Chapter 25: We're all 'fine'
.
-There was a little less screaming this time around.
But the lobby was also a bit emptier. Or something. Amy didn't really pay attention, only making sure that she had all the emeralds before being whisked away to get some stitches, leaving Tails to sit there and worry himself into a heart-attack-
-Wait, wait, wait- "Hey Tails!" Amy shouted over her shoulder, turning her head so that her quills whipped in the air.
A hesitant, "Yeah?" was shouted back at her, and Tails looked up from where he had been sitting and staring at his knees.
"It'll be fine," Amy shouted, willing herself to believe the words. "Don't worry!"
A while later…
"Amy! Your arm! What-"
"Sonic! –And Shadow?"
The nurse quickly shuffled out of the room to give them space, and Amy was left standing in the doorway, with a bandaged arm and looking both quite relieved and mildly surprised. Sonic looked back at her from one of the three beds, and his aura of confidence was as soothing as usual even though it was weakened, probably by all the IV's and bandages and-
"Sonic," she said again, something between a sob and a laugh, and the blue hero only arched an eyebrow as she then ran up to him and practically threw herself at him. She made careful not to sit on him or anything, and tried to just gently hug him, and not squeeze the life out of him like usual. –Though really, she wasn't that extreme!
He awkwardly raised one arm and managed to pat her back, and now Amy was just giggling hysterically. "You're awake! You're alive! Oh chaos – what if you'd have turned into, I dunno, a zombie?"
"Everyone knows ghosts are much more awesome," Sonic said. "But what happened to your arm?"
Sonic was alive! Amy had of course known he was going to survive everything just fine, but you just can't help but worry, and she is and was so sick of always putting trust into others that Sonic will make it and not being able to do anything herself- why wasn't she a nurse yet? Because she wanted to fight alongside Sonic and protect him like that and not just, just - And right now, she felt as if something cold and heavy had finally been lifted from her heart…
"My arm?" Amy repeated, finally calming down. She glanced at the bandaged appendage, still wrapped around Sonic's equally bandaged torso, and said, "Oh, just a… claw? Eh, it was just some robot anyway. The important thing here is you, Sonic, and your injuries!"
He smiled weakly. "I appreciate your concern Amy, but honestly, I'm fine." He paused. "But do you have any emeralds…? We could maybe wake Shadow up if we had one."
Amy shone up. "Actually," she said almost proudly, "I have three!"
"Three?!" Sonic repeated, and Amy nodded cheerfully, basking in the glow of the fact that she had impressed him. Hah, of course Amy could fight and collect emeralds! –it was just so much sweeter when you could impress Sonic while you're at it.
A wonderful bonus, like a pastry with strawberry on top. She beamed at him. "Yup!" She took out her emeralds, and they gleamed and glowed as she held them out for him. Sonic looked first at them, and then at her face, and then he smiled.
"Awesome," he said. "I don't even… wow."
Amy beamed again. She then turned to look at Shadow, who looked mostly fine but a bit pale where he lay under the covers. "So… how do we wake him?" –if Sonic wanted to wake him up, then Amy would help. Rouge would probably be worried too, if she was here…
"Just give him the emerald," Sonic said, hope and exhaustion colouring his eyes shimmering green. "He'll probably wake up."
She did as she was told. Putting one of the emeralds in his limp hand, she then stepped back and waited. At first nothing happened, as you would expect… but then, then his fingers curled around the emerald, and black eyelids fluttered open all at once. "So… nic?" He mumbled, red eyes unfocused and half-lidded.
"Hi?" Amy then tried, stepping slightly closer to his bed with both worry and something else. She felt that Sonic was watching the 'discussion' intently, and then she realised that Shadow had actually said 'Sonic' and not 'Faker'.
"…Amy?" Shadow asked now, blinking once, twice. "Where – how…?"
"We're in a hospital, I got us here," Amy quickly explained. She smiled. "And I can chaos-control now! –Also, we have three emeralds!"
Shadow blinked, just a confused flutter of eyelashes. And then his eyes slid over the room and found Sonic, and his shoulders almost sagged. He seemed to relax immensely, and Amy felt just a slight pang of awkwardness in her gut. "Okay," he then said.
Amy nodded, once, and then she went and sat down on the third bed. The covers were soft as she sank down into them, still looking intently at Sonic, and briefly passing glances to Shadow.
"Thank you, Amy," Sonic then said, briefly smiling at her. And then he turned to Shadow. "I'm so glad you're awake, Shadow."
Shadow gave him a look. And then he glanced at Amy. "Thank you, Rose," he said. Amy marvelled at it. The Ultimate lifeform, saying 'thank you'… After everything? Wait, how many times had they argued already? Three? More than that? …Why was he looking at her Sonic like that?
"You're welcome," Amy replied a bit sceptically. Sonic also looked surprised at the 'thanks', but… proud? He smiled weakly at Shadow, who seemed to mostly ignore it.
And then Sonic turned to Amy again. "…You sure you're alright?"
"Yes!" She exclaimed. She beamed at him, and said, "Don't worry!"
Though of course she wanted him to worry. Worry about her, pay attention to her, and feel anxious if she was hurt… What a blatant lie. She really didn't want him to worry. She wanted him to be free and happy, like the wind… but she still wanted his attention. She wasn't even sure what she wanted sometimes. Just… something.
And Sonic nodded. And then Shadow piped up, hoarsely saying, "So how many broken ribs was it?"
A chuckle. "Only two, actually," Sonic swiftly replied, like the fact didn't bother them at all. And then he blinked, and said, "Wait – was that a joke?"
"Maybe," Shadow replied. Sonic stared. Amy pulled up her covers, trying to feel more like she belonged here. Or well, not here, in the hospital, but in Sonic's company. In Shadow's company. She still… didn't really like him. It wasn't like his insults made her happier, anyway.
"Well," Sonic then said, turning to Amy. "Do you know how Tails is-"
"He's fine," Amy ended the sentence swiftly. "Actually, he was here with me just a little while ago…"
Sonic nodded at that, face softening. "Good. If Tails didn't get hurt, then…" he trailed off. Amy rustled with her covers finally getting them up to her chest. Shadow closed his eyes, and Amy's gaze went back to Sonic. Her Sonic, in bandages, but still so…
"…We should do something fun when all of this is over," Sonic then said, all of a sudden.
"Fun?" Asked Shadow skeptically.
"Like a date?" Amy offered, trying to push away her excitement.
Sonic's expression changed into something best described as 'maybe not'. "Nah, I don't really… I meant more like a party."
"But dates are fun!" Amy insisted. And then Shadow piped up, and said simply,
"Amy?" She turned to look at him.
And if memories were pastries, then Sonic saving her, picking a rose for her, and standing up for her and saying how wonderful it was to have her on his team, were all delicious cakes dusted with sugar and topped with chocolate and berries. And if that was the case, then the next moment was a particularly sour and ugly-shaped piece of cake, which had been in the oven for years too long…
He looked at her, and she saw his lips forming the words that her ears just couldn't believe, "I have a certain affection for Sonic, and, so to say, I'm in love with him."
"…What?" She heard herself say, and then Sonic cried,
"Shads! I – she – I mean-"
"What?" Amy repeated, louder this time and effectively shutting Sonic up.
Emerald eyes darted from ruby to malachite, and Amy just… stared. "What," she repeated, and then she burst into laughing again. Okay, admittedly it may seem like she had lost a few marbles – how many times had she been near hysterical today, now again? But… what?
"Love, Rose," said Shadow. "Isn't that the exact same thing you claim to feel for Sonic?"
She sobered up almost instantly, but her face was still scrunched up. "Tsk! What would you know about love, anyway?"
Shadow blinked slowly, and said almost gleefully, "What your beloved Sonic has taught me, perhaps?"
Amy opened her mouth – to do what, she wasn't sure – but then Shadow cut her off, saying nonchalantly, "But maybe you still have a chance, Rose."
"…Still a chance…? WAIT, WHAT?"
Meanwhile…
"Hold it!"
"Your hands?" Rouge asked, batting her eyelashes.
"What? No!" Knuckles exclaimed. He let out something between a growl and a sigh, and said, "There's an emerald nearby."
Rouge immediately perked up. "And emerald?" She paused. "Here?" She held out her hands, as if showing towards the forest all around them. Greenery surrounded them on all sides, and it was a never-ending sort of resin-scented dusk under the ceiling of leaves. The wind occasionally went through, whispering in the grass and creaks, before then curling up inside a rotting stump.
Knuckles let out yet another frustrated sound, and said, "I just said so, didn't I, bat?"
"Just checking…" She said. And, unable to not say it, then adding, "…you out."
The echidna spluttered again. He looked away, clenching and un-clenching his fists. Rouge watched, floating leisurely in the air with an amused expression at his flustered adorableness…
"Emerald," The echidna then grit out. "To the left."
"Whatever you say," Rouge said nonchalantly, flapping her wings to effortlessly take her to their left, deeper inside of the woods. A series of loud stomping footsteps following her, told her that Knuckles was following her… and keeping quite the distance. Oh well…
"Is this emerald close?" She asked, ducking for a low branch.
Knuckles grunted something incoherent as a reply, and Rouge said, "Pardon?"
"'Yes', I said!" He exclaimed with an angry huff. "It should be right-"
Oh
"…there." He finished, and they both stopped. There was… kind of a problem. Like, well yeah, there were like thirty or so robots there in a glade, and this one huge robot with an emerald... Like, sure, Rouge could come up with a lot of times she had been in worse situations – no, this girl really was not fond of the Time eater – but… but what? They could kick those metallic asses no problem, why were they standing around anyway?
"Let's move," she hissed, and Knuckles nodded. She had a brief, enjoyable thought of 'we'll be fighting side by side again' and then Knuckles charged. And she dove, of course, and planted a metallic heel in the head of one of the robots…
…and then they began shooting. Rouge's victim's artificial skull promptly broke to pieces, and then she quickly leapt away from the gunfire. She nimbly jumped up and kicked another robot in the head, and then she beat her wings and darted around the group. The forest was going to restrict her movement quite a bit, but that was nothing she couldn't handle.
The bullets hailed over the ground again, and she felt a quick stab of anxiety in her chest – what if Knuckles got shot?
-and then the echidna ripped a robot in half using only his hands, and Rouge remembered that she really shouldn't worry. She smirked then, and with a beat of strong black wings she darted away again, digging her heel into the skull of a third robot…
…which dropped like a bag of potatoes.
"Rouge!" Knuckles then shouted, and the bat spun around, an answer already on her tongue… "Get the emerald!"
"A simple 'please' isn't hurting nobody!" She replied, but turned to the large robot anyway. Largest. It was big and bulky, with green arms like tree trunks. But okay, bonus points for the totally useless fox ears on its head, though…
She flew forward, and it began shooting at her. She evaded by going to the right, flapping her wings to get higher up. The robot then shot a few missiles at her, and she quickly dove instead. Seeing her chance she then placed a determined kick right in the middle of its chest, and quickly darted away as the missiles went into the trees.
The robot staggered backwards a few steps… and then
Bang
-Knuckles hit it in its leg, and it staggered forwards so quickly that it lost its footing. Mechanical limbs flailing uselessly, it then fell
Thud
The ground shook as Rouge noted by the other robots sudden bout of dizziness, and when her gaze shifted back to the large-bot, it didn't get up again. For security purposes – and good measure – the bat then flew towards it, landing one last kick in the back of its head. The metal crumpled, and with satisfaction Rouge then flew up again.
Knuckles gave her a look, and then he charged at the rest of the robots again. After a glance at the odds, Rouge then decided to go and get the emerald. She dove towards the fallen robot, and kicked at its head again. A hidden door crumpled in, and she kicked at it again.
Something gleamed.
She smirked, and with on last kick the door then broke, scraps of metal spilling out along with an emerald. The emerald, and it glowed and shone brilliantly in the almost dusk, as she then quickly scooped it up in one elegant hand, eyes seemingly locked on that beautiful little…
"Rouge!"
She blinked, snapping out of her daze and spinning around to face Knuckles.
"We were heading for the hospital, right?" He said, crossing his arms over his chest. She glanced behind him, noting that all the robots had been swiftly destroyed. She looked back at Knuckles, at his stern expression and violet eyes almost glaring into hers.
She smirked, and said, "Well, since you don't believe poor little me… yes."
"Tsk," Knuckles huffed, striding out of the glade the way they came. Rouge beat her wings, and flew after him, emerald clasped tightly in her hand… and then she realised, that Knuckles hadn't asked for her to give him the emerald for safe-keeping. He… hadn't, actually… Wait-? Teal eyes almost widening at this discovery, Rouge then tried to find any explanation for this.
Knuckles didn't simply forget things as important as this matter. But, most of all, he did not trust Rouge. And yet…?
A little while later…
They went through the boringly white corridor, and Rouge looked for the right number on the door. Knuckles followed her, but hadn't said anything for a while. They rounded a corner, and Rouge's ears twitched in irritation as shouting was heard from one of the rooms. Loud shouting. Seriously, they were embarrassing themselves with that loud voices-
-wait. A minute.
Ooh oh. Now this quickly got a heck of a lot more interesting, since Rouge now recognised the voices shouting at each other… And she quickly went up to the door in question, gripping the handle and slamming it open…
…And three hedgehogs in varying degrees of shock, anger and embarrassment totally ignored her, as Rouge was forced to realise that the loud idiots in question were actually her friends.
Knuckles brushed against her shoulder as he then joined her in staring through the doorway, and Rouge almost thought the touch was intentional. They both then trained their eyes on the three bed-ridden, injured, infuriatingly stubborn, borderline insane, teenage hedgehogs, and then Amy shouted,
"YOU? It would have been ME, if YOU hadn't come along and- and fucked up EVERYTHING!"
"Aren't you the one believing in FATE of all stupid-"
"Would you two PLEASE-"
Knuckles and Rouge looked at each other simultaneously, and exchanged an almost exasperated look, as the curses flew at each other in the background…
To be continued…
A/N: This story now have 50 reviews! Yay :D
Also, Eggman went and got the emeralds from the destroyed sphinx and griffon – basically he's recycling emeralds. The most emeralds he has had at the same time in this story, should be three.