Chapter 10

Isolated Spirits

The atmosphere of the whole Resistance went silent, only for necessary communications to take place for various unrelated tasks but nothing that warranted them take on jobs. Most of it was just paperwork or to help out with development. But the team...Sonic, Amy...Blaze and Silver barely spoke to one another after Rouge's death.

Over the coming days as the medication wore off, Amy developed emotions that held all kinds of hate. A lot of the negative energies returned to her in unneeded ways, such is the way of grief sometimes. Such hatred, such anger towards the cybernetic princess lead Amy to hold a deep, dark desire to wring her fingers around her scrawny neck.

She didn't know or talk to Rouge all that often. In some cases, she wished she had. Or was that guilt? Amy couldn't tell as far as her emotions were concerned. Though one of their prominent conversations was her detailing how a kid would have ruined her life. But she was being held back from getting rid of it. Rouge failed to detail why, but Amy had her suspicions. Then she had heard about the Topaz incident, suddenly pieces were coming together.

The reality was they couldn't blame anyone else for this mess besides her. The fault was crystal clear in the infamous princess. That much was definite. One, dark certainty in this foul situation.

She had so much fun with Sonic earlier, but she felt like that one light had quickly been dowsed. Why couldn't she have held on to that? Why does everything good have to be ruined?

She was reminded of Hydropolis...and its Kraknos. It reminded her of the Kraken creature back in the Gauntlet while masquerading as 'Olly'. It was a lesson she had learned. Just as you think you have it, something horrible was going to bring her down again. This was...had been an common occurrence even before all this drama started.

The charade wouldn't have been able to last long enough, given her own decision to sacrifice herself and let the whole prophecy go ahead as normal. Her plan had been to allow Abbadonia to possess her and then allow Sonic to kill her through becoming Super Sonic. It had always been the case where his strength was always enough to end it all. But...maybe she could blame Eggman...

She pitied him more than anything else. Elise just mirrored the trend of crazy.

The more she thought about it though, the more she would have loved to have Olly as a friend. Or even family...speaking of family...

Asher and Andrew kept trying to communicate with Amy as she laid in the Temple as evidenced by the numerous messages sent to her via emails that kept flashing on the nearby computer. She was stuck with her knees up to her chest with her arms wrapped around her legs, surrounded by wires and monitors. Since her room hadn't been touched since she trashed it, she had decided to sleep (or at least attempt to) there, with the only thing she bared to take with her were her assortment of tarot cards. She preferred to stay up in this less intensive environment; out of the prying eyes of those who felt the need to speak with her.

All she could hear was the faintest sounds of electrical humming, as the room was quite warm from the heat of all the computers as the taste of copper that stuck itself on her tongue.

Rewind...

"Amy Rose?"

Diga the Dragon had wandered into Amy's room uninvited, while Amy recovered from her over dosage of her medication. She still had zoned out completely, staring at the roof without budging at all.

Diga tip-toed around the mess of broken glass and furniture. She picked up a piece of paper on the floor, seeing the picture of herself, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles in a nice group photo. Their eyes were bright and youthful and their smiles genuine and cheeky.

She picked up each of the tarot cards that had been left on the floor and placed them back into the wooden box they belonged in. She placed the box on the bed side table then sat on the edge of the bed as she looked at Amy, who's eyes were so dilated.

"Poor, sweet child, you know when I was your age I had your same candour. But at the same time I had desires. Nothing like yours but on a similar scale of...a general degree. But you know what, its finding the difference in those desires that important. What you need and what you want. Two different concepts. But they always get mixed up. Understandably." Diga spoke with the air of superiority, as she stroked Amy's still face.

"On the topic of concepts, I also study souls as a side interest. Every single soul is unique and precious and can be driven by its own senses and the powers of a single soul are near-infinite. But...it is the mind that is important as a limiter to the souls true power, as well as the body that contains it. Your soul, is very interesting to me. You're one of those who seem to have been caught up in the ancient phase of where certain types of soul are chosen for specific tasks; that their minds and their bodies are tailored to a definite fate. You can say that most souls of course. Sonic's soul is the same. Your souls are indeed very similar in fact. Maybe not in the way you'd expect it. Usually, its always in the way you would never assume other wise."

She focused on the box that held the tarot cards. Its engraved nature intrigued her as she continued to examine it.

"But it becomes a bit of a problem if the soul itself in stuck in tandem with others, threatening to...lets say cause issues. And the best solution is to let it ride out as it as normal in the hopes a solution would present itself. Which it inevitably does. The matter is...of when..."

Amy's head turned to Diga, with her eyes still wide.

"Everything I did...was for him...you know this." She said, her voice barely a whisper.

Diga nodded in response, as she cradled Amy's face in her hand and looked down at her with a small smile.

"I do Amy, I do. But you're harming yourself as you're harming him. You're as bright as the stars. That's the power of your soul at this moment, blinding him to a fate like yours. The tarots cannot foresee your destiny any further than they have. You know the outcome." Diga told her, with her voice toned to sadness.

Amy just moved her head, to stare at the roof again.

"My original plan never worked...but..I have studied everything in regards to prophecy and studied hard for months. A lot of the old records...even the findings from the Wisers...a lot of it doesn't add up. Eggman and Elise have taken this further than what was foretold." She muttered.

Diga pursed her lips as she slid her hands back into her lap.

"Old legends never make it easy. Its usually the translations that are left all 's the nature of challenging fate."

Amy looked at her hand against the harsh light. Too bright for her liking.

"How do you make sense of it then?"

"One way to think about it" Diga said as she stood up, leaving the box next to Amy and helped clean her room up.
"Is that you compare it to old books that have the answer in the chapter titles."

She then walked towards the door, then turned her head back to glance on Amy once more.

"The written stories end and your own begin, so when it all unfolds before you, the universe will be at your command, Prophetess..."

Current...

It left Amy to ponder on her findings, as she tirelessly researched everything. From what ever happened in the past and what would happen in the future. Whether or not, there was a future at all.

Everything from the weird visions, weird experiences as well as that one time she commanded lightning for some reason. A lot of it just had to add up somehow. But...there was too much noise. A lot of talking but not a lot clarification. She'd been slowly giving up sanity for this. She was in a state, where words on the screen made more sense than those spoken out loud. The voices of her mother stung her badly, either with scorn or order. She tried the tarot cards again out of desperation, but they still made nothing clearer than before. She ended up giving them to Cream who was more interested in them than she was at present. Perhaps Cream's attempts would conjure a future tangible. Bless that tiny rabbit...although she wasn't as young as Amy usually envisioned her.

She rose up against the cables, annoyed by the blinking light on the nearest screen and brushed away the quills from her face. It was time to look presentable for the meanwhile. Thankfully most of the stuff in room had been cleaned up again. Her little chat with Diga made sure her...episode and any of evidence of it was hidden as Diga primed herself on being discreet.

"What do they want?" Amy muttered to Little IT who stood nearby, apathetic as per usual.

"They wish to speak to about your sister Aceste..." Little IT responded.

It allowed Amy to think less of what she had been focusing on and more on the logical aspect of reality. Last she heard, Aceste and Asmos parted on negative terms, with Asmos urging her, lets say, more creative sister to contribute to the war effort where Aceste desired to be of not part of it, with her and her boyfriend going elsewhere. To Amy's knowledge, there has been no contact until now.

Amy had no real quarrels with her sister, or any of her siblings. Andrew was a quintessential older brother, looking out for his younger sisters. Unlike Asmos, he liked Sonic but due to the nature of his work had no time to speak with him nor had any reason to. But Andrew had matured greatly, since of course, the brother-sister friction often brought him to prank his sisters on a consistent basis. After their father died, he was the only male in the family. But he was highly independent.

His wife had given birth several months back, another young boy. Another male Rose. Aaron.

Though it did little to bring a smile naturally to Amy when she first saw him, she knew she had to force one for the tiny one's sake. He was cute. Seeing Rouge's baby brought up worse feelings that she had to run out of the room. Andrew's Wife Anise had offered to take care of it, surprisingly, since she not only had Aaron but her other sons; Adam and Alex too.

Anise was perfect for Andrew, as she brought out the best of him. She previously worked in a bank and specialized in finances. So she was automatically given the role of budgeting in their household. But in recent times, she had taken the time (her and many others, including Vanilla and Cream) to take care of most of the children, including orphans. A role that took most of her time, up until she had given birth.

Asher was sweet, if not bumbling from time to time but was competent where it mattered. She became Aaron's godmother on the virtue of being the only one qualified. Amy had been curious what she'd be like as a mother, but she had always been focused on her work in which, Asher described it as being an honour to being one of the first sights a baby sees as it always gave her a warm feeling.

Even when the relationship between Asmos and Amy waned, the two often spoke over the phone or by sms, with Asher being rightfully concerned and perhaps overbearing when it came to Amy's adventures with Sonic and Co.

Aceste...Aceste was odder than Amy was. She was the artistic one, having a dip of everything creative...she always had a vision in her mind of what she wanted to do. Didn't just dip into drawing but to singing and dancing. They never really kept in contact with one another, as Aceste was always into her world and into creating worlds for herself. What her partner saw in her was anyones guess. Though Agent Strider aka Kratos was once part of GUN, Amy never understood what made Kratos go rogue, but him ending up with Aceste did not surprise Amy at all. It made her feel worse about the lack of communication.

"What about her?" Amy questioned. Despite all the pressure previous entailed, she pulled herself together for the sake of their sister.

"They fear for her safety. As her location has been found. An Emerald has been found there as well." Andrew replied.

Amy blinked. What in the world would Aceste want with a Chaos Emerald?

After making the immense effort to get up, Amy got herself organised as she headed back to her room, with Asher and Andrew standing outside with worried faces.

She lead them inside and closed the door.

"So what's going with Ace?" Amy asked.

Andrew sighed as he and Asher sat by the table as Amy made them coffee.

"Aceste...you know she ran off with that human. Well, we've finally made progress of where they've run off to." The male hedgehog commented.

"She's gone to Twinkle Park."

Located in the now ruined (again) Station Square, Amy remembered Twinkle Park as a fun place...supposedly. But most of those memories are of her being chased by one of Eggman's robots.

It did bring up good and bad vibes.

"Why would she go there? That place she A be deserted and B, be destroyed?" Amy wondered, trying to think of Aceste's logic.

Asher shrugged.

"Ace was always the weird one, plying her artistic trade in darker circles. Not necessarily dark dark mind you. She was, as one would describe, one with hipster integrity. From one of last, friendly conversations she was practicing her performances, wanting to be a professional singer." The older sister stated.

She did have a nice voice from memory, but getting into that hedgehogs mind was more difficult than Sonic's. And that was saying something. Even in this day and age, Aceste pursued obscure goals in obscure situations. Actually, that would be exactly what she would do.

"You're also saying she has a Chaos Emerald?" Amy stated.

Andrew nodded.

"Yeah. Its...not entirely confident in what she would do with it. I mean, unless she's planning to give it to Kratos, whom, I'm sure we all can agree, we simply do not trust at this point, going from how pissed mother was with him." He said.

Amy served the drinks to her siblings at sat with them. In all honesty, it had been an exceedingly long time for most of the Rose family to be together like this. Perhaps it had been years since they had all been in the same room as one another, just to have a civil conversation. Sans Aceste and their father.

"How did you find this out anyway? I would imagine mother being on top of this and her completely losing it." Amy described.

Asher and Andrew took one look at one another.

"I've been using my tools to track her down personally. I didn't want mother involved, fearing that she'd probably want an entire squad to pin her down with reckless abandon. I fear mothers wrath would be far more uncouth than we'd all desire." Andrew replied.

Exactly. Asmos had been less than friendly to her own children in the past. At this stage, you could accuse her of not even referencing Aceste as her daughter and Asmos wouldn't deny it. She'd done it on a more subtle basis with Amy in previous years, but this point, it would seem Amy became the sole favourite in her eyes. Only to Andrew and Asher's opinion however, as Amy begged to differ.

"So what do we do?" Amy wondered.

"We leave, mother's going to find out straight away what we're up to."

Andrew nodded

"It just happens; a secondary, if not a more worrisome matter is also involved. Princess Elise."

Amy froze. The bitch that killed Rouge. Of course she'd have to be involved. If she'd had touched Aceste, there'd be hell to pay.

"The leads suggest that Elise has an Emerald on her persons, which I suspect that maybe Aceste had given her and the two have teamed up. How much of that true is still up for to debate, since we have no idea whats going in Aceste's mind at this point." Andrew continued.

"We've had reports of Elise being in the area, maybe that she found out that Aceste had the Emerald and plans to take it off of her. Either way, we're running out of time. We need someone out there to make sure Ace is safe!" Asher pleaded.

Of course they had to save their dear sister. No matter how much crap she had made them go through, they needed each other and needed each other to understand.

"Glitch's pulled up maps of Twinkle Park." Andrew revealed as he pulled out several blue prints, spreading them across the table, with Amy peering over them closely.

"It's been remodelled? Huh. Aceste must have been working on this the whole time." Amy assumed.

"Some renovations yeah." Andrew agreed. "You recall how Aceste had her own style and it had to be her style if you catch my drift. Green was her favourite colour, if I can recall."

Aceste was still a major diva in that case. Someone who would have had to complete creative control over all of her work and would get angry for anyone speaking out against her ideas. She's always been like that.

"But even for Aceste its really complex. She would have had help for sure." Andrew continued.

"Kratos maybe...or Elise. We can assume but even this truly detailed for what ever purpose Aceste, Kratos or Elise have in store."

They could make assumptions all day, but for now their sole purpose was to get Aceste out of there as well as the Chaos Emerald. They needed a plan. And they needed it as soon as possible.

"We need you to do this Amy, present it as a ploy, maybe just say that Ace is being held there against her will if you absolutely feel that you need to mention her, but focus on the Chaos Emerald. We don't want mother nuking the place." Asher explained.

Amy gulped. This is why they asked for her. The cutesy sister turned into military weapon. She could take the responsibility. But what if she couldn't do it? She's surprised none of them had bothered to ask how she had been. But...her mother always said to carry on otherwise. Recent events made her discover how her emotions had always gotten in her way.

"We have faith in you Amy. You've always been the combat capable one."Andrew admitted with a smile.

"Father would be proud of you." Asher said warmly.

A spot in her heart was overwhelmed with a strange sensation as she held her hand against her chest as a minor smile, one that was born of warmth, ascended on her face.

"Thank you guys. I'll speak with mother about it. But I swear I'll get Aceste out of there in one piece."

Shadow stood inside the ARK on his own, again, his golden eyes that gazed down upon the Earth.

He was angry but he also knew what he to do, as statistics were beginning to hit closer to home.

They were so close, but they needed to do more. Much more. Grief had to be put aside for the greater goal but it didn't stop him for being so pissed about it.

Maria stood with him as they peered out there with a saddened expression.

"I may have put Rouge up to it." She told him.

Shadow rose an eyebrow as he looked at her.

"What?"

Maria sighed.

"Rouge and I did speak about kids beforehand and she expressed her displeasure with having kids in the first place. I may have inserted the positive, then maybe the issue with Topaz may have been the main catalyst. Or even Aaron Rose's birth!" She said, exasperated.

The original Maria was never this analytical. While that was the AI's primary purposes, it was never her place to assume. A beacon of hope turned into a target of numbers. He debated his own feeling against the matter but never overtly spoke of it.

"Rouge made the decision. You can argue she was there because she made the choice. I'm angry at her because she could have done better..." He argued.

Maria frowned. She always had to be the one who assured everyone that everything was going to be okay. Even if it flat out didn't. A voice finding any justification possible.

"But Shadow...no one could have seen it end that way. Everyone did what they could..."

Maybe a bit of her soul remained. Who truly was to blame was the one who initiated the attack but ultimately, Shadow was most angry with himself for letting it happen and not being strong enough. Footsteps ushered themselves behind him.

"I don't know who let slip of the data." Diga inquired as she entered the room. Her eyes zoned out next to Shadow, as her arms remained behind her back as she walked forward.

"What data?" Shadow grunted. The Dragon had made herself known as she stood next to Shadow.

"What are you talking about?"

Diga sighed as she then had her hands on her hips, in that stance of a superior nature that he hated.

"The Package was designed as an Escape Hatch, inspired by a...fellow fox's primary objective, by allowing one to be lead to do a backdoor program via an executable file. I designed it with a few other programmers. It was a morally conflicted process to develop, but it worked."

Shadow still had no clue what she was on about. Her eyes leered at him, as if to state that the obvious was right in front of him. Instead, she rubbed her head and stood in front of him, grabbing his hands. But if fellow fox she meant...

"This system is designed in a way where the organic meets synthetic. Where souls can be born straight from data itself. Perhaps you through it was impossible as it would be the case, but we created a genuine...creature designed in a way that's not to dissimilar to Glitch or Milo."

Wait...not...it couldn't be.

"Those two were in on this?" Shadow asked as he started to realise the truth. The Wolf and the Fox were useful. In fact, if not for them, a lot would have been trashed from the start. Especially the fox.

"This one is unique in a way where it raised in the environment that it was made in. Does it have a soul? Maybe." She responded as she let him go and went to the window, putting her hands behind her back as she looked outwards.

His fist found itself into a ball before he knew it.

"This...you put Rouge up to it...didn't you?" Shadow spoke, his tone low as it barely covered his anger. Maria may have stated she did, but she would have only done because she had best intentions. Diga on the other hand...

Diga looked down.

"Rouge needed to be manipulated for the good. I didn't like it, as unlike, her, you, me, Knuckles and others, a lot of the others were simply copied templates for the systems to function. With their memories erased it worked like a charm. The Package would have been impossible if not for a currently connected mind to be with the system itself to construct a likeness."

He was aware of that from the start, as Diga put the idea to plan. He didn't comprehend it at first, but when it was put into action, he could see what she meant by it and was quite impressed even if it was a little unstable to begin with.

But this...

"This wasn't part of the plan Diga. Rouge knew the dangers of her position and yet she went along with it anyway? I call bullshit!" He called out, furious.

Diga turned to him and held no other expression than vague professionalism. A manner held by esteemed scientists.

"Rouge knew the risks when she volunteered. If anything else, it proves the Package worked exactly as intended. And its easy than the last time anyone tried to get out."

THWACK!

Shadows hand rested on the nearby wall as he smashed it with frustration. Losing two important people in such a short time frame would be difficult on most people but...

"Tell me what you're going to do ahead of time! I don't want any more nasty surprises Diga! In fact, tell me...what are you going to do now?" He roared.

Diga lifted her chin, her eyes hard as steel. She wouldn't be intimidated by this cranky hedgehog.

"The Package will remain safe with Vanilla and the others in the area for now. In tandem of saying that I think I know actually let slip of the data. There is evidence but the evidence lies in way Elise had attacked. Morpheus will continue to manipulate Big Mamas involvement. She still thinks this simply about her own little projects, so it definitely wasn't her."

Shadow crossed his arms. That insidious creepy white hedgehog...

"Who was it then?" He demanded.

Diga's shoulders fell.

"Damn General Lilith. I deemed the attack suspicious enough since Elise prefers to attack the main base without question. I think the source of those attacks are from Lilith herself...a woman I've been trying to nail down for a long time." She said.

Lilith. Once known as Lily the Maid who served a Hedgehog Prince, who turned out to work for Abbadonia herself. But Shadow wanted to know how and why. He cared not for the fact that Diga was after her for other reasons but what made her come to that conclusion.

"So tell me...who was on board with this Escape Hatch program? Besides yourself?" Shadow inquired.

Diga nodded.

"Me, NiGHTS, Glitch, Milo and some of the AI's who I'd been working with for advice on creation prospects. Little IT, Maria, Tikal...oh and an associate who I've been communicating from outside the boundary. They're all part of the main system as a overview function. I have one of them in mind." She said, as she slightly trailed off.

Impossible for be Maria, that was for sure. Shadow had to erase all doubt in order for him to move forward. No more uncertainty.

"I come to believe it was Tikal."

Shadow blinked. That orange Echidna?

"Why her?" Shadow asked. It was illogical and quite surprising. Although her links to Knuckles could cause concern, especially with the Echidna's hands tied.

"Maria..." Diga interrupted as she looked up sources without question.

"How goes the search?"

Maria's form projected in front of them as she looked at the pair.

"I've found the logs. Seems Tikal was hacked with Lilith on the many occasions we had our meetings."

It disturbed Shadow to think that Maria had secrets of her own and wasn't willing to share them with him. The part of her that had no real soul attached to it. But even more disturbing was that their operation could be well and truly compromised. There was a lot of bugs to check now.

"Any trace of it still?" Diga questioned.

Maria shook her head.

"My theory is Tikal didn't even know. She's a younger program and a weaker AI than me or Little IT. Please don't harm her."

Diga sighed. From one AI to another...

"I'll have to get her programming reviewed and updated. I should get Glitch and Milo on that ASAP." Diga said, slightly annoyed.

Shadow pressed a hand on his forehead. What had they learned? This could still go very wrong if they failed to get their cards right.

"So basically Lilith used Tikal as a window to find out our plans? What else is there I should know Diga? Just in case a stunt like this happens again." Shadow asked.

He grew to distrust Diga more and more by the moment. How could he confide in her after this?

"Nothing than what you've already heard Shadow." She replied, stern as a rock. "The main reason we didn't want to tell you was because of your relationship with her. Much research as gone into the system as is and we need to have backup plans in case many of our known methods had failed. Even ask NiGHTS about it if you must. But we need this Hatch simply because it seems that the endgame was never going to be pretty, that you can count on."

Amy had to get Sonic on board with this. As well as anyone else willing to tag along.

She went to his room and knocked on his door. She prayed his attitude was more agreeable this time, especially with what happened. In fact, she hadn't spoken to him since the incident. Neither were mentally available to converse. Amy figured Sonic was just being Sonic, while she had to maintain her own mood.

"Sonic?"

The Blue Hedgehog opened the door, his expression blank, but professional.

"Another Emeralds been found?" He asked.

It may have been better this way. Part of her was disappointed.

"Yes." She nodded. "I'll fill you in on the details on the way. Come on."

She explained to Sonic about Aceste and Twinkle Park. That did bring back memories for him at least. But then he asked questions about what Aceste was like and why she was there. Aceste was simply the oddest Rose one would ever meet. Even odder than Amy. Sonic made no comment, refraining to be the stoic individual.

In a way that made Amy feel...sad and disjointed.

"But I do want to make one thing clear Sonic. Mother is very wary of Aceste and we generally believe she could also be working for Elise. Why? we don't know. Ace is one of us and knowing mother, she wouldn't care if her own daughter died." She explained with a bit of spite.

His expression spoke nothing more than the scope of an already serious situation. But...Sonic had felt the sting of loss before. Part of what Amy had already felt from him. She was saddened by Tails passing, despite the ambiguity of it all and now Rouge? Anything was possible.

The worst of it all...was the twisted sense of confusion of all feelings involved. Being serious allowed them to ignore all that which threatened to tear them both apart, but they were both stronger than they gave themselves credit for. She prayed for the strength for them to hold on a little while longer.

It took them less than an hour to assign a team. They gathered Silver and Blaze but also, oddly, Knuckles of all people. Amy had invited him along.

Knuckles had been invited over to the Rozen Resistance base. No one had said anything, regarding Rouge, although he had been informed. Amy kept an eye on him as Asmos gave them the low down. She looked at Sonic who looked at her briefly. Tensions ran high and without a word between them, knew what she wanted. Their body language was so stiff, with all the writing in their eyes that told the very short stories of their minds.

Asmos was pissed irregardless of what anyone said. Her face was tired as she explained their plan, with most of her energy spent restraining herself. This was what professionalism was about. This what Amy understood. She'd understood this for a while. Everyone was tired. With their energy spent restraining themselves as well as isolated spirits unable to fully tie their happiness together.

"So we go in there, get the Emerald and...if you can get Aceste if you have to as well. But you have my clearest permission to make Elise suffer if you encounter her." Asmos explained in detail, Amy could hear the spite in her tone in the slightest way.

With the orders given, they went back to surface to take transport to the ruins of Station Square.

The trip was extremely quiet. Knuckles sat on his own as Silver and Blaze sat with each other as normal, with Amy and Sonic on their own as well. Knuckles gaze was fixated on the floor, his hands on his knees. Amy was worried. He hadn't spoken a word. She was the first to make a move as she got up and sat next to him.

"Hey Knuckles. How are things?" She asked, though her voice was a tad croaky.

He looked at her with a blank face.

"Besides recent events, I'm fine." He said with vague indicators.

Amy nodded, seeing Sonic in the corner of her eyes, looking at the floor as well.

"I see. Well, if you ever need to talk..." Amy continued.

His hand made a fist as he closed and tightened his eyes.

"I'm fine Amy, please...leave me be." Knuckles told her, slightly agitated.

They arrived at the derelict and decimated Station Square a few hours later. The skies were clouded as the air was chilled from the seaborne winds. Twinkle Park's entrance had seen better days but some of the lights were working, as well as the elevator. The five of them entered without so much a word between them.

Rather than the emptiness that surrounded them, they came across another elevator that looked like it had been used recently. Silver fiddled with the pad next to it as they waited to move forward. Silver nodded as he finished, allowing the elevator to open. This time, this one took them down.

As they descended, they could hear, no...feel a deep bass-like rhythm pulse through the casing. Amy furrowed her brows in confusion, trying to figure out what it was. As they exited the elevator, they came across a lobby, seeing a few guards in front of two large doors. Both were navy fured male mobian dogs, wearing dark green clothes, beefy in stature.

"Here to enjoy the show?" Asked the one on the left with a deep tone.

What?

"What is this place?" Blaze asked.

The one on the right laughed.

"This is Afterlife. Headed by our lovely singer Daena the Rose Queen! Heading the party until the apocalypse takes us! Care to join?"

"Who's Daena? Blaze wondered. Although part of the concept the guard mentioned was kind of worrying.

They both laughed.

"Head in and see..."

The doors opened with a slight screech and out came pouring spot lights from all over the place. A green hue sprinkled everywhere, with smoke that filled from the air. The source of the bass came from the beat of the music. They could see what appeared to be DJ Ulala on the screens, who was actually on the stage on the other side of the room, with hundreds, if not thousands of people on the floor in front of them. It surprised the five of them, seeing everyone dancing and thoroughly enjoying themselves.

"I...uh...huh...was not expecting this." Sonic commented, left rubbing his head.

"I know Aceste is into this scene...I guess she's hiding here. Never even heard of this place..." Said Amy. It was once an innocent, pleasant place. Now fouled with...whatever this was.

The place was large enough as the crowds were thick. Amy had bad vibes, as Sonic's expression became worrisome. She had the same feeling. Though when they looked at Knuckles, he appeared a bit more withdrawn. He wasn't used to large crowds. She grabbed his hand, to his surprise as they had to carve through the crowds and dragged him along, with Sonic leading with Silver and Blaze.

"How are we even gonna find your sister in this?" Silver called out over the noise.

"No idea." Amy replied. "She'll be here somewhere, I'm certain. We just have to ask someone if they've seen another pink hedgehog in here."

"Let's split up and have a look around the crowd."

Sonic went off on his own as Silver and Blaze did too, while Amy stuck with Knuckles, worried for his well-being...

Rewind...

"You sure you're up to this Knuckles?" Amy asked him.

He had been hit with the biggest news and news he had never expected. He nodded with certainty.

"Amy, I...I need to comprehend that actions have their consequences. But...why no one told me about this is beyond me..." Knuckles replied.

They were in a ward with a cradle before them, inside a gurgling baby within. Knuckles leaned against the wall nearby as he stared at it.

He couldn't believe it when they told him about. A child. His child.

Amy frowned. While she understood his reaction, she really hoped he would be approachable to the child.

"You have your responsibilities Knuckles. Besides, Rouge didn't have the heart to tell you..." She admitted.

He grumbled, as he gritted his teeth. Of course he was right to be pissed off. But, he never got to know Rouge properly. He hated to admit he was attracted to her. The bat that constantly got on his nerves. It was only alcohol that allowed them to break the barriers and that tension was temporarily erased for one night. But he had not experienced such feelings in a way that he simply did not know how to deal with them, and so he had put them aside as they were not important to him.

This...this time she had kept it from him. He had a part of this. This child was part of him now. Another burden. A burden he had in no way prepared for. The Master Emerald was hard enough but he knew this was his life long purpose; his sole duty he was honoured to uphold.

This? This was never planned.

"You...just let us know what you want do. We will support your decision what ever you decide." Amy told him.

Knuckles made a fist as he threw into Amy's face but not actually touching her as she winced, then opened her eyes to see spikes near her eyes.

"Oh really Amy? Sweet, honest Amy Rose completely understands what this is like?" He mocked.

She raised her hands as she pulled his down, very slowly.

"I'm not sure what you want me to say. You're my friend. I need to look out for my friends. That's always been the case and that will never change." She pleaded to him, urging him to see the bigger picture.

He was rather disgruntled but he was mostly angry, sad and frustrated. This...this person...this living thing that laid in front of him.

"Tails was hard enough...damn...I'm better than this..." He mumbled.

It struck something in Amy's heart, recalling Tails disappearance. She wasn't sure of how close he and Tails were, but they were part of Team Sonic, the heroes that when together, they were unstoppable. The Sonic Heroes that the world needed.

Water gathered up in his eyes. She sensed his ire greatly. He needed to cry. He needed to vent.

She walked up to him, ever watchful and wary and slowly wrapped her arms around him as she pulled him into a soft embrace but she wasn't fearful of him as he gently put his arms around her as well, as he wept into her shoulder.

He didn't deserve this misery. No one did. She felt his burdens surround her in that moment. Heavy-hearted and the mysteries of his own personal life left broken and chalked up to one stupid night and the pile of mistakes that followed.

"Rouge wanted to call him Gerald. Do you mind if they called him that?" She whispered to his ear.

She felt him nod his head.

"It's...okay. I would have called him something stupid, that's for sure." He joked.

Amy grinned. She let him go, but kept her hands on his shoulders and looked into his reddened eyes. Soon after, Asher entered into the room with a bunch of paperwork.

"Sorry I took so long...the wards only allow me to tuck away so many forms. If this is our internal government for the long term I don't expect that to change..." Asher said, shuffling things about. She placed a pen and the papers on the table nearby.

"So, would daddy like to hold young Gerald now?"

Knuckles looked at Amy with a horrified expression. She stifled a chuckle as she crossed her arms and bobbed her head. He wasn't keen on holding a child to begin with. Asher picked him up, resting her hand behind his head as she taught Knuckles how to hold him. This was the last action he had expected himself to do.

"Watch the wings. Not every day you get to hold a hybrid species." Asher commented as she picked up a pen as she begun to fill out the paper work before her.

Knuckles looked at Gerald. He had signs of Echidna and Bat. He had Rouge's fangs and arms and hands but his spikes. His fur was dark red, but his quills had white tips and red bat ears and black wings. His chest had a white signature in the shape of a emerald, ironically enough.

But his eyes...he had her green eyes.

"Rouge would love your perfect gems...ugh... I'm terrible at this." Knuckles cursed.

"Oh no..." Amy muttered, smiling. "Be careful Knuckles, one of the signs that you're a dad is the dad puns."

Knuckles furrowed his brows.

"What?"

Current...

"Amy I don't needed to be babied." Knuckles complained as he pulled his hand away.

"I said I'll be fine."

Amy would continue to worry but she sighed.

"Fine, go off. Maybe you can climb the walls? Make it easier to spot my sister." She suggested.

Knuckles pondered for the moment.

"Huh...yeah I can do that. I'll uhh...keep in contact..."

She watched Knuckles disappear into the crowd as she herself would continue to shuffle around the overexcited people. This way, he could isolate himself since he himself was a massive introvert.

Part of this Amy didn't quite grasp. All these people, mixture of humans and mobians that just don't care about the world ending and prefer to dance away their troubles. A weird scent wafted through the air. It was subtle but familiar to her. It wasn't long until Knuckles found his way up the wall. No one was watching him, which was good, it kept him busy without forcing to speak to people. Amy continued on and walked around until she bumped into another pink Hedgehog, forcing her to fall flat on the ground. He was wearing black pants, an open black studded jacket that bared his chest, big, shiny boots, with his long pink quills were put into a high ponytail albeit with some quills poking out. He had a golden ring on his finger and a gold necklace that looked more akin to a crown.

"Sor- oh Amy is that you?" Said the familiar voice.

"Prince Hayden?" Amy muttered as she sat on the floor.

He put a finger to his lips as he picked her up in order to shush her.

"Just Hayden for the moment, I'm busy working. Come with me for a sec."

He took her to a bar nearby and occupied one of the booths. It was so strange seeing him after all this time. Just...bizzare. Worse than the lava lamps that were plonked everywhere.

"What are you doing here?" She asked him.

He ordered a few drinks from the Crow bartender.

"I've been investigating this place. I've been tracking an old friend of ours." Hayden responded.

She hadn't seen him a while. The young Prince from a practically dead line of Rosoideae royalty.

"But perhaps its more than coincidence that you're here. You're searching for someone yourself I presume?"

Amy nodded. Either everyone was busy partying or working lately.

"Yeah. My sister Aceste. I have sources that say she's here. Worse, there's a Chaos Emerald here as well."

Hayden nodded as he rubbed his chin with his thumb. Like with a lot of people, Amy never really got to know Hayden or more of the history of their people. If they got through this, she'd really like to know more. He did have a kind heart, but now she was curious as to what he was doing and who he was searching for.

"These people have been entranced by Daena. She's got them underneath some weird spell. They sleep, eat and party. No idea where she gets the resources. But that's not why I am here. A dark force grows beneath and threatens this place. So much has happened and so much has been discovered over the last seven months alone." Hayden continued.

Amy frowned. Because this is exactly want they wanted.

"Do these people know about this? I assume they don't."

"No." Hayden said bluntly as he shook his head.

"They may be used a sacrifice but its as if everyone is waiting for something. What that something is, is debatable. But their fear has been taken over by lust and debauchery. Yet no one has claimed this place as strange or fishy. They're all...blissfully unaware of their oncoming fates..."

This created a dark pit in Amy's stomach, becoming concerned with everyone around them.

"Well, I have a few people investigating and trying to find my sister as well. But no contact means no one has seen anything." Amy told him.

She examined Hayden carefully as he fumbled about, while their drinks arrived. Deep red and glowing. What ever it was, it better had to be safe. He took a sip, then put his drink on the table. Amy just stared at hers then put it aside. Then all of a sudden Hayden's face changed to one of worry. They did speak about what had happened prior and what had happened from within the Resistance. As Hayden drank his, Amy did eventually start to drink hers. It was...strangely nicer that she expected. Though she had expected something to happen to her, but it did make her feel more relaxed in a way.

"Amy, I've done a bit of soul-searching these past few months and made a few startling discoveries. Its got to do with you and Sonic and this whole mess." He admitted, his tone serious.

She was willing to hear him out. Did he know about...the oddness of the world around them?

"This...this whole thing...even me...so much that suddenly I had no idea about makes sense now...and I wanted to say that..."

Suddenly there were screams behind them. They both stood up and ran back to the dance floor.

The music died down slightly as Amy jumped multiple times to see what was going out. She pressed her intercom device against her, trying to communicate with the others.

"Hey can you guys see whats going on?" She asked them.

"Dunno, someones coming on stage!" Silver announced.

"She's...wearing a bunch of green, scantly clad?" Blaze commented.

"People love her though! Is this Daena?" Sonic said.

"Amy...this one is a pink hedgehog! The only pink Hedgehog I can see!" Knuckles said.

Amy turned to Hayden.

"It's her! No...she can't be..." She muttered with disbelief.

Hayden was confused.

People went nuts for this Daena as she talked to the crowd. Amy had grabbed Hayden as they tried to get a better view, but the screens around the room showed the Hedgehog in question. She had long pink quills with green tips, in two pig tails and sharply cut curved fringe. She wore jade lipstick, black shorts and black high heeled boots. Her jacket sparkled with emerald-coloured sequins and flowed behind her like a cape, on top of a black almost see through crop top. She certainly was filled...that...no.

She knew Aceste wasn't THAT filled. Still...

She wore sunglasses (indoors?) and multiple piercings in her ears as well as fingerless gloves. A microphone was in one of her hands as she looked over the crowd.

"Hey how is everyone tonight?" She called out.

That voice. It was indistinguishable. Aceste was Daena.

"Daena your Rose-Queen back in the house, just watching people having a good time! Well you're in for a treat tonight! I'mma want see you all go nuts. Grab a partner or grab the nearest hottie and just crank the heat up! I want to see you all drenched in sweat! Don't worry, I'll take care of the stench. Because I want you all to die, smelling like a rose!" Daena announced, much to Amy's dismay.

But it explained the weird smell. Amy looked behind her to see that Hayden had disappeared. Dammit. She had to find Sonic and the others. She charged into the crowd to find them.

"Take it away Ulala!"

Amy had no time to pay attention as she desperately wanted to find Sonic. She had bumped into many people who just didn't care. Nearly all parts of her body and limps were unintentionally touched, then the button for the Morphic Resonator had been pressed. She could see a short, black dress form before her with long black boots and more golden smaller and looser bangles forming on her wrists and from the small glimpse of her quills, they'd been slightly stylised with a minor outwards curl.

I'm so into you...I can barely breathe...

If memory recalled, Aceste was actually a good singer. Good to see that she had continued to pursue that, as Amy's mind continued to drift to alternate channels, to places once known and now foreign.

And all I wanna do is to fall in deep...

In her trail of thought, she was so far into the trance of contemplation, she didn't realise she had caught up to Sonic who also had been walking around aimlessly.

"Amy!" He called to her, snapping her out of her confused trance.

But close ain't close enough 'til cross the line...

The bassline was felt through the floor and through the people dancing around them, following the wave of the rhythm. Ignorance was bliss indeed.

"Oh Sonic sorry, I uh..." Amy muttered, her face suddenly warm. It had to be that drink. Or the fact that he was wearing a snappy grey jacket. Must have fallen into the same set mistakes as she did.

So name a game to play, and I'll roll the dice.

They were accidentally pushed together as Sonic grabbed her hands to prevent her from falling over, sending jolts through her nerves. People were just rude, uncaring as they were flailing about.

"Knuckles is on the walls nearby, he's keeping on a eye on things." She said as she blabbered so fast that she didn't realise it.

Oh baby, look what you started.

Sonic smiled. A piece of nostalgia that was left inside had spilled out. Perhaps she could have taken her meds again prior to going to this mission. Or what ever it was. He also may have been distracted by that...dress of hers.

"Oh okay. Good...good that he's doing that. Keep both eyes on that things we should be keeping them on huh?" He stuttered, as he found himself falling into a dance with Amy. His voice had hints of shattered confidence that had attempted to bring itself back together.

The temperature's rising in here.

Amy smiled nervously as her heart started to pound a little faster as they found themselves dancing together. This was not their plan! What were they doing? Why was her face warm?

Is this gonna happen?

"Your sister's amazing..." Sonic commented, his own face turning redder by the moment. Yes, aim away from the most obvious issue in front of them.

Been waiting and waiting for you to make a move.

Amy's laugh did little to ease her nerves. In fact, it sounded more awkward due to how much of it had been forced.

"She's a Rose! Obviously..." She followed with.

Before I make a move...

With the beat drop, their dance turned into something more active and faster paced. Somehow, they allowed themselves to fall into this despite all the barriers isolating them. Amy just blamed the drink.

So baby come light me up and maybe I'll let you on it.

"You know I took...dancing classes once...Once!" Sonic commented as she moved her hands and wrapped her arms around his neck, sending shivers up his spine.

A little bit dangerous, but baby, that's how I want it.

"You dance on your own all the time though!" Amy pointed out. This...was flowing nicer than she expected. The shake in his words were the indicator of a nervous soul that danced alongside her own as he put his hands on her hips as they moved around. HOW DOES ONE DRINK DO THIS?

A little less conversation, and little more touch my body

Their heads naturally drew themselves closer as they watched more aggressive dancers joined Aceste as she bellowed, then they turned to look back at each others faces, one smiling normally and the other subtle but generally anxious.

Cause I'm so into you, into you, into you.

Question was, which one was feeling which? Was this considered normal between friends?

A little bit scandalous, but baby, don't let them see it.

More smoke filled the air, generated from the nearby machines as the lights were in sync to the music, thanks to to DJ Ulala, with Sonic twirling Amy around and bouncing along to the beat.

A little less conversation and a little touch my body...

Then Sonic grabbed Amy and allowed to bend backwards, to her surprise, but also to her amusement and seeing those around them cheering them as they danced.

Cause I'm so into you, into you, into you...

He brought her back up, with a little giggle escaping her lips, to her widened eyes of surprise.

This could take some time, hey...

In their corner of their eyes, they saw Silver and Blaze dancing as well, although they looked like they were enjoying themselves too. Good on them.

I made too many mistakes...

Sonic brought Amy back to his level as they went a bit slower for the moment. So many thoughts with through his head in that moment, so many feelings that he wanted to call out, bring out and felt the need to justify.

"Amy...I..."

Better get this right, right, baby...

Amy shook her head. "No I should apologize for being..." She said, although what was she aiming for?

Oh baby, look what you started.

"For being like this..."

The temperature's rising in here...

Sonic put his lips to her ear. "It's okay Amy, I know who you are, three dimensional and all." He said, generally just letting go with what ever limits he had.

Is this gonna happen?

Amy chuckled, much to her consternation. "And I know who you are, Sonic the Hedgehog." She whispered. She was a bit everything wasn't she? And he was a bit everything and more...answers to questions left behind long ago.

Been waiting and waiting for you to make a move...

"What, charming and handsome?" He boasted, as Amy felt his rising grin against her cheek.

Before I make a move.

She pushed him back, stunning him as she started to shake it, moving her arms and legs about in away that he found memorising.

So baby, come light me up and maybe I'll let you on it...

He was not going to be one-upped by this display of action, so he had to meet her level to start it off , almost mirroring her actions. He did become distracted slightly at the sight of Bloody Amy and Bloody Sonic as they stood in the crowd briefly, then disappearing as people moved passed.

A little bit dangerous, but baby, that's how I want it.

Her rolls and spins...and her pumps...girl knew how to dance and dance well. He wondered if he should one up her.

A little less conversation, and little more touch my body

As Sonic spun in a horizontal he slid to his knees, kicking Amy on purpose as he caught her, winking at her annoyed face before holding her up as she put her legs around his back as he gripped her tightly, causing her to blush horribly as she put her hands on his shoulders.

Cause I'm so into you, into you, into you...

"Don't scare me like that..." Amy scolded, but if anything else, she was just interested in what he had in store next. Then saw a circle form before them. Great.

Got everyone watchin' us so baby, let's keep it secret...

His grin was an indicator as he flipped her up into the air, as she fell into her hands, then she flipped backwards back onto her feet.

A little bit scandalous, but baby don't let them see it...

Throwing in a few clicks and side lunges, the two got closer once again as Sonic spun her around as then snatched her from behind, moving his hands over her arms as she pumped out her hips.

A little less conversation and little more touch my body...

Amy dipped her body as she let Sonic straight her arms up, with a roll up. She grabbed his arms and she turned to face him once more, as she pumped her arms around, as he mirrored her, getting themselves well in sync with one another, that knowing trust noteworthy.

Cause I'm so into you, into you, into...

A few shimmies here and there, but they had gotten the handle of it quicker than anticipated, complete with more finger clicks, pumps and aggressive steps.

Tell me what you came here for...

The pair got closer to one another and got so close without touching each other, as they moved their hands around each other, hovering without bashing into each other.

Cause I can't, I can't wait no more...

They touch each others hands, carefully wrapping the fingers together as they slithered together and moved in different ways to the beat.

I'm on the edge with no control...

They became so close that their lips almost touched, their eyes half-lidded with feelings so foreign they couldn't describe it.

And I need, I need you to know...you to know, oh

The two grin as they immediately part and spin into place as they waved their arms, pump, spin and swerve their wrists as they click again.

So baby, come light me up and maybe I'll let you on it.

Amy was surprised how in sync they were. It was a freakish phenomena, like a shooting star following an Eclipse.

A little bit dangerous, but baby that's how I want it.

A bit of energy that pulsed through their veins, Muriel used to describe love like that. Energy charged by another. But it couldn't be that.

A little less conversation and little more touch my body.

Sonic got closer once again. Even if Amy didn't want to feel one way, she could always feel another way.

Cause I'm so into you, into you, into you...

Fun? Was it? Maybe they finally had what they needed, even if they didn't know that.

Got everyone watchin' us, so baby lets keep it secret...

Or was it because of the music? Music has the potential to make or break moods.

A little bit scandalous, but baby don't let them see it.

She took the risque risk as she turned around and rubbed her back against his chest.

A little less conversation and a little more touch my body...

She wondered what Sonic had been thinking the entire time. It was difficult to get a gist of his own mindset. He simply laughed, which sent her nerves into overdrive.

Cause I'm so into you, you...

As the song ended, the crowd cheered Aceste on as she thanked them for the coming and urged them to keep the party on.

Sonic and Amy faced each other as their faces were red as they smiled at one another.

"Thank you Sonic." She said.

He bowed his head at her. Unbeknownst to Amy herself, Sonic felt an unknown feeling stream through him like tomorrow. It'd been a while since he'd felt this way.

"No I should be thanking you Amy. Very few can keep up with me after all!" He said with a thumbs up.

She then turned her head back to the stage. While they had the time of their lives, now was the time to work. She cleared her throat as she straightened her face.

"I suppose, we should catch up with her now?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah." Amy answered. "Come on..."

The two found Silver and Blaze, and told them to keep an eye on things here, to ensure the crowd was kept safe, as they shuffled through a door into a hallway that was, for some reason, left unguarded. They could see a series of people wearing earpieces and those carrying boxes around the place as Sonic and Amy dodged and weaved their way through them. They found Acestes room as they knocked on the door that had her name on it.

"Come in!"

The two looked at each other, before they entered. They discarded their guises as they shuffled around different crew members, returning to their old clothes.

They witnessed Aceste as she put her glasses on the table before her, then she pulled out her quills out of their ties and brushed them. She turned to the pair and smiled.

"Hey there's that Astral Amelia!" She called out.

Sonic glanced at Amy with a raised eyebrow, not once hearing that name before.

"She gives everyone nicknames...don't worry." Amy muttered to him.

"Please sit down!"

The two walked over and sat down on the, what Sonic perceived to be a considerably ugly green couch.

"Don't think I didn't see you two out there, rocking it. You really each others stars. Which is why you're still astral sis!" Aceste commented with a gleam in her eye.

Amy had a lot of questions to ask, but was uncertain on how to ask them.

"So uh...Aceste...we were wondering how things were down here? Like, how did you even manage all of this?" Amy spurted out.

Aceste grinned as she sat down on her darker green chair...which was also quite ugly.

"After shit went down seven months ago, I couldn't justify mothers actions you know..." She answered as she pulled out a cigarette packet. Then offered some to the pair, who politely declined.

"Kratos had shown me so much of mothers horrendous acts that the both of us left, searching for our patch of paradise in oblivion. Instead, we found Purgatory." She said as she lit up her cigarette.

"Purgatory is all around us. One step before complete hell."

That much was...correct but if they could amend the issue, they could eventually rebuild.

"What did Asmos do that made you leave if you don't mind me asking?" Sonic queried.

"Lots." Aceste stated as she inhaled.

"Tonnes of shit that not just her, but GUN had hidden. Kratos once was part of their black ops so he was a part of a lot of fucked up...scuse the language...missions. Crap that made you think wow, I trust these people to protect me and everyone around us? No...its just one, big conspiracy."

Sonic noticed as she Aceste widened her legs, placed her elbows on her knees as she held her head on her hands, that she glanced over to him with a distrustful expression.

"I'm aware of Sonic being in isolation for a long time. What they didn't tell you is what they did in between."

Amy furrowed her brows, not understanding her sisters words at all. Aceste was one to feel she had to be the one on the moral high ground. While she admired their mother at one stage since she was so proud of her for being a leader of a such a prominent organisation, but everything shattered once she had found the truth. Aceste had hoped to lead GUN to much larger classification of search and protect, not search and destroy.

"Kratos found out about what they were doing to Sonic in between him being put to sleep and him being waking up. A certain...extraction..."

Sonic was completely frozen and the concept of time had no meaning to him. It only felt like a few minutes for him at best when it was much longer in reality.

"What the..what would they need to extract from me?" He wondered.

Aceste pursed her lips as she looked at Amy.

"Sonic still had the Mr. Thorn personality within him, which turned out to be an fucked up demon that hid and corrupted Sonic on a level Sonic couldn't control."

Oh no. That horrible Dark self that Sonic would have never wanted to bring up again. It brought him to shadowy depts that of which he would have never visited. A regret of the ages that to this day caused him great pain and was the sole reason why he was frozen to begin with.

"So GUN in their great wisdom decided to extract Mr. Thorn from Sonic and thought they could contain him. In the wars that struck the great cities including most of GUNS headquarters, he broke out of containment. He was free."

They had to destroy him. For that, there was no doubt.

"Mr. Thorn is a servant of Mephiles, another screwed up demon. But we are containing Mr. Thorn underneath this place."

Sonic was left scratching his head, as was Amy.

"So why build...all this on top of it?" Amy asked her.

Aceste nodded.

"Underneath Twinkle Park was a lot of space...and I mean, a lot. A lot of disenchanted citizens left behind that didn't become part of mothers big projects had no where to go. We used a lot of Twinkle Parks resources to give them a home. And a space for me to project myself you know?" She said.

Sonic didn't believe her.

"Why build it on top of something so dangerous? Were you planning to get them all killed?" He asked her, slightly peeved at the notion.

Aceste grabbed a nearby bottle of vodka from the table beside her, then poured into a glass, then took a subtle sip, closing her eyes as she felt the warm and burning sensation go down her throat.

"Not exactly. Kratos had been researching something bigger than anything I'd ever seen and felt it was necessary to take the right precautions just in case the situation got worse." Aceste answered.

Amy and Sonic looked at each other again as they tried to suss out what she really meant.

"Something worse than Mr. Thorn?" Sonic wondered. What could be more worse than a homicidal dark force that tips you over the edge?

The artist toyed with her glass as she looked into the near clear liquid.

"GUN is only a small part to play in the game. No...while mother herself is to blame for a lot of things, I'm mostly focusing on a small group that aims to destroy...the fabric of reality. In fact, they've done that plenty of times before."

The fabric of reality? Sonic had questioned it within his own subconscious, but he'd have to wait for Aceste to become a bit more specific.

"Maybe I am being too generous with those words. But I am sick to death of their screwing around. Its making it all too difficult to bare. Which is why I am working with another party to help stablise everything..."

A few footsteps, heavy and clicking, wandered into the room. Looking upwards, they could see red clothing, a red haired head and a heavily scarred face.

"Oh Sonic! Amy! I thought I saw you two on the dance floor earlier!" Cried out an unwelcomed voice.

"Elise!" Sonic called in response. A wave of emotions flowed within him, but mostly hatred from her prior actions. In the corner of his eyes he could see Amy flaring up greatly. Aceste wanted them to be civil as she carefully grabbed Amy's hands. Elise happily made herself home in the chair next to Aceste. Sonic knew Amy would want to outright smash Elise to bits, but they needed to know more before they got hasty.

"Murderer!" Amy roared.

Elise rolled her eyes as she crossed her legs and donned a smile so heinous Sonic himself barely had enough restraint to not slap it off of her.

"Oh come now. That slut Rouge? She had something of mine that would have been worth a lot. Worth a lot to all of us in fact." The Princess exclaimed.

Sonic raised an eyebrow. They couldn't possibly be talking about the child could they?

"You didn't have to kill her!" Amy yelled, almost scaring Sonic with the amount of vitriol in her voice. Sonic wanted her to calm down for the sake of a least an explanation to the madness that surrounded them.

Aceste poured Elise a drink and oddly, offered Amy one was well, who instead just ignored her sister as she glared them both. Elise let her know that Kratos was out for the moment and would return to his duties shortly on the basis of resource grabbing, what that was.

"It was a shame, I really liked Rouge. Like you Amy, Rouge was the one who introduced me to GUN. But she had refused to let me help her. Help her realise the truth of the situation." Elise revealed, before she sipped her drink.

"Aceste, Kratos and I have been trying for months to get what we wanted. They know about OPERATION: LUCID."

"OPERATION:LUCID?" Sonic muttered. Flashes of white and random images and text that he couldn't read flashed in his eyes upon reflection of those words. It was only for a brief moment, before he had gotten back to reality.

That was strange...he thought.

"The operation that threatens to destroy this world. Rouge's own child was designed to herald a reckoning. But not in a way anyone would expect." Aceste stated as she clasped her hands together.

How...how would a child do that? Unless it was suddenly smart and would have gotten stronger but...at this point, Sonic would have to see to believe it.

"Was Rouge in on it? Was that really why she decided to keep the baby for some...inane project?" Amy wanted to know. Sonic did too. He really did. This was definitely puzzling.

"GUN hides all their secrets in the files. I'm honestly surprised you haven't found anything about this already. It's all there, you just have to find it!" Elise said, with a bit of an odd giggle.

"Maybe you should ask your friend Knuckles. He's in that group I mentioned. One of those involved with OPERATION: LUCID. Whether or not he'll answer truthfully..."

Sonic knew what Knuckles was like. Knuckles was easily manipulated and man did that happen a lot. A common occurrence. It was because he couldn't tell fact from fiction. Now if he believed Aceste and Elise for one damned second...about all of this...about Mr. Thorn and this...OPERATION: LUCID nonsense.

"We'll deal with that later." Amy stated. "We want to know what you're planning to do with the monster underneath us."

Elise chuckled. It was a sound that had started to get on Sonic's nerves...and fast.

"The Thorn Virus. Oh yes. The monstrosity they themselves wanted to use. You felt that power, didn't you Sonic? You felt it immensely because you wanted it...you needed it." She said with seductive undertones.

"I'd rather forget." Sonic retorted as he crossed his arms in annoyance.

"We want the package Sonic. That's all we ask." Elise donned a tiny smirk, then sipped her drink again. "Then we might talk about maybe getting rid of Mr. Thorn for good...or you can have it back. Either way is fine."

The name continued to haunt him. But he refused to budge on the subject. He'd rather not give them anything, including satisfaction.

"Do you take us for idiots? Especially after what you've done?" Amy barked. Indeed, she was no fool for those remarks.

"Hmmm." Elise sighed as she tapped her index finger on the armrest, a sign of impatience.

"A damn shame. Aceste, perhaps we should show it to him...one more time. Perhaps it would make a convincing argument."

He hated this. He really did. They followed the pair down the hallways, as Sonic held on to Amy's hand simply to prevent her from charging forward and end up splatting Elise on the head. Though he did begin to wonder if that would have been a better option.

"Sonic, you read?" Silver said over the intercom.

"Blaze and I have found out some of the guards around here are robots!"

It would have been obvious from the fact that Elise was here. Saying a word could trigger something. But it made sense. It was plausible that Elise was Acestes' benefactor and that...

The four went into an elevator and kept silent. Two Egg Robots escorted them as they went down the elevator. Amy's mind went to thinking about how Knuckles was at the moment.

Rewind.

"You cannot expect me to deal with this..." Knuckles complained to Shadow.

The pair were on Angel Island, in front of the Master Emerald as they watched the sun set. Shadow had informed Knuckles of Rouge's passing and mentioned she had a child. His, child. It took him some time to wrap his head around it and in a way, it still needed to. His heart was heavy from the news and it muddled his emotions greatly. Shadow was present as they discussed OPERATION: LUCID's progress. At some stage, they had to prepare for the oncoming storm that they had known had been coming for a long while.

"Knuckles you signed up for this remember. Her death means we have to move forward. It stings me to say it, but it is true." She replied to him.

The Red Echidna crossed his arms as his eyes looked over the waters underneath them.

"You did this without my permission then?" He questioned.

Shadow had always been the type, for this entire ordeal, to obscure the facts and never bothered to at least inform others of his plans. The operation was a mess from the start and it required them to be one step ahead of their enemies.

"At least act you like you care!"

Current...

Nothing changed on the floor as Knuckles observed from the railings above. A lot of guards but no one was up there anyway. It gave him a chance to infiltrate the premises as planned. He continued to walk along the railings carefully, before he found a door nearby, leading into another hall way.

He wandered in, closing the door behind him.

"Shadow, I'm in..." Knuckles communicated over the intercom.

"Good, where's everyone else?" Shadow spoke in response.

He kneeled down behind a cargo box and waited for an Egg Robo to float by intersection.

"Sonic and Amy have gone behind stage while Silver and Blaze are keeping an eye on things on the Dance floor."

This mission was his to take, but had sworn not to say a word of it to the others, no matter how much it had hurt him. The first moment Shadow approached and explained the operation to him, it was confusion at first, then as they went on, it was obvious that lies and trickery were going to be the mold of it. He despised lies but he wasn't the only one having to put up a facade.

Rouge's passing was painful, but Shadow was right. He had to move on...but couldn't do much. Just to follow orders. On the edge, there was more disgust and anger than anything else. But the sake of the operation was far too important to let certain feelings get in the way.

Rewind...

Knuckles had been translating ancient Rosoideae texts that were found in newly discovered areas of their respective ruins. Working alongside Amy, they dug into the depths of the ancient city, discovering stone slabs with the Mobikian Language. At some point, this would either be destroyed to make way for room for Noiz City, or otherwise. He'd rather not let it go to waste.

The room they found themselves in had been buried prior and dug up by a team. It gave Amy something before their search of the Emeralds, while Knuckles became deeply concerned with her

Emotionless as she was in those first awkward months, the two had gotten to know each other better through common ground. Knuckles expertise in old history as well as Amy's need to satiate the hunger of wanting to know more about her people. It wasn't based on emotional needs like curiosity, but having the knowledge to have ground against Eggadon. Anything helped.

"Interesting. I think this room was once a foyer for another archive. Which means there must be another room nearby filled with what we need!" Knuckles exclaimed. It was rare for him to get away from guarding the Master Emerald but he had help with guarding it lately. He was lucky Elise hadn't bothered with the Emerald, despite her having the various means to do so.

While they couldn't afford to be lax, they had to find some kind of edge against their common foe. Knuckles had a type of understanding of Rosoideae history himself, given the Echidna clans of old having a type of past shared between them.

They'd come across a weakened part of the floor, where Knuckles used his skills at digging to figure out the next room. He created a hole for the both, as Amy first examined it carefully, before jumping in herself.

Knuckles stood in the middle of the room, as he stared at it intently. His eyes crawled against the odd texts against it. It looked like a huge essay.

"Fascinating. Huh. This is sloppy hand writing, but it may have been a chamber...or at least a type of prison. Say's their name is Prophetess Shizaru." He stated as he rubbed his chin.

Shizaru...the same spirit that once followed Amy around?

"She talks about the Rosoideae have failed and looks to the Stupilites for help and hopes one would save them. Hmm..."

Amy wrote down Knuckles translations of Shizaru's texts, although going from Amy's shivering, it was most likely not a coincidence that odd energies could be felt around them from just being in this room alone. His theory was that it was possible that Shizaru may have died here all these years ago.

"They say Chaoskampf is inevitable and that all kingdoms will fall to the Great Dragon Demon, who threatens to consume the world with its insatiable hunger!" Knuckles called out.

He'd sort of heard of Chaoskampf himself, but from older Echidna texts.

"I'll have to have a talk with Diga. She'll know more about this for sure."

Current.

Once they arrived, they were taken into a laboratory that had a huge tube in the middle, containing a dark, purple cloud that had its own internal thunderstorm. Sonic instantly had bad feelings as he stared at it, memories of Mr. Thorn flashed into his head. He wanted to get out, bad.

The whole room was being operated with numerous robots that saluted Elise as she potted around with that evil grin on her face, one that Amy still had the insane desire to smack.

"Mr. Thorn contains a piece of the puzzle. My poor father...stuck in the dread of his possession until Abbadonia gets what she wants." Elise spoke of with a sombre tone. It was hard to believe Egghead even had a kid to begin with.

It took Knuckles some time to find where he needed to go. He was so cautious and desperate to not trip the alarm.

He understood the concepts of what he'd found with Amy. Chaoskampf had bad news written all over it. He only wished he'd taken the writings more seriously. But other than a basic description of Chaoskampf, he had no idea how or why it would happen.

Rewind...

"Oh Chaoskampf? That's a term I haven't heard of in many years. Doesn't make it less dangerous however." Said Diga.

The pair were exchanging notes back on Angel Island. They were in one of the tents as Knuckles brought some of the findings to run through as well as working it against some of the data left behind by the ancient Echidnas.

"I've heard of it." Said Shade. She too, with her knowledge of history being extremely valuable.

"Before the war with the Knuckles Clan, Ix was generally concerned with the prophecies until the Argus Event forced his foresight to change."

"It once spoke of the seven great evils that would come to the world, with the last being the Great Dragon Demon." Diga continued. "But there was a slab that did contain how to counter the prophecy."

Current...

It turned out that the slab had been handed down the royal family of Soleanna. Why was anyones guess. But Diga did mention about the seven great evils having the seven great goods to assist in the counter and they would appear in moments of time to do battle. Determining what was good and evil to begin with was described as grey.

He had studied Sonic's past encounters with powerful creatures such as Chaos, Dark Gaia and the Time Eater. Whether or not they were some of the evils mentioned has evidence for and against them being anything but extremely potent forces of nature and darkness.

The Knuckles Clan made do with protecting the Master Emerald, an object that pertains have negative and positive energies that counter-act the Chaos Emeralds. Out of all the information, his clan did contain old prophecies that did surround Sonic much to his dismay, although it gave birth to doubt. All he had to go with was left behind by his people and he would still chose their stories over any one elses.

He wondered if this slab was worth it.

He destroyed robots as he ran down a nearby hallway. This place was complicated, but his treasure hunting senses tingled, so it had to be close. A few well-placed punches and kicks did the trick.

He detected the energies flow from behind one of the doors. However the door looked like it needed some kind of card to access.

"Shadow I have a problem." Knuckles called out as he kept his eyes peeled. He did see a camera on him. A swing of his fist took care of that too.

"What is it?" Shadow responded.

Knuckles ran his palm over the device.

"I've come across a locked door. I need Glitch's help to crack it. Make it quick!"

"What do you plan on doing with it?" Amy wondered. She could sense Sonic being a bit hesitant and wary of the creature in stasis. This was the monster that could corrupt Sonic beyond his imagining. Part of her wanted to grab his hand to tell him it was going to be alright.

"The benefits of being me being Princess of Soleanna, if not Queen, is that I have age old documents from my ancestors." Elise boasted.

Amy read the text on the casing of Mr Thorns prison.

"She sends the whispers of doom to her opposers, voicing darkness to their souls."

Mr. Thorn was hard to determine as a creature. Where did it come from? How did it attach itself to Sonic so easily? Why was it adamant to cling on to him? He feared it so, knowing how horrible he was with it inside must have damaged him on a level never expected to be reached.

"My ancestors believed in odd things." Elise continued. "Such as darkness and light being on opposite ends of the spectrum but if you're able to harness to context of both, you're considered to have godlike powers.

The Sun God Solaris, had both, funnily enough. The Flames of Disaster and the Sceptre of Darkness are the negative aspects of Solaris' darker moralities. The mind is the monster behind the power. Are they going to use the powers for good or evil? It was one of the experiments my...well, my fake father was investigating. He once consulted the Dragon Monks of Chun-Nan since they were considered the most neutral but the wisest of creatures. If the experiments were done right, the Flames of Disaster and the Sceptre of Darkness would have be used to control Solaris positive aspects and potentially avoid total calamity. Unfortunately, the Flames of Disaster, once a small candle fire, had been blown, leaving the Sceptre of Darkness to dwell on its own, without a counterpart."

Amy had studied this alongside Knuckles. A lot of the Soleanna data was on a common archive, but the experiment? Definitely nothing Amy had seen before.

"We're left with Mephiles, one considered to be of utmost power but without Iblis, he's only half his strength but it doesn't make him any less dangerous. His creation, born from Sonic, is considered a worthy tool in my endeavours."

The more of the tech she saw, the more she realised how familiar it was.

"We're aware of Mr. Thorn." Amy called out. What a twisted being he was. Amy held nothing but pure anger for it, as it managed to shape Sonic's mind into a mere slave to its desires.

"Why are you keeping such a...monster?"

Elise wandered over as she ran her hand over the glass casing. Mr. Thorns energies transformed into into a shape of a hand as it pressed against the interior.

"Mephiles has gone elsewhere. I need power to use for my own goals. If it means harnessing demonic energies then so be it. In fathers state, he'd prefer to consume the world. He's no longer the Eggman you know. So, I will follow his old dream into creating a new world and rule it as Queen. What use is a world destroyed?" Elise explained.

It brought Amy back to thinking of Eggman and how she pitied him. Elise's philosophy now matched his own. But he had a knack of trying to take advantage of power he couldn't possibly hope to control. Elise could be wiser than him by a long shot, but if she had half the gall he did, she would learn from his example and take extra precaution in her actions.

"You figure you'd be the lesser of two evils?" Sonic stated. A world destroyed or a world ruled over by a tyrant. What was worse?

"Obviously." Elise stated, grinning. "Aceste here is simply a relations manager. If I am to be Queen, I'd prefer my subjects love me, than hate me."

If thats what she was trying to do, she had a funny way of showing it.

"I have access to fathers resources. His robots and his tech as well as 'borrowed' resources for the time being. After all, I still have GUN connections I can take advantage of."

Elise was once Agent Hyperia of the Sons of Solaris. A Pilot in the Soleanna region. Big Mama Asmos wasn't really a fan of a famed Princess becoming a soldier, then again at least it was a case of leadership actually leading an example for their people. As for the tech itself, Amy suspected that she had been using GUNs toys, especially with the casing.

"But, if worst comes to worst, I'll use the cyrotech to seal the people away for the own protection. If Eggadon prefers to warp itself in and outright crunch the world." Elise explained.

Amy looked at Aceste who was standing there, not saying a word.

"Aceste... you went along with this?" She inquired.

The other pink hedgehog sighed as she stood up straight and crossed her arms.

"I knew GUNS preferred solution wasn't going to be without casualties. Agent Strider had taken the details from the archives stating that everyone living in Noiz City, was going to be trained as soldier. We've taken our own measures for people who simply have no cause to fight." She stated.

Noble, but it still confused the pair greatly. Noiz City was just an underground bunker, albeit a gigantic meant to house thousands of people. But Amy had never heard of using its citizens as soldiers or even a militia.

"But I know GUNS preferred solution wasn't your preferred solution, wasn't it Amy?"

Aceste pointed out.

The younger Rose was unsure of what she was talking about, although she did eventually see where she was getting at. If this had been about...who she thought...

"I see why mother didn't like Muriel. I finally found out the truth about his death. Some say cancer, some say he joined GUN and was killed in battle and some say he killed himself. None of which is true." Aceste stated.

There were multiple tales, yes. Their mother often dodged the subject completely and focused purely on work for many years after his demise. None of which the Rose family were happy with but sadly, they couldn't say much about.

"GUN documents did say he was part of GUN before he retired to become a brick layer. He was the previous Agent Mjollnir. It was...ironic that Mother would give you that callsign when you joined. She knew you were just like dad." Aceste continued; acting all smug.

Amy felt Sonic's eyes on her as she reeled from the words. It wouldn't surprise her to know that yes, their mother hid things from them but it was awfully unkind to not mention it.

"It was...a combination of horrible events that coincided with one another. I found old recordings and old reports done by those who witnessed it. Namely, one Agent Athena aka moms old call sign as well as Agent Bazooka."

Vanilla? Vanilla knew about their dads death? The look on Sonic's face indicated he was stunned as well.

"The reports...what do they say?" Amy asked, her voice unusually soft and sad. She wanted to know. She had to know.

Aceste wandered over to the nearest console as she brought up a document on screen.

"The reports talk about how our dear grandmother, Muriel had conducted the exact same ritual that extracted Abbadonia and had attempted to transfer to new host...a new prophet..."

In that moment, as Amy stared at the screen. Everything went dark...and the cold...

It was the Enchanted Forest Zone, that contained the Giant Tree. The vision changed to the dark cave like construct that she had seen once before, with the amber coloured waterfalls of lava and volcano rocks. She could smell the sulphur in the air that brought her memories back.

She could see Muriel, albeit looking younger, as well as three others. One, was a male pink hedgehog with short, spiky quills, wearing GUN uniform and tied up against a giant flat rock that had runes etched along the edges. He had large bags under his emerald green eyes. Before him were two other individuals. Another pink Hedgehog with spikes and tight GUN uniform, not too dissimilar to Amy's Olly gear but with a black cloak and a male rabbit with long beige and brown ears, also similar gear to the tall female hedgehog. The pair had their weapons, the hedgehog with a hand crossbows that looked more that they were tied to the back of her hand, that slid with a shinkt sound, across her arm onto her hand and then expanded itself into action with a summoned arrow. The Rabbit had a rather large missile launcher, to Amy's surprise. The pair had every intention to protect and defend, with their gear pointed towards Muriel as she was on the ground in prayer. The male hedgehog looked like he was in agony.

"Stop what you're doing there Muriel." The female demanded.

"Let him go!"

Muriel stood up and glared at her. She was wearing some kind of old tribal clothing and had a large staff with her.

"Oh young Asmos and Orio! You've come to see the glorious ascension! Aiden is being sorted to become the next Prophet! Who will bring you and your family fortune!" She said with glee.

Amy was too shocked to get closer, but...Aiden...it all made sense...

"Dad?" The younger hedgehog muttered in disbelief.

And Orio...wasn't that...Creams dad?

And...her mother...

"I don't want to hear any more of this prophet bullshit! You've corrupted my husband and you've corrupted my daughter long enough!" Asmos roared. And this was before she became Supreme Commander; Amy was almost fearful of her outbursts.

"Please mother...do as she says!" Aiden cried out. Their dad one of the most kindest, gentlest people one would meet.

"I don't want to do this!"

Muriel closed her eyes as her form turned dark as she transformed into Abbadonia and snarled with her awfully sharp teeth. Amy didn't miss the dragon like form she took. She appeared exactly the same way as she had prior.

"I will get want what I want. I will not hesitate to destroy you if you get in my way!"Abbadonia threatened.

Asmos raised her rifle higher as she prepared her aim.

"Last...chance witch..." She said; with the tone so low and deep.

Abbadonia sighed; unabated.

"You leave me no choice. Sorry, Aiden!"

Amy watched and held her ears as Abbadonia screeched and leaped at Asmos and Orio, who dodged Abbadonia's giant claws. They opened fire on the demoness and they fought with no mercy.

She was amazed at how her mother fought with the violence written on her face and screaming for Abbadonia to die in the most agonising of ways.

The fight lead them all across the cave as Orio and Asmos took cover behind a series of rock piles and continued to shoot. Abbadonia was not to be trifled with. They needed a strategy.

"Athena, I'll keep Abbadonia distracted while I'll take flight and enter aerial combat while you go save Mjollnir!" Orio told her.

Asmos grunted.

"Damn it Bazooka. We fight together! Aiden the power house, you the flight master and me the speedster. I have the best endurance. I'll fight this demonic bitch and you fly Mjollnir to safety!" She ordered.

Orio grunted as he took his callsign namesake off his back.

"I have the fire power to blast her out. You're the fastest thing alive at this point. Your man needs you!"

It took Asmos a few moments to consider it. Abbadonia was flying about as she threw laval balls in their direction. It wouldn't be long until the demoness grew impatient and flew over as she threw spears at them both. Asmos had little choice but to dodge, as Orio flew up into the air and fired a missile at Abbadonia's direction, who rolled to the side to avoid it. She grew frustrated at Orio but had little time to push the argument further. She cursed it as she ran around and ran to Aiden's side.

She skidded to a halt as she got to him, with a huge smile on his face as she came up to him and attempted to get him out of his chains.

"Oh thank you dear. Never thought you'd be my humble rescuer!" Aiden said with flirty charm.

"Yeah well, it wouldn't be the first time my dear Prince." Asmos replied sarcastically as she got one chain off him.

As Amy looked at him, she examined his face. Of course he was her father and this would be the only time she'd ever got to examine him like this. Why did his face seem so...

A series of further explosions lead to Amy watching Orio continue to fight Abbadonia in the air. They kept at it as Asmos managed to get Aiden off the rock slab. She took his hand and placed a pistol in it.

"Here, take this...lets get Orio and get the hell out of here. No way we're doing this without back up!" Asmos stated with urgency.

Aiden nodded in agreement.

"First sensible thing thats come out of your mouth Big Mama...normally you'd go gung ho. Let's roll!"

The pair ran to where Orio and Abbadonia continued to throw what ever they could at one another.

"BAZOOKA WE'RE LEAVING!" Asmos yelled.

The Rabbit looked at at the pair and nodded. He was about to fly until Abbadonia came from behind him and pierced her claws through his back and out of his chest.

"ORIO!" Aiden roared.

Orio struggled to get out of Abbadonia's grip. The demoness laughs echoed through out the cave as she pushed her claws in deeper, causing him to grunt. He pulled something from his belt; a small spherical object.

"GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN! TAKE THIS YOU MONSTER!"

Amy had to cover her eyes as an explosion engulfed the cave and grew bigger and bigger until a white light encased her. Next thing she knew, she had been teleported to the exterior of the tree and into the lush Enchanted Forest once more.

Her mother and father managed to escape the explosion that had followed. They coughed and breathed heavily as they walked forward. Amy imagined they had to a lot to process after what just happened.

"Damn it Orio..." Aiden cursed as he slammed his leg.

Asmos took him into a big hug and embraced him.

"I'm sorry...it hurts..." Asmos told him in her grief.

"This is my fault...all my fault. I had no idea my mother would do this! I had no idea at all! Please Asmos, you have to believe me..."

The two parted from one another. They had to get out of the Forest since they had trouble with communications in this area of the forest. They had to get out in order to call transport to their location.

"I don't know if that was your mother at all." Asmos replied as she fiddled with her coms.

"Lets go home..."

Amy now realised this would have been the moment their dad retired from GUN and became a brick layer. Asmos had quit as well. The flash of light went to the next moment as they were in area which beheld castles and ruins alongside which Amy determined to be the kingdom of Soleanna.

She saw her parents wandering the ruins, packed with their gear. She remembered Asmos mentioning that they had vacationed there once.

"I hope Andrew didn't mind looking after the girls." Said Aiden as they set up camp. It was true, Andrew was a good older brother. While he liked to stir the pot, that's what siblings did. Often because they could.

"He's a big boy now dear, besides, Amy seems to be most independent. Asher and Aceste if you want to count them too."Asmos replied.

Aiden chuckled, then his face fell.

"I'm worried about Amy though. She's only a toddler but she's always playing with those damn tarot cards."

Amy could barely remember that. They lasted for years on end.

"They were your mothers and I know what you mean. Going through Muriel's will, it makes me wonder if that was Abbadonia's intention. You know...for her to become the next prophet?" Asmos theorised as she set up their tent.

There was no real reason given as to why Amy, and not Andrew or Asher or Aceste were chosen by their grandmother to become the next prophet. Any of them would have made perfect candidates.

"Mother did always mention Amy had...Amy had greatness within, which to me, sounds crazy...she's only a few years old. How can you even tell at that age?" Aiden questioned as he set up the campfire.

"Andrew has a knack for construction, Asher's always playing with her little dolls and Aceste loves painting...Amy...Amy's just been fascinated with those cards." Asmos noted.

It was confusing to say the least. Muriel ended up alive after all. So Orio's sacrifice was meaningless? That was painful. She couldn't imagine how Vanilla felt afterwards.

"You reckon I should give her my hammer instead?" Aiden joked as he pointed to the hammer Asmos was using to hit the nails.

Mrs. Rose looked at the small tool in her hand and sighed.

"Amy in combat is not something I would recommend encouraging." She chastised.

Aiden laughed. Hearing her father laugh like that...it made Amy feel something incredibly powerful. A sadness mixed with nostalgia like precedence.

"Worry that she'll turn into you with your...infamous wrath?" He joked.

Asmos responded with a whack on the head.

"If thats the case, then she'll hit twice as hard with the Piko Piko." She said.

He rubbed his head and smirked. This...it was a shame she never got to witness as she got older. She never had the chance.

The two had dinner and continued to talk. Amy looked up into the night skies as it became overcast pretty quickly as the wind picked up. Rain then fell down heavily and out of nowhere as the two doused the fire quickly and went to into the tent to sleep for the night. Asmos went in there first.

SNAP!

That was a loud snap as Aiden figured. There were no trees around them as this was the bottom of the valley, surrounded by mountains and castle ruins.

SHINK!

Amy gasped and put her hands to get mouth in surprise as she saw a pair of red and green eyes behind her father as he took heavy breaths and called out to Asmos, who ran out of the tent. She was shocked to see the dark figure had pierced through Aiden's chest.

"Aiden no!" Asmos called out.

The figure...that was Mephiles! He withdrew the spike into his hand.

"Abbadonia sends her regards!" Mephiles noted before he disappeared.

Asmos ran over to Aiden who fell to the ground, with blood gushing out of his chest and fast. She took off her jacket as she tried and failed to stop the bleeding. Tears fell alongside the rain drops as she hopelessly tried to save him.

"Please...Aiden no..." She muttered, her voice croaky.

Aiden laid there, weak as he slowly put his had over her own.

"It's okay Big Mama...although..." He coughed "Not really. Listen, I know...our work has yet to be finished. I know you'll look after our kids...protect them...especially Amy..."

Asmos shook her head with disbelief. She couldn't comprehend her dying as well.

"I remember when we first met. Remember the cherry trees of Sakura? Heh...one of our first missions together as a team. The Commander wanted us to deal with the Chameleons civil war. Turns out it was something petty that they were fighting over...and so, our first successful yet hilarious mission. Remember the cherries...remember their scent...and remember me, my Rose Princess.."

The light returned as Aiden's eyes slowly closed.

"Mephiles killed our dad?" Amy muttered, her voice almost hoarse.

"Only because they failed to kill Abbadonia." Aceste replied. Yet, how she sounded was so...emotionless?

"I've poured over this a thousand times. Big Mama never said anything because of purely selfish reasons!"

She couldn't believe that. She just couldn't. Sonic was just as pissed.

"How do you even know that? Did you ask her?" The blue hedgehog asked.

"Strider found Asmos's documents pertaining to the research in Soleanna. They were still studying the Prophecies and the slab belonging to my ancestors." Elise explained.

"It'd be pointless to ask her now. She'd just deny it. Isn't that right Aceste?"

Amy growled. Yes she would come to believe that their dad died in an awful way, but the amount of grief and pain that their mother went through. But the level of information that she refrained from divulging was indeed questionable.

"The slabs said to contain the way to beat Abbadonia. The ancient kingdoms were bonded to Solaris, who had told them how to beat Chaoskampf. But...things went awry as Solaris was corrupted. It was only that a golden hero beat Solaris and whittled the God into a tiny containable flame." Aceste revealed.

Golden Hero huh?

"So...how does this work with your plans then?" Sonic questioned.

Elise nodded.

"Abbadonia's greatest power is to corrupt souls. GUNs research into containment of darker souls is crucial to sealing Abbadonia away. I was going to be host to Mr. Thorn as a test subject, to see if containment of Eggadon was possible, since Mr. Thorn is partial essence to Abbadonia and Mephiles." Elise explained.

This made no sense. Why would Aceste of all people be willing to take host of such a dark and despicable force?

"I figure, if Muriel chose you to be host, then I, by genetic chance would also be eligible for possession. We would use Thorn to fight Eggadon on equal footing, then take Abbadonia out of Eggman and seal her in me, I would then otherwise become resistant to her control, giving us time to seal her for eternity!" Aceste announced, albeit more joyous than anticipated.

This fact disturbed Amy greatly. Did Aceste even understand what she was saying? Or what she was even getting herself into? What if it didn't work? Amy stomped to her sister and grabbed her shoulders, to shake her violently.

"What were you thinking? Aceste please don't. This isn't like you!" Amy cried out.

"I'm with Ames." Sonic commented.

"Mr. Thorn is not a toy."

Elise and Aceste exchanged glances, before they looked at the pair once more.

"I'm so much more than what my real father possessed." Elise commented.

"I have slaved his work, took care of his robotic forces and ensured the promise of a richer world. This is only the beginning!"

Amy stared longingly at Aceste. The sister who would have always Amy to be creative with herself and never fear her potential. Of course she had no real desire to hurt her. She could see Sonic waiting, uncharacteristically. He was waiting to see what Amy wanted to do first.

"So what will it be Sonic? Amy?" Elise stated.

"Will you help us in our endeavor or will you be the stereotypical hindrance to our plans?"

Rewind...

It had been a rough few months; well into her role as Agent Mjollnir of the Femme Fatalex.

Working to make a better future sounded better in writing, but the reality was had been that she'd finally gotten to chance to get closer to her mother. She had Rouge to thank.

She never mentioned her mother as the Supreme Commander to anyone, but going from Shadows and Rouge's testimonies, it was originally due to animosity...but now...

She caught up with Aceste while she was in Station Square, to which it had been coming up to the anniversary to when Sonic defeated Chaos. Amy had placed some flowers at the memorial, which was dedicated to the lives lost. It helped remind her that while yes, Sonic did indeed defeat a godlike being here, it wasn't without casualties.

Her heart weeped over the losses, but also over E-102 Gamma. She never saw him after that incident and imagined that like the rest of Eggman's robots, he would have been destroyed. It was indeed a tragedy, even if it had been inevitable. She had been the only one to mourn him.

After placing a batch of flowers beside a photo, she had gone to a nearby cafe, where she had caught up with her sister.

Aceste had been wearing a summery green dress and a sun hat. It indeed had been a warm day. The pair kissed each other on the cheek and ordered their lattes.

"So, word on the street is; that you've joined GUN. Amirite?" Aceste joked.

Amy was surprised that word had spread so quickly.

"Shh...no one is supposed to know that." Amy hushed

Aceste giggled.

"Hey, I'm dating a GUN boy. I get all the juicy intel." She informed her.

Really?

"Despite the fact that majority of the stuff GUN does is strictly confidential?" Amy pointed out. Whether or not Aceste had been telling tales again did crop up.

"No one suspects the hedgehog dating a human now do they?" Aceste continued; much to Amy's exasperation. Aceste always loved the exotic.

"I guess not." Amy replied awkwardly as she she sipped her latte.

Aceste had been the sole one in their family interested in Amy's relationship status. She knew of Amy's obsession with Sonic and despite Amy vested interest in him, she always said that there had been better men out there.

"So I've been speaking to Rouge and we think it would be a fantastic idea to set you up with a date with Shadow." She revealed.

Amy and Shadow? Amy never gave it a thought. Shadow was...Shadow. She furrowed her brows in annoyance.

"Rouge said that?" She questioned, unable to believe her.

Aceste shrugged. She always did this. To try and set Amy up with a random date, whether it be blind or a random. Amy would always decline. Now that she looked at it, she was as persistent in this was Amy was in trying to get with Sonic.

"I know scuttlebutt tends to say while GUN is tolerant of Sonic's actions, the Supreme Commander doesn't like him at all. Especially when her youngest is hanging with the troupe." Aceste pointed out with a grin.

"Oh geez." Amy sighed. "Look, Rouge suggested I joined GUN to make myself stronger. That's all."

Aceste didn't really believe that, as she nodded and had a eyebrow raised in tandem with skepticism.

"Or was it to get closer to Big Mama? Come on Astral Amelia, you can tell me."

Amy grumbled. She hated being called that. Aceste always interpreted her family members as part of her head canon. For example, Andrew was Amazing Andy and Asher was Alluring Asheria. Neither of which, were really their names. Aceste just loved nicknames.

"I'm getting older Aceste. I need to start making a better difference to the world. Rouge made it clear to me that I wasn't doing enough. And I explicitly told the instructors not to go easy on me just because of who was in charge. He'd been told he wasn't and was told by their Supreme Commander to make my life a living hell." Amy revealed to her.

The elder Rose smirked, intrigued.

"Because she knew you would be able to handle it. While hanging with Sonic and Co., it hasn't made you completely useless, I'll admit. You're really good with dads old hammer." Aceste stated.

"You're definitely gonna make an impact, I know it. Now, about that date..."

Current...

Amy gripped her hammer tightly. This was increasingly difficult. Elise had to have had Aceste under some kind of mind control for sure. She looked at Sonic, hoping he would say something, anything. She knew with him hear it would have been easy. But he did nothing.

"Don't depend on him sis." Aceste suggested.

"Sonic fears Thorn's power. I am aware it isn't a toy. I want to make things easier, in a way, no prophecy would ever predict."

Amy would never condone her to this fate. Even if the technology used had questionable origins, it would be better to keep Thorn contained rather that let it lose in any way shape or form.

"Of course I fear it." Sonic commented, breaking his mute silence. His voice was abnormally low as well.

"Because I know what it does to you. It causes great pain and forces you to hurt people. Especially those you care about."

Aceste chuckled.

"Oh sis, did you finally manage to get him wrapped around your finger? Mother said your persistence came from dad."

Elise groaned.

"Aceste, we're not here to give counselling." She complained.

"If they're not going to be in our way, then let us make do with the process. Sonic, I trust you and Amy will be able to help even if you're not aware of it. The less interference, the better. I have a secondary cage that will entrap Thorn more securely, enough for us to be them both on ice. The second phase of the plan requires a tonne of trial and error, especially with subduing Thorns personality."

Amy could clearly see Sonic being extremely uncomfortable with doing this. Going from past experiences, it was not hard to see why.

"The slab states that the Purest power is able to conquer any corruption." Elise continued.

"But that's all we've gotten our of the translations so far. The slab is said to contain some very odd properties in order to decrypt it. So we've been using an Emerald for it!"

Knuckles had continued to tinker with the slab as he attached a small device to a console nearby. He could see an Emerald in casing nearby that was linked to everything. With Glitch's help, she had explained what it was doing. Knux, of course, would have none of it. But he did send part of the translation to Glitch herself.

"Purest power? What is this bullshit?" Glitch complained over the intercom.

Knuckles crossed his arms. He's heard of multiple sources of power throughout the years, some having a trifle advantage over the others with pros and cons to their usage.

"I've heard of it." He told her.

"The terminology reflects the older eras. Before the eras of Chaos Energy or even around the same time. Chaos Energy became the mainstay due to the incident with Pachacamac. But I do recall researching several other energies. Primal energy, for example. Exceptionally powerful but for some reason there was only ever a select group that could use it. Kronos Energy is another. Simply time based but did have specific artefacts, like Chaos Emeralds, one could use to do so. The Purest Power however..."

The Purest Power. One of the oldest and seldom used powers due to the fact of how insanely difficult it was to use as well as its general description of how it was used and what it was used for.

"Yes, it reminds me of the Cyber Powers, given from the Cyber Emeralds..." Glitch noted.

"And the Sol Powers..."

Knuckles turned to see Blaze and Silver behind him. The walked over to see the slab for themselves.

"Many different powers to inflict many different things. Hence, why Silver's been keeping the Time Stones. That's how we got here to begin with." Blaze revealed.

The Echidna grumbled as he rolled his eyes.

"What, you're some kind of Guardian to the Stones? Don't they belong to Little Planet?" Knuckles inquired.

A series of sparks and fizzles emitted from the console, as Glitch emerged from it as she phased from data to a physical form.

"You moron, Little Planet was blown up thanks to Egghead." Glitch chastised.

"I think they're still trying to find their actual master."

"Their masters beheld both the Purest Power and the Kronos Power..." Spoke a masked voice as it entered the room from above. Knuckles gritted his teeth as the rest prepared themselves.

"Geez Morpheus could you find a more dramatic entrance?" Glitch said sarcastically.

Knuckles hadn't seen Morpheus the Grey in a while. A mischievous Hedgehog with unknown goals, but had been told that he was definitely on their side. Supposedly. He looked at Silver, who shirked at him, before he looked back at Glitch and Knuckles.

"Apologies for being late. I've been incredibly busy as of late." Morpheus admitted. He wandered over to the slab to observe it himself.

"I know a lot about Little Planet myself. I herald from there."

Knuckles rose an eyebrow, skeptical. Not that he really cared much, but Morpheus seemed to enjoy to reveal information where he saw fit.

"We're not here to brag Morph, we're here to get the slab out of here before Elise realises its gone. Glitch, hows that going?" Knuckles pointed out.

The Cyber wolf kept typing madly at the console.

"Funny you should mention powers...if the Chaos Emerald is translating the slab when its clearly from more of a different energy source, I may still be able to take the slab to the Cyber Ruins where I can use my Cyber Emeralds to finish off what Elise started."

It didn't make sense why they needed something to power the translations to begin with, although Knuckles knew about a particular spell or some kind of peculiar magic that was often shared between old wizards, mages and so forth. This definitely was one of them.

"Is this the Emerald we're looking for though?" Silver queried as he peered at it.

"Yes." Blaze answered. "But this place is busting with robots. We need to be extra careful with the extraction."

Knuckles groaned. Of course there were. Elise was insane, not stupid.

"Sonic and Amy are distracting her as we speak, although we still do need a plan if things go south..."

"Purest Power?" Amy muttered.

"It was something an ancient mage had constructed on behalf their collaboration with the Prophets. Our ancestors Amy. You'd be surprised at all the dirty secrets they buried." Aceste revealed.

Sonic understood Amy had her down down deep into the lore of her people. He himself was rightfully curious about his own ancestors but so far, nothing that he'd seen was hopeful. And neither was this. He couldn't allow this to happen. They were going to do it anyway and there really wasn't anything Sonic could do on his end.

Unless..

"This plan of yours will fail." Amy pointed out, before Sonic got a word in.

"I have...extremely bad feelings about it."

The other pink hedgehog groaned.

"Amy this is not all about your status as a stupid chosen one." Aceste scolded as she glared and pointed to Amy in spite.

"Grandma screwed things up royally and All Rose's have to participate in this whether they like it or not!"

Not that this was Amy's choice. You either take action, or you don't. Simple. Prophecy and fate were nonsense. It just meant that you were forcing someone to do something against their will. What happens, happens, in Sonic's ideal world.

So he, naturally, had to do something about this.

He took out the Piko Piko and headed straight for the casing. The essence of thorn practically went nuts as Sonic approached it. The other girls gasped as Sonic went near it, as Sonic took a few practice swings.

"What on Mobius are you doing you fool?" Elise roared, as her eyes nearly popped out of her head.

He didn't look behind him, as he suspected the looks on their faces would be exactly what he anticipated. But he trusted his friends to take care of this for now. That Mr. Thorn would be destroyed.

While he hated to do this, in the bottom of his heart he couldn't afford to let it go to anyone else, lest it reek more havoc down the line. Most of all.

He was prepared to fight it.

The darkness that he feared to tread. He'd been down that road before. If being the Werehog told him anything, it was that his willpower would find a way. Before, he had no idea what was controlling him or even being aware that he was even being controlled. Second time around, he would go in, having the strength to carry out a insidious task. He hadn't planned for it...

He had to have a much deeper faith in those he cared about. If he had to be sealed again then so be it. He closed his eyes as the mental image of Amy came into his head. The old Amy. The one he never realised he missed. Not that the mature Amy was bad however...there was an innocence she once had. While fierce and mild tempered, she had great intentions.

Aceste was right. He didn't want Amy to bear the burden of being a Chosen One however. What ever fate designed for her just had to succeed. What ever it might be.

"If you're prepared for this as much as you say you are, you will seal me without problem." Sonic said, his voice eerily low.

"Sonic please." Amy pleaded as she ran up to him and clasped his arm which sent a warm jolt through his body. It was just like how the danced together. He'd keep that in mind as a pleasant memory.

Don't do this Amy, I don't want to hurt you... Sonic thought to himself.

"Ames... I need you to step back. Leave and find the others." He told her.

Her grip tightened.

"I...I..." Amy choked. He just realised how difficult this actually was for her to witness. More so than he had originally thought. Her upset tone and manner. Her feeling...it is a bad idea.

The bad idea was the only was to describe that she had been pouring into him, like she had been sharing her energies to him.

The strangest thing was that this wasn't the first time that he'd felt this.

"All I care about is getting everyone else out alive. Please Amy, I am the only who can do this." Sonic continued.

You must know this too.

Slowy, but surely, Amy let go. It must have been a huge effort on her part to do so. She had to have at least the huge amount in trust him to dance with her so she must have to do the same for him.

She walked backwards, slowly, then she could see the angry looks of Elise and Aceste. She scrunched her face and pulled out her arms to prevent them from interrupting.

"You're both idiots!" Elise chastised.

"Out of our way!" Aceste called out.

Amy shook her head.

"You will leave that thing in there!" Amy yelled, as she defended Sonic from the two mad women.

There was sigh that escaped Elise's lips. It sounded like defeat but.

"Listen to me, we need that virus to create the VACCINE to all of our problems! We will then be able to defeat Eggadon with it! You know its the only way!" Aceste explained, desperate.

"Mother would not be pleased if you were to be sacrificed!"

The room was so silent, that you could hear a pin drop. Sonic could feel Amy's imminent rage from where he was. He didn't even need to look at her. If he knew Amy, she would have gotten the implications straight away. They knew exactly what Aceste was willing to do, but to manipulate it to seem like she would have to possibly kill her sister would send Amy overboard. She would never sacrifice people like that.

"Do...not...say...THAT!" Amy roared. Her tone brought back the fury of her younger self. Less naïve, but still incredible strong and overbearing.

"I love you Ace! Nothing would ever change that!"

Exactly how Sonic would perceive Amy to feel. After all, she was known to express her feelings. A lot.

"I know you do Amy." Aceste replied.

"I'm stuck as the poor miserable middle child. Even Asher did something worthwhile."

To be honest, this kind of family dispute made Sonic a bit uncomfortable. It was strenuous. The Rose family must have had a tonne of issues through out the years that he was glad to not be part of. Then again, it may have explained in tandem as to why Amy became so clingy.

"Then again." Ace continued.

"You gave Sonic the same hammer dad gave you. He sacrificed so much. Thats' what our family's fate is! Our lives will have meaning."

"I realise now none of you should be here." A voice called.

A male pink hedgehog had now entered the room. Knuckles recognised him.

"Prince Hayden? What the hell?" He said.

"Why the hell is a damned coincidence everyones here? Seriously? We're doing fine thank you!" Glitch complained.

Prince Hayden, the last of the Rosoideae royalty. Knuckles could sympathise. Why he was here and why he had just showed of up of all people was beyond him. Morpheus had partially explained it once before, but he never truly understood.

"I see what you're all doing. I've done the research." Hayden claimed.

"I know about OPERATION: LUCID."

The group looked at one another. Knuckles wasn't sure what the plan was with Hayden, but Diga had insisted that he was important to their plan. In what way, no further detail was properly given.

"I'm aware of the manipulations now. I just want to ensure none of you will do anything incredibly stupid."

Knuckles turned to Morpheus, really hoping the creepy white hedgehog would care to give as much info as possible.

"The operation is still a work in progress." Morpheus mentioned.

"Ms Diga still needs you."

Hayden grumbled, then exchanged looks with Knuckles.

"Look, I barely know how the situation is at this very moment. I'm only here to do my part. Nothing more. But I didn't sign up for the amount of pain this has given me. Not just physical, but emotional." Knuckles called.

There was a lot of unnecessary actions in their path to get things done. It would probably be his last time that he'd even consider doing something like this ever again. He had more important matters to attend to.

"So they hide secrets from you too..." Hayden pointed out. He then walked to the slab.

"Ancient Rosoideae tech. The Prophets would get this made and use secret techniques to hide the information, only to use complex procedures to unlock the message. It would only be shared between the Royal families and the Prophets Court."

"Not the Elders. Why?" Knuckles wondered.

Morpheus stepped forward.

"There had been suspicions that the Elders were corrupted. It had been a rumor for a very long time. No one could properly verify it. Especially with one of the Elders being practically immortal. The Elders were nefarious to the amount of going on behind the scenes. My guess is that the message would have been made by a particular Prophet who had foreseen a path their race would take. In this case, it ended badly for most parties."

"They trusted the royal family of Soleanna with it, since they knew that it would have been one of they only one of the original seven kingdoms left standing after Hell's Sundering." Hayden continued.

"It would have been Prophetess Shizaru."

"But Amy, your sister has told me all about you." Elise commented, as she walked forward and eyed Amy, who was very much creeped out by the princess' stare.

"You're smart, you're strong. You know what you want and you'll get it even if it takes a while."

"Thats why she was chosen." Aceste added, her voice confident.

"Your destiny as Prophetess needs to be tested. Tell me Amy, what do you see now?"

Amy could feel Sonics eyes on her. He wasn't judging her, but rather, cautious as to what she would do. Amy herself never understood this power that she wielded, only that it gave her obscure visions of scarce relevance, or that of which the stories of the past were made known to her. Nothing that the future held would really make itself known.

"I see us a happy family." Amy said, her voice soft. This was a fate she demanded upon others, that she would not let the future unfold on its own. She had to make the dreams become reality.

"But that is what I want. My visions are my desires!"

Elise grinned, amused at Amy's response.

"Oh wow...I like a woman who wants to be in control. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's a pity you're not the same side."

No there wasn't.

"But if I can see us a happy family. You need to be out of the picture, your highness!" Amy said coolly.

"There is one way to defeat Abbadonia though. It could be what the slab says, it might not. My own research seems to indicate that Prophets had another form, which are called High Prophets instead." Hayden revealed.

"Where did you get that from anyway without even using the slab?" Silver questioned.

"I have my sources." Hayden answered, being quite conspicuous.

"History states that Prophets were able to channel older spirits into them, giving them the power and wisdom over a short time. It may explain the Rosoideae connection to the Time Stones."

It did irritate Knuckles to a point that this had been a waste of the time. Or it wasn't. The slab would confirm Haydens theory, but his concern was now Hayden knew their goal, it would require them to minimise Hayden's involvement if plausible. Or at least, perhaps have Shadow talk with him.

Knuckles was never good at negotiating.

"The slab is still important." Morpheus interrupted.

"It would be." Silver agreed. "Maybe it would tell us how to use the Time Stones to achieve it. Maybe in the same matter Chaos or Sol Emeralds are used."

"So Amy would need the stones then?" Blaze assumed.

Hayden nodded.

"Amy's involvement in all of this has been foretold. Shizaru would have written the slab in response to all the details going all the back to the original Hell's Sundering. Maybe...maybe Hell's Sundering never was truly stopped. It's laid dormant all this time!"

Her words sent shivers down Sonic's spine. That was a definite threat. But Elise just laughed.

He didn't know what was worse.

"But Amy, Aceste and I having a great time down here!" She boasted.

"We all get to achieve our destinies and everyone is happy!"

Sonic made a face as Elise danced around the room, looking like a fool. He had to restrain the desire to roundhouse kick her head off. Aceste sighed as she rubbed her face, seemingly fed up with everything.

"You know what, screw everything!" She called out as she walked towards the casing.

Sonic stood in front of her, determined not to let her through. She stomped her foot and glared at him.

"Out of my way bluehog!"

Sonic shook his head. He would forever deny the satisfaction of letting someone let this thing inside them. He would not let another victim come to pass. Aceste grew frustrated as she pulled out a crossbow out of her hammerspace. It looked high tech as she summoned an bolt out of a pure green energy. What ever that meant, and had a strange insignia on it. It wasn't too dissimilar to the Rozen Resistance logo, but it looked roots in the ground inside a circle on the middle panel.

"Wait, that's mothers crossbow!" Amy gasped.

"How in the world did you get that?"

Aceste smirked.

"Oh there still is so much you do not know about our dear mother yet, Amy. But if you do not tell your boyfriend to friggen move I'm going to shove this damn bolt in between his eyes!"

Sonic simply grabbed the casing out of the socket and held it underneath his arm as he raised his hand against the older sister.

"You don't want this." Sonic pleaded. He couldn't believe he had to resort to this.

"I don't know you well enough to convince you, but your sister here loves you and from what I gather she wants to trust you to make the right choice here. You simply do not want this."

Tension bared down on all fronts as a chill could be felt in the arid air. Sonic was willing to repeat himself until Aceste got the message through her thick skull. His eyes locked with Amy's for the brief moment after she had brought out her hammer. This must have hurt her dearly...she had to have known it would most likely come down to someone getting hurt overall. There was no denying that.

But he could trust Amy. Why? Amy was one the last people he could call a close friend. Someone he's ultimately come to trust over the years. Her...eagerness notwithstanding

"Whats this package you're talking about anyway?" Amy asked. Sonic had thought about it as well.

Elise rose an eyebrow.

"You really don't know?" She balked.

"It was the whole damn reason why I attacked the ARK, mummas girl. But you had to basically breach through all my failsafes and caused me to raise drastic measures. Its clear you do not see its true value. Tragic, but also warrants a reason as to why it would be better in my hands!"

Aceste turned to the fallen Princess.

"Of course. The Package...its said to be able to set us all free. To what extent we do not know. But our goal is to get the power in order to reach it...why would you deny anyone the power of freedom?"

They attacked Elise's supposed defensive mechanisms. For a package?

"Yes dear Ace. It is definitely worth fighting for. Thats for certain. But the Rozen Resistance are such hoarders with their collection of powerful artifacts without bothering to use them!" Elise responded.

Only if Elise really knew.

"So..." She continued. "You still have a choice. If you're so curmudgeonly about not giving us the Package, then give us the virus."

Sonic still had no clue. Amy and himself did what they could to save Rouge and they had failed. Thats all he could think of. That and they knew Elise was after something on the ARK.

But it didn't matter. They had it apparently and Sonic had the Thorn Virus. He could run and take it somewhere where they wouldn't be able to find it.

"Oh come he's not gonna do it...fine then...we'll have to do this the hard way!" Aceste complained.

She raised the crossbow and had it aimed towards Sonic and fired it. He dodged out of the way, as Amy tried to knock the Crossbow out of her hands. Elise stepped into the shadows and vanished as they fought. Aceste refused to shoot Amy, instead, try to knock Amy out by attempting to whack her with the crossbow instead.

Good. This gave Sonic time to leave, if only the door didn't shut beforehand.

Elise.

He tried to whack the door with the hammer, but the door must have been made out of some kind of diamond-hard metal or something. He grunted in frustration as he turned around to see Amy and Aceste in combat.

He could see that the pair clashed their weapons with huge sparks, with Amy on defense as Aceste became more aggressive. Sonic tried to look around the room to suss out where he could to, or what he could take advantage of to at least try and get out of the room. He then saw another door on the other side of the room and ran towards it.

Aceste caught his sprint in the corner of her eye and readied herself as she whacked Amy on the head in a moment where she was open and once more aimed at Sonic. She fired the bolt at him as he sped past, cautious as her eyes and her judgement for speed ensured that it would at least hit her targer would ensure.

"Sonic!" Amy cried out.

Sonic went to the other door, as he dodged more bolts. It required some kind of passcode to enter. He ignored that and went straight for hitting the door instead, which again, like the first door, was quite strong. He made have had to make do with guessing the code.

"Amy you idiot! What the hell have you done?" He heard Aceste cry out.

He turned to see the commotion, as he saw Amy fall to the floor, with blood quickly gushing out of her body. His face went white as he suddenly felt cold on the site of her body lying there. Aceste's response was instantly to fire a bolt at him while he was distracted. Though it didn't him directly...

It hit the casing, breaking the glass in pieces.

The black ooze sensed Sonic's whirlwind of emotions and instantly latched on to him. Sonic gasped, as he fell to all fours and began the struggle to crawl to Amy's body. He could feel the stings in his mind, but the pure power was nearly too pleasurable to ignore.

Knuckles twitched as he looked behind him. He turned to the others, who seemed to have a similar feeling as well.

"What was that?" Silver asked, cautious yet curious.

The Red Echidna observed Morpheus and Hayden, who looked deeply disturbed. But what ever this power was, it was so sudden and if anything else, it seemed to be growing. Glitch was busy dealing with the slab, but she had a shiver down from her spine to her shaken tail.

"I'm getting alerts all over the place. Definitely isn't us, I've been keeping an eye on security measures. This has to be in another room!" She confirmed as she rapidly typed on the nearby console.

A siren sounded as lights flashed, with Knuckles trying to figure out where this source of unexplainable energy came from. It wasn't Chaos Energy, but something far more sinister.

Like Glitch, he also had the shivers. A tendril of black energy burst through the nearby wall, as Knuckles tackled Hayden to the ground to protect him from it, while Blaze barely dodged it.

"What is that?" Blaze questioned in surprise. The tendril itself looked like it was made from onimous threads of black, blue and red colours, but mostly black as it was surrounded by a thin veil of ooze and smoke.

Hayden pulled out his sword as Morpheus summoned a psychokinetic ball of energy into his hand.

"I have seen this before." The latter commented.

"Is this the darkness that was mentioned by Elise?" Silver wondered.

Knuckles had bad vibes and instantly tried to connect with the other hedgehogs.

"Sonic, Amy, do you copy?" Knuckles called out. But no response. Silver and Blaze tried to do the same, but they too, heard nothing.

"This...looks bad."

More tendrils had burst through the nearby wall and horrific unworldy screams and screeches could be heard nearby. Knuckles shook his head. He ran over to Glitch and ushered to hurry up.

"Glitch, can you see anything?"

The Wolf tapped away, bringing up a holographic map of the whole complex. It had a series of tunnels and other rooms, but there was a huge black void nearby.

"What ever the hell this is, it's massive. And its growing exponentially. What would cause all of this?" She too wondered.

They didn't have time to find out. If they weren't carefully, they would be swallowed by it. He turned around, seeing the others okay. They had to make a decision to get to safety before they could figure out their next move.

"Grab the Emerald and the slab. We can decipher it later." Knuckles told them.

"We need to keep a safe distance."

The group agreed, albeit Glitch complained that she needed a little bit more time. Silver smashed the casing for the Emerald and grabbed it, as did Blaze did with a kick as she grabbed the slab, before the group made a mosy on and ran out of the room. Knuckles made do as he took Glitch's hand and forced her out, much to her protests.

They went back into the main dance floor, which to Knuckles surprise, was completely empty. Where did everyone go?

"The sirens aren't going off here." Blaze commented.

"Could this more off-putting?"

The silence was broken by often creaking metal as the only lights that flashed or moved were the ones on stage and the roof, ones specifically not designed to cause alarm. Indeed this was extremely fishy.

"If someone had done what they were told, this would be more simple..." A voice called, as the sound of heels clicking echoed before them.

"Ah your highness, pulling the ol' villainy, magiciany stuff? You try to hard, if I'm being honest." Glitch taunted.

Elise stood on stage with her arms crossed. She wasn't entirely pleased as the soft anger on her face told them.

"I'm not trying anything, mutt. Its when people screw up your whole plans kinda thing that pisses me off." The villainess complained.

Knuckles didn't really think much about Elise's descent into evil. Although, he kind of went with Glitch's opinion and didn't really think much of her as a bad guy per say.

"Did you kidnap everyone and seal them into a dungeon? Cause thats cliché." Silver wondered.

"Hmph." Elise growled.

"Yes pick on me all you like, fact is that your friends down there are the whole reason this mess is here. I'm just seeing if you're all up to the task of cleaning this mess."

Knuckles knew Sonic and Amy still had to be alive. He looked at Morpheus and Hayden. The pair of them were creepy as Red Mountain, but there were a level that whispered secrets constantly.

Never understood their motives either. But they had to know the same.

"I'm certain the blame is more on management. You tried to tango with elements beyond your understanding." Hayden stated.

Elise just face-palmed. Knuckles wondered if she would have been a good ruler in the first place if she ever became Queen. It wouldn't have been a pretty sight. The lights in the room then flickered as a chill filled the room. Definitely had gotten worse.

"It's influence is spread far. Idiots...I wish they would have listened!" Elise griped.

"What is it?" Silver wondered.

Something that was ready to murder them, that was for sure.

"Its the Thorn Virus." Morpheus explained.

"I'd been curious about where that had been hiding all this time."

Knuckles was told about the Virus. Something that cropped up previously...a powerful force that corrupted even Sonic's good nature and turned him into a ruthless killing machine. This was a lot worse than he expected. Much to Knuckles dismay, Sonic was their strongest and for him to be transformed into a speeding piece of darkness that looked like it been prepared to slaughter down anything in its path. He honestly couldn't believe such a thing existed. How could they even take it down?

"Setting the self-destruct sequence could prove useful in nuking the whole thing." Elise suggested.

Morpheus shook his head.

"I sense something terrible has happened down there. What ever it was, it set both the virus and Sonics emotions into overdrive. He's no longer a person, but an uncontrollable force of nature. A irrevocable beast that will not stop. Potentially a force on the level of Abbadonia if we may say so ourselves. But that had been her goal. Her goal to not completely destroy but to corrupt even the most pure souls. Our best hope, is to get into the source of it, and remove the virus mentally."

Glitch sighed as she cleaned her ear with her pinky, seemingly exhausted by Morpheus' paragraph.

"Lemme guess, we find the trauma deal with it and we're all hunky dory? I find that highly unlikely." The Cyber Wolf critqued.

"Or you, the master of the mind, have something to contribute?"

Morpheus nodded.

"Over the past few months, I've been working on a idea. However, I will need your help. Especially with help from Silver."

The other white hedgehogs' eyes widened with surprise as he pointed to himself.

"Me?"

Before the situation got worse, they had worked out a plan. Elise resigned herself, much to her irritance, to work with Glitch to look at the blueprints of the whole facility. Elise taught the Cyber wolf the overlook and the general patterns of locks and security functions.

Knuckles, Hayden and Blaze lead Morpheus and Silver through the depths and hallways. The former acted as offense while the latter two were defensive as they would put up shields to protect them from not only monsters that could potentially appear, but also from what Morpheus described as, mental attacks.

"Is the virus really that vicious?" Blaze wondered.

"From my prior investigations it had been designed to attack the mind over a longer period, eventually forming its own entity based on the experiences and negative emotions the original host had. The combination of that and Abbadonia's artifacts and other influences, forms a powerful if not almost parasitic monstrosity that constantly pokes and erodes the hosts sanity to the point that they're almost dependant on it, for the power high it wields."

Knuckles felt Sonic would never change, based on his consistent, if not annoying attitude to the whole heroes thing. Not that it was an bad gig, it was just a normal, occasional occurrence where, majority, if not all of the time that they came out on top. It didn't just have to be Eggman to be the bad guy, but the monsters they had faced. Purely physical.

His role was to protect the Master Emerald. Not the perfect life, but it was to a stage where he had purely accepted his role. Part of him hated others helping, but conceded it was necessary. It made Knuckles wonder what kind of pain would hurt Sonic the most. Being unable to run? Being underwater?

Those were the two that stood out. But he didn't know Sonic that well to pry deeper into his psyche. Frankly, no one cared. They were friends that would aid each other. Knuckles could be jealous of his nomadic lifestyle, but he had purpose and that's what mattered.

Even with Tails basically at Sonics side, it was the three of them that complemented each others strengths and weaknesses. Tails death hit him hard and it was difficult to accept, but he imagined that kind of ordeal would indeed hit Sonic the hardest. But Sonic being who he was, he wouldn't really divulge a great load of detail in regards to his grief.

In fact, for the most part, Knuckles observed that in the cases of difficult experiences that one or all of them had gone through, Sonic would be the first to pick up the pieces and move or, or barely acknowledged what had happened and was ready to go almost instantly. Perhaps to make up or try to erase his mistakes.

But one thing that Knuckles and Tails did agree on, was that Sonic had his faults. That was a given. Yes he was a hero, but for those who had been at his side the longest, would be those who would witness Sonic for what he really was. An ally, a friend. A jerk. Someone you could trust to help you no matter what. But he was never emotionally open. Happy or annoyed or angry. But nothing ever I depth. He'd discussed that with Tails on the rare occasion but...the pair would never confront Sonic about his attitude.

There was change...Knuckles had definitely seen it. In approach and in manner...and the cracks...others had mentioned the minor alterations to his personality over time. Especially in relevance to those he was close to. He wasn't REALLY close to anyone, but...

If anything else, his relationship dynamic with Amy was... odd?

Since Shade had been helping him out with the Master Emerald, it was she who brought forth her knowledge of emotional transparency. Knuckles wasn't really good with relationships, but he trusted Shade enough (only to her prodding because for some reason she had been really concerned with him.) The Nocturnus weren't afraid to show their emotions (behind the scenes) to one another and that for Knuckles to be isolated all this time was worrying to her. Of course, he claimed to be fine, when that was a huge, fat lie.

It was then he spilled his emotional disputes, as to how he really felt about Rouge or how he felt about his friends. It wasn't complex, quite simple enough to put in a short essay. Only Rouge deserved a whole book and even then...well after she was gone, it had put his own frustrations forward.

Shade did inquire about Amy Rose and how her whole character had changed. Knuckles was surprised about her observations...

Rewind...

"Ever since she joined GUN, she's been a bit. I cannot explain. Different?" Knuckles commented.

He sat with Shade before the Master Emerald in the bask of the sunset before them. It used to be peaceful, but they did have the occasional contact with the Resistance. Communication needed to be constant, but Shade often relayed any data back to them as Knuckles often sat in vigil.

"Shade, you were with her, back in the Femme Fatalex weren't you?"

The secrets of the Femme Fatalex's identities were known to a select few. Before Amy screwed up royally. Amy herself was Mjollnir, Vanilla was Bazooka and Shade...was Drainer.

It did sort of surprise Knuckles, but Shade mentioned the act of the last Fatalex was needless and she ended up discarding the persona altogether. She decided that she should at least make up for lost time with Knuckles as they exchanged knowledge about their people.

Descended from the Nocturnus Clan, Shade ended up going back with them, to see how Eggman had suddenly had taken over. It wasn't long until THAT was dealt with, however. Shade disappeared after, having joined GUN thanks to Rouge shortly after. She didn't abandon Knuckles altogether, her comments were more of a less, giving Knuckles space. What ever that meant.

"I was. I only knew Amy for a short time before that and after...well, I suppose my version of her then and now have greatly differed. So I am obliged to agree with you." She commented.

At Rouge's behest Drainer was nothing more than an act to drive off suspicion of her identity. The woman was considered an alien by any means despite Echidnas existing on Mobius beforehand.

"But its also enough to see you care about her."

It was hard for Knux to care about anyone. Let alone someone as a straight forward and boisterous like Amy was. Hell, it took him a long time to get used to Sonic and his equally overbearing personality. Tails was okay though. A bit naïve but his heart was in the right place.

If anything else, they all had good hearts.

"She's a friend. We're not...highly close but she's a friend." Knuckles replied.

"Her and Sonic though, for all they've been through. I don't think either of them will come out the same."

Shade nodded as she looked outwards to the seas. It was true though. For all the whispers and rumours that spread about. Even speaking with everyone else in OPERATION:LUCID commented on their warped minds.

"Sonic isn't the one usually to be concerned about. Sure, there's been a few hits and misses but nothing as serious as this. A lot of the reports are troubling and I genuinely want to believe a good out come but...it's never gotten this bad." He continued.

Their situation was nothing like they'd ever seen. Even when Abbadonia wasn't interfering, there was always this sense of her presence lingering that scared them. Mostly her nigh infinite amount of lackeys and mooks to try and dispose. When most of the planets population has disappeared, you know this is extremely bad.

"People would have gone through a lot of trauma losing friends and family when Eggman split the world apart." Shade noted.

"We are numb to statistics. But when we lose that, which we find closest to our hearts..."

Current...

It wouldn't have been the first time Sonic had been exposed to darker energies. Nothing this strong however. He just had to pull through.

The ground before them grew thick with black smoke, as silhouettes rose from them, that took form a familiar Hedgehog. Jet back as the spines took shape, and eyes whiter than snow as the shone towards them and teeth sharp as the come.

The shield that Morpheus and Silver maintained kept part of that away as the dark creatures snarled at the group. They ended up trying to crack through, to which Knuckles, Blaze and Hayden hacked their way through, trying to protect the other Hedgehogs.

"So...uh where are we going anyway?" Silver wondered.

"We're going to the centre of it." Morpheus answered.

"I am going to place something there...once it placed, we need to leave immediately."

The others looked at one another, but Hayden who decapitated one of the creatures.

"Anything we should know about?" Blaze queried.

"Something I have stored yes. You'll need to trust me implicitly. But until then, we must fight!" Morpheus said, as used more of his power to restore the shields properties.

Knuckles didn't like to be ordered to trust by Morpheus. Even so, Knuckles never would trust the guy. He was on their side, supposedly and had his own ambiguous acts taken in the past. He fought on as he smashed a few of the monsters skulls in, splattering the broken bodies into a goo-like paste on the ground. Each of them seemed to gargle, growl on screech. While they were weak, they were infamous in their sheer numbers. It was clear they didn't want the group to get closer.

"Sonic isn't actually summoning these is he?" Silver asked.

"I'd say yes? But I'm thinking not intentionally." Hayden answered as he swung his sword.

He was told this would happen. He'd seen it before and was warned about it. That, even after being told he just really didn't want to think about it. Diga did tell him as did others.

Did Sonic truly have some kind of God like abilities here? He wanted to question how and why, but was only ever told cryptic answers, like it was supposed to make sense to him in the end.

Would he ever know the truth?

The worst part if they ever had to fight Sonic. While they had fought over disputes before, it was nothing like this!

"You're almost there, last room on the left." Glitch announced over the intercom.

The doors opened slowly, as a huge gush of black smoke exited the room, as Silver reinforced the shields. All one could hear besides the humming of machines, were ominous whispers of an unintelligible nature. Knuckles instantly had another chill roll down his spine as he bashed his fists together, pretending to be prepared for anything.

But all they saw was the void before them. No one was willing to enter it, save Morpheus who walked forward as he brought a purple gem out. Knuckles was furious.

"Wait, you had a Chaos Emerald on you, this entire time?" The Red Echidna balked.

Morpheus paid him no mind as he tightened his grip on it.

"I found it...in a good time. Thanks to some assistance. However, I've been running my own experiments on it, and I'm inclined to say I'm not even sure this will work. Silver, I will also need the Yellow Emerald."

The other Hedgehog had no qualms as he nodded and gave it to him. Knuckles was certain he wasn't told a few things that he perhaps, should have known about by now. But like always, he always found out too late.

"I'll need the Time Stones too!" Morpheus announced.

Blaze looked Silver. Looks like neither of them were comfortable with throwing all these powerful gems with the more gangly looking Hedgehog with the gas mask.

"Whats next? The slab?" Knuckles chastised.

Morpheus shook his head.

"The slab we'll keep for now. We can find other ways to decipher it. But...my question, to all of you is. Do you trust Sonic and Amy?"

It was hard to guess what Morpheus was playing at. He was...doing what ever he had to. But to ask such a question. Going from the mass amounts of dark hedgehogs surrounding them...

"Why would you even say that? We're literally wandering in the dark here with you with a whole bunch of our hard earned and extremely powerful stuff and you ASK THAT?" Knuckles answered, prepared to sock Morph if necessary.

Morpheus turned to Knuckles as his yellow, hollow eyes just stared at him. It may have been slightly creepier than the black fog. He was incredibly hard to read, as Knuckles underestimated his size. But he knew he was right though. Through non-disclosure, it was really had to understand anything this Hog did.

"Your frustrations have been noted, Echidna." Morpheus replied in a calm tone.

"Soon you won't even have to worry about it."

He bobbed his head towards Silver, who also gave him the time stones. Morpheus then laid them in a circle on a group and put both the yellow and purple Emeralds on the floor.

"Now we leave...and wait..." He continued as he turned around and went out the door. The others followed, rightfully confused.

She'd been down this road before. Many times.

Many times.

She stood up on her own means. But as she looked down, she could see her old red dress. And all around her was red. What had happened? Whispers called out from the distance...calling her name.

"Sonic is that you?" She cried out.

He's here Amy...

The voices she couldn't put value or faith in. But everywhere she turned there was nothing but pure red. But she couldn't let this take her mind away.

Not again...

A door opened nearby that clearly hadn't been there a few moments ago. A large, wooden door that gave out a bright light. Drawn to it, Amy entered it.

More red, but there were rings scattered everywhere on a series of biege coloured platforms.

Old badniks were spread across as well. As if, this were a level she had to conquer on her. But what she feared the most was the constant pounding bass of a heartbeat than rang in her ears. She forced herself to ignore as she jumped from platform to platform, collecting rings and smashing badniks with...her old hammer?

Once she got to the other side, a larger area opened up to her. With a series of islands that looked like that they popped out of a large ocean of blood but with palm trees and waterfalls. She recongised this place.

"Green Hill Zone..." She whispered.

She did the appropriate thing as she ran towards it. The first waterfall she came across she could not help stop and stare at it. But then...the water turned black. As did the sky...but Green Hill remained.

She ran across Green Hill as per like everything else was normal. With more rings and enemies it was pretty standard. She listened into the wind against the trees and the harsh noise of the waterfalls. It felt real. It sounded real...it smelled real.

Amy trusted herself enough to know the only she could go was forward. She wasn't ready to die.

Not yet...

With these elements in mind, she was prepared to face a huge boss at the end, if only...

She saw another door appear beside her as she ran, forcing her to skid to a halt. The door was different. It was purple with golden stars. She gulped. She then looked behind her, to see that a horde of hellish looking badniks, primarily black of course with glowing lines and strangely sharpened teeth were crawling behind her and...groaning?

No. She ran towards the next door, opened it, went inside, and slammed it shut behind it.

The room here was very small. Looking up she could see a draped roof. Dark purple with odd runes and sparkles...it was more like she was inside a tent.

Lookin down at the ground, it was then she saw the Time Stones and two Chaos Emeralds. Yellow and Magenta. She knelt down to observe them, being cautious as she did so. The Magenta one had a pulsating light, which prompted her to pick it up first.

Her eyes widened when it started to glow bright and bright, as she was forced to shield her eyes with the back of her hand as it nearly blinded the whole room with a shining light. So when she moved her arm and opened her eyes, she saw a familiar face before her.

"NiGHTS?" She gasped, confused.

NiGHTS floated there and bowed to her.

"Amy Rose, pleasure to see you again. Albeit under dangerous circumstances." They greeted, albeit with a little bit of nerve in their voice.

It took Amy a moment to grasp her surroundings, although she had to accept the new realities she often had to face. NiGHTS advised her to ensure she grabbed all the stones and all the Emeralds. For what purpose? She was about to find out.

"We're in Sonic's psyche." NiGHTS revealed.

"Something must have happened, or else Morpheus wouldn't have suggested my help."

Morpheus the Grey was here? That snivelling creep?

Amy frowned, as she tried to recall what happened before.

"All I remember...is me fighting my sister Aceste and I tried to protect Sonic from one of her bolts...then a sharp pain.

NiGHTS froze, then shook their head.

"Oh...hmmm what ever it was, it triggered a dark force in Sonic. What could have done such a thi- oh...oh no..."

Amy looked away.

"This has to be the Thorn Virus. It must have escaped and infected Sonic again!" Amy revealed.

The Jester was very disturbed by this revelation. They actually looked sick by thinking about it.

"You and I must conquer this beast. But you cannot do it alone. You will need my help. Bring out that Purple Emerald again." Said NiGHTS.

Amy did so and showed the Emerald to them, although she wasn't sure what the idea, but in any cas, she was willing to listen.

"I don't particularly like this idea. But I feel its the only way to do it. To conquer this...you will need the power over dreams to fight. As if we can defeat the true nightmare here, then we should be able to purge the virus out of Sonic."

NiGHTS then grasped her hands as hers grasped the Emeralds.

"Normally, with humans I dualise with them. Allow them to take control of my body to fight. But this process. Its a lot more...personal. I've only ever been able to do normal dualisation with children. But for young Adults? I normally steer clear... a childs mind is entrenched in pure goals. An adults? Not so much."

She imagined NiGHTs as being some kind of defender or force against nightmares. She totally understood the...purity part.

"Morpheus taught me how Mobians are often naturally chaos inclined. Especially Hedgehogs. There's something about their constitution thats so adaptable to sudden change. They're not as weak as humans are. If I was try what I'm about to do to you against one, they won't come out of the ordeal sane...or even their whole body may screw up massively. So Morph tells me."

True, to a point. Naturally able to being physically more powerful than most humans. That was something that was taught when she herself was little.

"But what we're going to do, with your consent of course, is Chaos Dualise...that is, temporarily fuse not only only bodies, but our minds as well. You and I will team up but our bodies...will gain each others abilities. And we'll look spiffy doing it too!"

Fusion? Really?

There were so many ethically wrong worries with that.

"I've...uh...never had transformation for..." She admitted nervously.

The boys...and Blaze have their own forms to take when under the influence of unique power. To have this...she wasn't sure what to do with it.

"I've tested this out on several mobians. You have nothing to worry about. I'm not going to pervade on your...subconscious. All I ask, is the permission to fuse with you, my Lady Rose." NiGHTS asked, as they bowed.

Amy was indeed right to be uncertain. To have each others powers at each others perusal. Logically there was benefit...but..

NiGHTS lent out their hand to Amy, who thought deeply on this. How far would this rabbit hole go?

She took a breath as she slowly, but surely took NiGHTS hand, who then took their other hand with the one with the magenta Emerald and cover both of them over it and Amy's. NiGHTS chanted something akin to the words true to the Emeralds power.

"We are the servers of this Chaos. Chaos is Power, enriched by the heart. We are the controllers to Dualise the Chaos..."

The Emerald then shone brightly as the glow grew, engulfing the pair entirely. An energy so vast that it casted away the shadow that governed them. The realm they were in changed to that of mixed colours of ink, on at atmosphere like a spacial ocean.

Out from the energising light, popping out that which could considered divinely beautiful.

As the light faded, a figure, dressed in violets, whites, pinks and reds appeared. It had the jester like outfit fitted to Amy's body and head, but the vest had transformed into a long red cape with golden accents and a pattern embedded into it, that had shining red roses and yellow rings and the three buttons on each side of the vest that once NiGHTS stars, became golden rings. The sleeves of white with a faint flowery pattern with the red and pink cufflinks that slide through holes on the cape, still showing signs of NiGHTS original vest.

The original violet tights formed to Amy's legs, albeit slightly curvier with a vague flower pattern on the outside thighs and the bottom of the original parts became boots of Pink on top, a yellow across the feet and violet at the toes

Upon their head, had bits of Amy's quills pointing out as well as her ears, but with NiGHTS jester hat, that was purely pink, but did fade into purple at the ends. It had NiGHTS cravat by the red collar with the blue jewels, above the Magenta Chaos Emerald, which had NiGHTs original red diamond shaped jewel underneath it, on top of the white shirt. A whisper escaped the glossy red lips of the being before, a soft voice, combined of Amy's and NiGHTS personalities.

No matter how many times you fall, no matter how far down you go, I will always be there to pick you again...

Their face, as their eyes opened, were emerald green, with cat-like pupils, with dazzling violet mascara curled, gorgeous eyelashes. They summoned a a hammer out of thin air, which adorned a similar colour scheme and had another encrusted red jewels in the shape of a rose, inside a gold ring, to which the flat sides were pure white.

They grabbed the weapon as the cape grew longer with the end of it, looking it was aflame with rose petals that bubbled and fell and sparkled as they moved.

They raised their gloved hand and spread their fingers as dark portal opened on command. They were ready. At least, they hoped they were.

Yeah I threw Ariana Grande in there, whatchu gonna do about it?

Sorry this took so long, its been quite difficult tbh. But yeah =D