Chapter 21: Fear, Relief, Gratitude

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"Sonic, huh?"

"Yeah… Cool name, right?"

Honey shrugged, keeping her eyes focused on the road. The rain was slowing down gradually, and light was breaking out through the clouds. Lush green fields broken only by small forests and groups of trees, and an occasional house here and there, was what made up the landscape they were driving across.

It was all so wet and blurry. Sonic's vision seemed to be hazy at the edges even, but he supposed he was just imaging things. Not that that was a good sign either, but at least he wasn't pouring blood from his back anymore…

They travelled into a small town. There were houses lined up along the road, all in different colours and with different kinds of fences. There were a lot of trees, and Sonic saw a pizzeria and a lot of puddles everywhere. They had only passed seven cars and a kid on a bike, before Honey then drove up to a gas station which lights blinked blearily through the drizzle.

She parked the car, and stepped out of it and onto the wet asphalt. She looked questioningly at Sonic, who nodded weakly and got out of the car too, slowly. A gas station… The gears in his head turned. Wait…

Sonic spun around, looking for some sort of street sign. If he knew where he was, then he could easily call Tails or Shadow to pick him up… or rescue him or whatever. Chaos, he could really use a hospital right now… It felt like his thought-process wasn't even working properly…

St Acorn's street

Got it.

Sonic memorised the street name, and the name of the city. He might have been here before… but if so he couldn't really remember. But in any case, that wasn't really important anyway…

"Honey?" He asked, turning back to the cat who was just about to go inside and pay for the gasoline. She stopped, and raised an eyebrow.

"Yes?"

Sonic tiredly blinked away some rain from his lashes, and said, "Could I please borrow your phone for a moment?"

Meanwhile…

Shadow sighed, and raised the phone to his ear. "Yes?"

"Shadow!" Relief and surprise shot through the Ultimate lifeform's entire being like lighting. His eyes widened, and his thoughts came to a screeching halt on a field of joy. It was Sonic. How? How could he have-

"You…" Shadow almost choked on his breath, and he had to pause for a few seconds. How?

"Yeah, me." Sonic chuckled on the other end, but that quickly morphed into coughing, which turned into gasping desperately for breath. Shadow clutched the phone in his hands so hard that it looked like it would break, fear trying to make its ugly way into his head. Maria… had sometimes had coughing fits. Violent, horrifying things which would quickly turn into coughing up blood while her face went paler and paler…

Shadow shook his head. No, he had his… mostly everything, sorted out, and he refused to give in to something as silly as memories once again. So instead he – not that it would help with anything except checking if he was still there - urged,

"Sonic? Sonic!"

"I'm… alright," came the breathless response. The line crackled. Shadow let go off his breath, and said quickly,

"Where are you? I'll Chaos control there to get you."

Sonic let out another chuckle – which didn't go into coughing this time – and then he told him the street and town name. He then chuckled again, and said, "Here's a lot of green. Looots of green, if you're not sure where, and stuff…" Shadow's worrying only increased, and Sonic paused. "I'm at a… gas station. Yeah."

"Yeah." Shadow said absently. The questions of 'How! When!' still echoed in his mind, but quite frankly those could wait for later. Sonic sounded… dizzy? Drunk? Well, whatever it was, it wasn't good, and Shadow was almost sure that he had gotten hurt in some way or another…

Not that Sonic hadn't before. And he had survived through that.

Not that he had been all alone before, though…

"I'll come and get you," Shadow said again.

"Yeah…" Sonic hummed, but it was a tired sound. "Bye, I love you, see you soon."

"…Bye." Shadow ended the call, and the subtle sounds of a gas station from Sonic's end died away.

How long had it been? How long had it been since the desert? …Shadow couldn't remember. But maybe the wait didn't really matter – the goal was still there. And he had to go now, 'cause who knew how much Sonic might be suffering right now?

Shadow then stood up from the couch, and quickly went to the kitchen, where he had left the emerald on the table. Amy looked up with a frown when he got inside, and she continued to stare at him as he got to the table and picked up the gem. She looked angry and determined, though her eyes were tinted red from crying. Most of all, however, she looked confused.

…And if it had been other circumstances, then maybe Shadow would have felt some sick kind of amusement for bringing her down like this.

The emerald glowed comfortingly as he held it up, and he focused on the location that Sonic had described for him. Soon, he thought.

…And suddenly Amy declared, "Wait! Are you… If you're going to get Sonic, then I'll go with you!"

Shadow frowned, and looked over at her. She was just… such a young, pathetic little girl – who still had, with relentless determination, chased after and annoyed Sonic for Chaos knows how long. He had to give her some credit for that. And…

Maria's promise. ARK, and… yeah.

Shadow sighed, and muttered, "Take my arm."

Amy obeyed rather quickly, and both of them looked equally disgusted that they had to touch the other. Impatient to finally get all of this done and over, Shadow then said the magic words, and as green light danced over the kitchen appliances, both he and Amy disappeared…

Meanwhile…

It was such a wonderful day! The sun was shining, everyone was happy… though actually, that wasn't really true. Doctor Eggman had broadcasted some evil scheme of his, and many were very unsettled. Cream and Cheese didn't like it at all, and it felt as if something evil loomed over the city, even though nothing had happened yet, and the sun was still shining…

Mom was in a store further down the street looking for fresh lettuce, and she told Cream and Cheese to wait at a bench if they didn't want to go with her. It was a wooden bench which stood on the sidewalk next to some flowerpots, and you could sit there and watch the street and the park further behind it.

Cream and Cheese had told her that they rather sit and wait here, and so Vanilla had went away…

A breeze swept through the street briefly, and it felt refreshing. Cream and Cheese then played some of their 'extreme' rock-paper-scissors. It was a bit like role-playing, and the only rule was basically that you had to counter whatever move, person, or object that the other person brought up. So if Cream said 'balloon', then Cheese could counter with 'scissors', 'needle' or… well, anything that could either destroy or seal away a balloon…

…They played for what felt like a lot of a lot of minutes. Cream almost started to get worried, but Cheese tried to reassure her. The weather felt ominous too, and everyone was on an edge…

…More time passed. Cream and Cheese got bored of their game, since they couldn't really find a way to continue it (they were already countering with things like 'alien invasion on your space-ship which destroys everything in a radius of a hundred miles')…

…Cream was worried. For real. She got up from the bench, and with Cheese flying after her she then began to walk down along the street. The shop Vanilla went to was right behind the street corner, she had said, but…

Cream didn't meet anyone. Cream didn't hear anyone talking, but she heard other noises.

She began to run.

Cheese darted after her, and together they then rounded the corner. She came to a halt. It was all too silent.

Robots were swarming around on the street, and there were no mobians nor humans to be seen. She hoped that they had all hid in the stores already, and she quickly did so herself. When no robot was looking, she quickly bolted inside one of the stores, which had its door broken and hanging from its hinges sadly.

Inside the store it was completely dark, and she felt fear starting to creep up inside of her. She gazed panicky around the store, and then she hastily settled for hiding behind a rack of long dresses. She crouched down there, in the dark behind all the fabric, and curled up. Cheese crawled up into her lap, and she hugged him to her chest.

What should she do? What was even happening?

It was barely that she dared to breathe as a robot came stomping inside the store, but it went outside just as fast as it had come without doing anything. She thought she could hear her pulse echoing in the darkness, and every little rustle the dresses made, felt like the sound of an avalanche. She prayed that her mother was okay somewhere, and hugged Cheese closer.

What should she do? What could she do…?

Meanwhile…

"-control!"

The light began to fade, and moist, chill air hit the both of them. Amy released his arm like she had been burnt, and they both blinked a few times. It was raining softly. There was wet asphalt and a lot of trees and hedges, and the beginning to a fog was clinging to the contours.

"Sonic!" Amy cried out, and Shadow spun around.

There was a gas station. A red car, a few bushes and a yellow cat.

And there was Sonic.

Both Amy and Shadow practically leapt over to him. Amy flung her arms around him, and it looked like she would begin to cry again, while Shadow just stopped and stood there. Their eyes met. Sonic's eyes were partly closed, and he had… a smudge of blood? – beside his left eye. The emeralds still shimmered, but…

He needs a hospital, Shadow thought, as his eyes then trailed down to his bloody clothes, his injured leg, his sneakers which were red and dirty and trashed, and then back up to his face. He smiled weakly, but winced as Amy then nudged him in the ribs accidentally.

Amy immediately stepped back, releasing him. "Oh no! I'm so sorry – are you…" Her words died away. She glanced down at him, his gloves and legs and other injured, bloody parts, and Sonic got a sheepish look. Amy just stared.

"You… What?" She looked up again, her features… angry? "You're injured! YOU'RE INJURED!" She wailed. "I'LL… I'LL…" She let out a sob, and wiped at her eyes quickly.

Sonic looked like he didn't even know what he was doing anymore, but he still stumbled a step forward, as if to hug Amy.

And, as if it was some kind of reflexive reaction, Shadow then put a hand on Sonic's shoulder, effectively stopping him, before he then rushed up to Amy. Shadow had perhaps an even worse idea of what he was doing than Sonic, but he still put his hands on Amy's shoulders, shaking her a bit and forcing her to look at him in the eyes.

"Sonic is here," He said firmly. "He's here, and we need to get him to a hospital." –Shadow almost expected Sonic to protest at this part. He didn't. Shadow glared at Amy. "So, pull yourself together," he concluded, and let go off her.

She blinked, shook her head, pulled up a disgusted expression, and at last nodded. Sonic looked grateful, and nodded he too…

"So you know those two?"

Amy and Shadow both spun around. It was the cat with black ponytails who had spoken. She was leaning against her car, arms crossed and one eyebrow raised. Sonic nodded again, putting on a small smile.

"Yeah. They're my… friends."

(Shadow thought he could almost sense that the fact that Sonic hadn't said anything like 'yeah, that's my friend and my beau' was because… Amy would misinterpret it.)

Honey just nodded. "Well… I guess I can leave you then… Bye."

"Bye, and thank you so much!" Sonic waved at her, and she nodded, and got inside her car. Amy waved to, and Shadow, surprisingly, waved he too. So she had helped Sonic? – This had to be one of the first times he was grateful to someone who he didn't even know.

She started up the car, and they all waved. She drove off, with water spraying after her tires. It was still raining a little, but just enough so that your fur felt moist. Shadow turned to Sonic again, and saw that Amy had come to stand beside him. She wasn't hugging him, or even holding his hand – probably because she didn't want to cause him any accidental pain.

-Shadow was once again reminded of how urgent it was that they got to the hospital with Sonic.

He quickly took the few steps up to Sonic and Amy, and held out his arm while taking out his emerald with the other. Both of them understood straightaway, and Sonic took his hand while Amy reluctantly put a hand over his elbow.

Shadow held up the emerald, and glanced at Sonic again. He was here. Together.

…And if Shadow's lips then curved up to some silly, weird-looking little smile as he said the two magic words, then he honestly couldn't care less.

To be continued…

A/N: Thank you for all the reviews! You're all so nice! :)