's an ally to Eggman after all." Sonic muttered to himself, thinking as he paced.

"He also left to give you some time top recover." Amanda went on. "And since going in and out of orbit can take awhile..."

"Wait. Orbit?" Sonic said, alarmed. "Where exactly am I?"

Amanda looked at him blankly for a moment.

"Where's here?" Sonic asked again. "Where has Dark Sonic brought me?"

Amanda was silent for a moment. "To Space Colony ARK, of course." she said simply, like the answer was obvious.

Sonic's eyes widened, and he zipped to the window looking out it. Not only could he stars, which he had presumed was merely a sign that it was night, he could see the sun hanging out there on it's own, and the blue curving shape of the earth below, half of it in shadow.

So much for trying to escape out the window.

Several levels above the room Sonic was locked in was Space Colony ARK's control room. Standing at the master control panel was figure. Silently, he stood there working on his unknown task, generally ignoring the room around him.

At least, that was how it appeared.

In reality, he was aware of everything that was going on in the room. he could hear the beeps of the various devices working in the room and the tapping sound of his fingers on the keyboard, and he could feel the light being cast from the control room's main display, it's only source of light. He could hear various pipes whirr and beams groan; he even could feel the artificial gravity's telltale shift as it overcompensated one-eight of a gee for a split second.

So, naturally, he knew when the door opened, and someone entered, and he knew exactly who it was before that someone even spoke.

"You know, I don't mind the dark..." the newcomer said airily, "...but wouldn't you work better with the lights on?"

"I prefer that they remain off, please." the figure at the control panel said flatly, not turning away from the panel he worked at.

"Fine." the newcomer said in a tone of annoyance. "Anyway, I'm here to report that our beloved captain, Sonic, has departed for Earth. Dramatically, as always."

"Yes, I saw him leave on the sensors." the figure replied.

"What did you think of his cargo?" the newcomer asked. "You saw it, right?"

"Oh, I saw it alright." the figure assured her.

"And?"

"Very interesting. Could possibly explain Eggman's change of policies in our last communique."

"Oh, Emperor Robotnik called, did he?"

"Yes, and asked for the report I sent to him two days ago, like always."

"Little nuisance."

"Agreed, especially as he already called to confirm he had seen that report yesterday." the figure tapped a key decisively before continuing. "But, he is emperor, and he has proven capable of leading the empire. I think, keeping all of that in mind, one can learn to ignore his more trivial flaws."

"If you say so. I'm just glad he tries to stay out of my way."

"Yes, he would make that one of his goals in life."

"And what's that supposed to mean, exactly?"

"Nothing offending, I assure you."

"I thought not, but still, one can never tell with you."

"That is one of my goals in life. Always leave my enemies unsure about me."

"But I'm not your enemy, now am I?"

"Of course not, Rouge."

Dark Rouge grinned, and stepped fully into the room, allowing the door to slide shut behind her. "You know," she said, "I might just make you have to prove that to me."

"Oh?"

"Yes, it's been awhile since you have done anything of the sort."

"I've been busy."

"And I can understand that." Dark Rouge admitted with a shrug. "But still, you've been 'busier' a lot lately, more 'busier' than usual. Are you up to something?"

"If I was, you'd know about it already." the figure replied.

"You aren't lying, are you?"

The figure paused, then side-glanced at Rouge, standing behind him. "Why would I lie to you?" he asked.

"Everyone lies at least once in this world, Lieutenant."

"I don't like that rank."

"I know. But it makes for a great wedge to get you to talk, doesn't it?"

"Well, I am not lying. If I was up to anything significant, I assure you, you would've known about it long before now."

Dark Rouge was silent for a moment. "I note you phrased that reply in such a way that you didn't deny you weren't up to something altogether. Just nothing significant."

"If you really must know, I'm doing research." the figure said, returning his attention to the control panel.

Dark Rouge frowned. "I've never known you to do research before." she remarked.

"I know." Dark Shadow replied, glancing back at her and grinning slightly. "But every action has a reason, doesn't it?"