Chapter 14: The
"If you thought that, then why did you steal them in the first place?" The guardian countered as he gathered up the Master Emerald pieces.
Rouge turned away with a humph, feeling like she was being very cliché. Her attempt to turn the tables on who had the right to be mad at whom was one of the more pathetic things that she had tried in recent memory, but her pride wouldn't let her just say she was sorry, or admit that she had been wrong in any way.
The echidna didn't say anything for a few moments but she didn't hear him start to walk away either. However, the bat felt stereotype enough without turning around and saying something else, so she just continued to ignore him.
"I'm sorry, if I hurt you." He muttered.
It took every ounce of self-control to keep herself from whisking around to stare at him in shock. He had apologized!? Him, the echidna who had opened a heavy military door with his bare hands, and chased her across the Ark smashing everything in his way, had apologized?
Rouge now heard him start leaving and finally couldn't resist turning to look at him.
His back was turned towards her as he walked away, carrying his Master Emerald pieces in a huge pile in front of him, but she didn't notice those.
He had apologized, after she had stolen from him. He had saved her life, after chasing her everywhere. He may be rough around the edges, but he had proven that deep down he was a gentleman at heart.
And she had a crush on him.
He turned a corner and started to leave her field of vision. Rouge kept him in sight as long as possible without getting up, and then he was gone. Gone from her line of sight, and maybe even gone from her life. That possibility bothered the thief more than anything ever had in her life.
She had been infatuated with handsome men before, but she'd always been able to control herself by remembering that those men may have feelings for her now, but as soon as those feelings left, the man would leave too.
Today she had fought with a young echidna who had the self control to apologize when he didn't want to; to see through his anger and realize that very person he was angry at was in deadly danger, and then was willing and able to overcome his fury in order to save her.
She desired him, desired him with all her heart. But there was a problem - her pride. As much as she wished to get to know him, she had dug a pit when she had accused him, and now she had fallen into it. She wasn't humble enough to apologize. And any guy who wouldn't overlook his morals long enough to forget to apologize to someone who had stolen from and falsely accused him, wasn't likely to overlook his morals in order to marry a thief.
"I can't change who I am." She thought, though even a necklace made of the seven Chaos Emeralds seemed to pale in comparison to Knuckles the echidna.
For the first time in her life Rouge the bat was stuck in a situation that seemed absolutely hopeless.
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Knuckles jogged through the Ark, carrying the Master Emerald, and thoroughly lost.
He hadn't been paying attention while he fought the batgirl, and now he had no idea where he was, where he was going, or where he should be going.
"Maybe I should have stopped and listened to what Tails had to say before I ran off." He thought.
"Sonic! Just where are you going?" The Ark's ancient speaker system tried to bellow in Eggman's voice, but just couldn't quite manage to pull it off.
"Wha?" Knuckles said, as he stopped running, and looked around, trying to figure out what was going on.
"Well you're going the wrong way, again." The speakers' pathetic attempt at Eggman's voice continued.
"I don't think he's talking to me." Knuckles commented aloud.
"Come now, Sonic. This entire space station is designed after a number and letter system, for the different rooms, and a color system for the different floors. It couldn't be simpler." Eggman said.
"More like 'couldn't be more complicated'. Colors, doors, what did he say?" Knuckles thought.
Eggman started speaking again but Knuckles didn't catch what he said because he was still trying to figure out the last thing the doctor had explained.
The lights went out, leaving Knuckles standing in a hall way with the Master Emerald as his only illumination.
"Just follow the lights to room 13 C blue." Eggman continued.
"Room thirteen – stop, when you see the blue. Room thirteen – stop, when you see the blue." Knuckles repeated to himself. "Did he say thirteen or thirty?"
The guardian racked his brain but he couldn't quite remember. "Okay, I've got to find either room thirteen or thirty and stop when I see the blue something. The blue what? Blue door, wall, ornament?"
Knuckles checked the nearest door to see if it gave him any inspiration. The door had a green square in the upper center part of it, and the green square had the numbers 77, followed by the letter D.
Knuckles scratched his head. It made no sense to him. "What's with the D?"
Then he noticed something else. The Master Emerald was giving off green light, which made everything else look green. So he really had no idea what color the square on the door was. And he had no way of figuring it out either.
"I hate giant space stations." He said aloud.
The echidna looked around for inspiration and found it in the dust. Someone had been through here recently. He couldn't tell who, or how many, but the pattern in the dust clearly indicated that at least one person had gone down the corridor he currently found himself in, not too long ago.
"Maybe these will lead me somewhere important." He thought to himself.
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To say that Tails was shocked, would be putting it mildly. Tails was in denial, his brain overloaded by a reality that was incredibly wrong.
This couldn't be happening. As in 'Could! Not! Happen!'
The fact that the Ark wasn't in the proper orbit for any escape pods to jettison safely was one of the many little facts that he had noticed, but not paid too much attention too. But now that particular fact was of far more importance than E equals m times c squared, or any other fact in the universe.
The escape pod got too far away to see and at some point Tails knew that it was over. Sonic the hedgehog, his best friend, his big buddy, practically his brother, was dead.
He wouldn't have Sonic to follow around anymore. Sonic wouldn't be there to listen to Tails prattle on about his knew invention even if the cheerful hedgehog didn't understand a word of it. Sonic wouldn't be there to stop Eggman.
Tails suddenly realized that the scientist had said something but he hadn't been paying attention. "What?" He asked, looking up, the tears threatening to spill.
"You can go." Eggman said, apparently too busy checking his to-do list on the Eggmobile to even look the fox in the face.
Tails felt indignant, hot rage flooding his veins. Did Sonic's murderer think that he was just going to give up? Well, he had another thing coming.
"Did you think we were just going to run away after you killed Sonic?" Tails asked, his face and voice hardening. Eggman was going to pay. If it was the last thing he did, Eggman. Was. Going. To. Pay.
"Tails," Eggman said, and this time he looked the kitsune straight in the eye.
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Dr. Eggman was speechless. Something had gone horribly wrong. He knew that the Ark's computer system was so old it was bound to have glitches. But a glitch in the escape pods override was one of the worst possible places for one and now there was no way Sonic would survive.
That was it. Sonic the hedgehog, the Blue Blur, the Fastest Thing Alive, the Blue Dude with 'tude, was as good as dead.
The scientist couldn't believe it. For those first few horrible moments he simply could not believe it. Sonic was, well, Sonic! He couldn't be killed, particularly not by something as insignificant as a fifty-year-old computer glitch.
Eggman looked out the window along with the fox and the hedgehog girl as Sonic's escape pod hurled towards earth and its doom. But soon the small pod was out of sight, and then he knew that it was over. Sonic the hedgehog would run no more.
It seemed peculiar to the doctor that he felt this way. After all, he had been trying to kill his rodent enemy for so long himself. But now he realized the only reason he had attemtempted to end the hedgehog's life was because Sonic had proven so unstoppable. Only now did he realize how much he had come to relish seeing his arch foe 'pull off another one' in the face of impossible odds, even if it did make him mad at the same time to witness Sonic smash yet another project he had worked so hard to complete
But now it was over. His arch foe, - his only real…friend? - was dead.
On either side of his crab robot Tails and Amy were still staring at the place Sonic's escape pod had disappeared. They had been even closer to Sonic than he. Eggman felt sincerely sorry for them, and he wondered if there was anything he could say; probably not, but he thought he should anyway.
"Tails, Amy, you can go." He said, barely keeping his voice under control.
The girl just continued to stare, tears running down her cheeks, but the fox looked up. "What?"
"You can go." Eggman repeated, not quite able to look Tails in the eye.
"Did you think we were just going to run away after you killed Sonic?" Tails asked, his face and voice hardening.
Eggman realized that the cub was made of sterner stuff that he had originally surmised. Losing his best friend hadn't shaken his focus, at least not too much. He was ready to step up and stop Dr. Eggman, simply because there wasn't anyone else to do it.
"Tails," Eggman said, trying to find the right words. "Sonic would be proud."
Eggman brought his crab bot online, and attacked.
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Shadow stared at his gloved finger. The finger that had pushed the button, the finger that had killed Sonic the hedgehog.
"Murderer." Came the unbidden thought.
"I don't care." Shadow thought, as he remained motionless to the point that he didn't even blink. "I'll have killed more than just him by the time I'm done."
"There are other girls like Maria." His conscience persisted.
"No one can replace Maria." He whispered viciously.
"You would kill all of them then, in order to make yourself feel good?"
Shadow was growing increasingly annoyed at this whispering voice. It had an answer for everything he said.
"I don't care about anyone else." He barely got the retort out through his clenched teeth.
"Except yourself." His conscience hissed.
Shadow chose not to answer and turned back to the monitor.
Eggman was talking again. Shadow muted him and turned back to the console with six of the Chaos Emeralds in it.
The console was awash in the rainbow like glow that was given off by the different Chaos Emeralds. Six out of seven of the world's most powerful gems. When he brought the seventh that would be it for the world.
It struck him as ironic for a moment, that such a small number of such tiny stones could be the key to destroying the planet. But he shook the thought off.
"Time to find the last one." He resolved as he picked up three of the Chaos Emeralds; they would help him find the last one and enable him obliterate anyone that stood in his way at the same time.
"You're no better than Schmitt."
Shadow continued to ignore his conscience, and moved on.
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Tails was reacting. Eggman's latest contraption attacked and he moved, dodged, or counterattacked, but they were all subconscious reactions.
Consciously, his mind was in another place, or more specifically, another time.
'Sonic would be proud.' Eggman had said. 'Sonic would be proud.'
The human had obviously misinterpreted his resolve and thought that he was continuing to fight for the right reasons.
One of the crab bot's claws timed its attack slightly slower than it had been, forcing Tails to stop and trajectorize for a moment.
But he wasn't fighting for the right reasons. If Sonic was alive right now he wouldn't be proud, because Tails was only thinking of himself. He wasn't trying to protect anyone, or even avenge Sonic; he was taking his pain out on Eggman. The scientist may have been responsible for Sonic's death but that didn't matter if Tails was fighting for the wrong reason. He fought because of his pain and not because someone needed to stop the doctor. And he knew the reasons he fought for, since he was too smart to be able to fool himself.
'Sonic would be proud.'
No, Sonic wouldn't be proud. If he were alive and understood what his little buddy wanted, he would be ashamed.
"I failed." Tails thought.
At that moment, Eggman knocked the fox across the room with the flat end of one of his robot's claws.
Tails gave up. It was easy to give up. He used to do it all the time before he met Sonic, and now that Sonic was dead it seemed logical to go back to being a nobody like he used to be.
"That's the problem with logic. It can occasionally lead you to ridiculous conclusions like this one." Came the unbidden voice of Sonic, in his head.
Eggman tried to run Tails over. The Mobian barely rolled out of the way in time.
"I can't keep fighting for the wrong reason." Tails thought.
The two-tailed fox was vaguely aware of the fact that thinking this way could mean he was on the border of going insane. But he didn't really care.
"Right, so how can you fix this dilemma without giving up?" The imaginary voice asked.
Tails tried think of an answer, he really did, but he was just too emotionally exhausted.
"I don't know." He answered silently.
"The problem is that you're fighting for the wrong reason." The voice continued. "So, all you gotta do is fight for the right one."
"I can't." Tails thought desolately, barely dodging another blow from Eggman as he did so. "I just can't." He whispered aloud.
"You may think you can't," The voice continued as, once again, one of Eggman's attacks hit home, knocking the bruised fox to the ground.
But when he looked up, he thought he saw Sonic reaching to help him up. "but I think you can."
Tails raised himself and although the imaginary Sonic hadn't been able to support him physically, he had helped the young hero up in other ways.
Tails turned to face Eggman and whispered again, "For the right reason."
And with that he attacked.
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It was her fault, all her fault. Amy couldn't look away from the spot where Sonic's escape pod had disappeared.
She wasn't exactly sure what had happened. All she was sure of was that Sonic was either dead, or dying, and it was her fault.
She should have stayed behind. She had already figured out that she was of no help. She should have done something; instead she had just let herself get captured.
She should have run away when Eggman had showed up. But no, she just stood there and let him capture her. She was such an idiot. She didn't even have the sense to run away.
"It's my fault." The thought came back to torment her, again and again.
A slamming sound right next to her made her jump.
She turned and saw Tails pick himself up, and charge at Eggman.
They were fighting! Sonic was dead, and they continued to fight each other, like nothing had changed. But everything had changed. Sonic was gone. The world would never be the same.
Suddenly she realized that although she was completely convinced that it was her fault, it was also the doctor's fault.
All her anger, all her guilt, and all her pain were quickly channeled into one goal; Eggman would pay.
Raising her hammer high, she charged.
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Eggman wasn't quite sure what happened. All he knew was that without any apparent help from Tails, his new crab bot - which he hadn't had the time to give an eggish name yet - had gone from having sustained very minor damage to having sustained very extensive damage.
For a moment the human thought that Sonic might actually be back, but only for a moment. The fact that so much destruction had been heaved on his newest robot, in a single blow, implied that Knuckles had finally joined the party.
"History just loves repeating itself." He thought as he ejected his Eggmobile from his latest, but most definitely not greatest, mechanical combat unit.
The scientist was surprised when he saw that it wasn't Knuckles but in fact Amy who had smashed the crab bot.
"Where on earth did that hammer come from?" He wondered as he flew towards the nearest exit.
Having fought Sonic for so long had made him an excellent trajectorizer and he quickly realized that he wasn't going to be able to make it out of the room before the pink hedgehog's hammer made it to him.
Eggman's battles with Sonic may have made him one of the fastest thinkers on the planet, but in this particular case he couldn't think of anything that would stop a second blow from Amy.
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Tails saw Amy smash Eggman's latest mechanical monstrosity. He was quite surprised by her strength but being surprised didn't stop him from thinking.
The Eggmobile ejected and made for the exit with the girl in pursuit.
If she had been able to do so much damage in a single blow, then she could easily kill Eggman if she caught up with him. And he didn't think she could have smashed the crab bot so effectively, so quickly, unless she was angry - which implied that she was fighting for the wrong reason.
He didn't judge her for this. It had taken a hard internal battle for him to go from fighting for the wrong reason to fighting for the right one. But now he had a problem. What should he do?
"What would Sonic do?" Tails wondered.
The answer came quickly. When Shadow had tried to kill Chaos, Sonic had saved him.
Tails put the scenario into the context of a math problem. The answer was he had to keep Amy from killing Eggman. What was the problem's mathematical formula?
He calculated Eggman's current location, with his probable short-term destination, and likely route. Then he factored in Amy's location, destination, and route. And finally, the different ways he could impact this scenario.
He chose the option that had the highest chance of success and the lowest chance of personal injury on anyone's part.
He spin-attacked the Eggmobile. He bounced off, with little damage to show for his trouble, but damage to the hover craft hadn't been his goal. The fox had managed to knock the Eggmobile slightly off course but not so much so that Eggman wouldn't make it to his destination, while at the same time just enough to make Amy's blow barely miss.
Missing once didn't deter the hedgehog, though. She continued to pursue Eggman and once again she started to gain on him.
But Tails had known that this would be the likely outcome of his scenario, and had started working on a follow-up plan even as he hurled himself towards the Eggmobile. He had it finished just before he made contact and was sure to bounce off the Eggmobile in the optimum direction to properly concoct this second scheme.
The young fox landed in front of the nearest computer console, waited a moment so as not to set events into motion too early and then closed the door.
Eggman made it through, while Amy's hammer put a hole in the door instead of the Eggmobile.
"You're gonna paaaaaayyyyy!" She hollered, then proceeded to tear the door apart.
With Eggman temporarily safe, Tails could now talk to her.
"Amy, this isn't the way." He said, as he approached her carefully.
She swung her hammer in his general direction, but he was ready for this, and avoided it.
With a final blow she put a hole in the door big enough for Eggman to walk through, then got ready to run through it, and chase Eggman down.
"Amy! Would Sonic have wanted you to act like this?" Tails desperately called out.
She stopped in mid-step, then stood there trembling. He approached her carefully, put a hand on her shoulder, and whispered. "I know it's hard, but we have to continue as if he was still alive and counting on us, because wherever he is now, he's doing just that."
"Not me." She whispered, as she stood there shaking, with rage, or sorrow; he wasn't sure which.
Her comment didn't make much sense to him, but if someone had tried to talk to him while he had been battling his feelings he probably would have said something that didn't make much sense by itself, too.
"Not me… Not me… Not me, not me, not me. What could she be talking about?" He wondered. "Counting on us! The last thing I said was that Sonic's counting on us, and she thinks he's not counting on her."
Sonic's plan to ditch Amy earlier that morning flashed through his mind.
"Oh boy." He thought as he realized that he was going to have a hard time convincing her otherwise without lying. But Amy was still shaking, she needed someone to comfort her and he was the only one available.
What would Sonic do? For the first time that question didn't help at all.
"Amy," He started. "I… I know that Sonic didn't feel comfortable around you all the time, but…" He stopped.
But, what? What was he supposed to say?
"Ahh, but, ah" He continued. "he really did care about you."
"I-i-t doe-sn-n't mat-t-ter." Amy barely managed to get out through her chattering teeth. She stopped to try to force herself to shake less before she continued. "It-t's my fault-t."
"How is it your fault?" Tails asked, then felt like kicking himself. "I should have said it's not her fault."
"He got-t c-capt-tured, bec-cause of m-me. I'm alw-ways c-causing prob-blems." She said, on the verge of sobbing.
"No, you aren't." Tails said. "We've never thought you caused problems."
Amy looked at the young fox, hope, fear, pain, and confusion in her eyes. "B-but you left me behind." She said.
"Sonic didn't want you to get hurt." Tails continued, "But since then he discovered that he could count on you."
"W-what makes you think that-t?" Amy asked, looking at Tails hopefully, yet fearfully. If he didn't convince her that he really believed this, she would be crushed. But he knew, he didn't just think, he knew that what he was about to say was true.
"When you helped those who had been injured by Chaos' attack. Sonic was very impressed. So much so that I think he actually secretly wanted you to come here with us." Tails said, giving her his best encouraging smile.
"Really?" She asked.
"Really." He answered.
She looked at him. Tails knew that she was searching his face; making sure that he hadn't lied simply to make her feel better. But he hadn't. He had spoken the truth.
She lost the last shred of her composure, and hugged Tails, sobbing. "I miss him!"
He hugged her back.
And now that the fresh hero had a moment to spare, the pain was back. Sonic the hedgehog was gone, forever.
"I miss him too." He whsipered. Then he pulled away from Amy, and said, "But we'll have to grieve later. Sonic's counting on us to stop Eggman, the right way."
She sobbed another moment, then managed to hold it back to a sniffle. "You're right." She agreed. "What should we do next?"
The pain was great, and for a moment he almost lost his composure, but he needed to be strong for Amy, and of course there was still Eggman to stop.
"Let's make Sonic proud." Tails thought, as he pulled out his Chaos Emerald tracker, and said. "We need to find Knuckles, and get the Chaos Em…" He stopped in mid-sentence.
Did the tracker show the readings that he thought it did?
"No way. It couldn't be." He thought.
"Tails, what is it-t?" Amy asked.
He couldn't speak for a moment. The implication of what he was seeing…
"These signals." He finally said.
She looked at him confused. "What about them?"
"These over here are three of the Chaos Emeralds." He explained, in disbelieving excitement. "And over here we have three more Chaos Emeralds, the fake Emerald, the Master Emerald, and the seventh Chaos Emerald all in close proximity to each other."
Amy looked at him confused, and said. "I don't-t understand."
"Don't you get it?" He asked, unable to contain himself. "Sonic had the seventh Chaos Emerald with him, when the escape pod launched!"
"But you just said…" She stammered, not daring to finish the sentence.
"Right. Which could only mean one thing." He said, not sure he believed it himself. "Sonic the hedgehog is alive."
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To Be Continued...