The only sounds were the drumming of the rain on the roof of the building and the scrape of a sharpening stone against a sword.

And, from time to time, wracked sobbing.

Sonic didn't seem like he noticed the last. He had eyes only for the blade and stone in his hands. The rest of the world might not have existed.

Amy hated him for that.

Scrape, scrape, scrape. It was inordinately grating when it was just the two of them in this borrowed building. Amy couldn't fit it into her head how he could do something like that at a time like this.

"How can you stand it?" she blubbered.

Sonic's hands stilled. He looked over to her. "Huh?"

"They're dead! Knuckles, and Rouge, and... and Shadow... they're all dead!"

Sonic nodded. "Yep."

Amy felt she ought to de-spine Sonic for that response. "Doesn't that bother you?"

"Should it?"

"Yes! It should make you want to explode! It should make you want to slam your head into a wall! It should make you want to tear your heart out of your chest! It should..." Amy waved her arms, as if to say words alone did no justice to her level of upset. She'd lost her breath in the midst of her shouting.

Sonic asked her, "Is that how you feel? So full of pain you can't do anything about it?"

"Yes!" she keened. "It... it hurts like nothing I've ever felt before. And it won't stop. Nothing makes it better!"

"Is that why you tried to get the bandits to kill you?"

"I... huh?"

"You rushed out into the bandits all on your own."

At that, Amy had to steady herself. She sniffed noisily and dabbed at her eyes. "You mean... after Shadow... disappeared?"

"After... yes," Sonic said charitably.

Amy sniffed again. "I don't know quite what I was thinking," she said. "I was so... angry and sad... It was like a hole had been punched in me. I couldn't imagine anything hurting so much. God, it hurt!"

Sonic said nothing.

"What he did was so pointless," she added, with a bit of a sob. "I was coming to save him! But he still... he still died. It's not what I wanted. Not what I wanted at all! It wasn't right! We were... he and I..." She hesitated. "We were... close," she said tentatively.

Sonic merely nodded. Best to let her entertain her fictions for now.

"I wanted to... to live my life with him," she said. "I had all sorts of plans. And then... then... he was gone! And my whole future went with him. Everything I wanted, everything I had laid out for us to do... vanished in a moment. Like it was a dream. But no dream ever hurt like that. Nothing could ever hurt like that."

She sobbed again, but with a bit more control. "I wanted that life like I'd never wanted anything before. Nothing else mattered like that mattered. And when it... when the bandits took it... I wanted to hurt them. I wanted to... to maim and murder. I wanted them to feel what they'd done to me."

It was much as Sonic expected. He made no distraction.

"But it didn't help," she said, burying her face in her hands. "I... I killed them... but I nearly got you killed, too... And... I would have died... but I wasn't thinking like that. At least then the pain would go away..."

Sonic huffed. "I thought you sounded suicidal. It hurts that bad, huh?"

"Yes!" she screamed. "Shadow's dead! He meant everything to me! And... and it doesn't even bother you!"

"Should it?" asked Sonic. "Should I be weeping and wailing like you are? I don't see it."

"Of course not, because you don't give a damn! But I cared, and this is how I feel, and... and I'll cry if I want to!"

"It wouldn't do any good," Sonic said. "It's not helping you any."

"It's not about... I can't believe you! You're..." She shook her head. Her anger at Sonic seemed to burn away her tears. "You know, I was wrong before. I called Shadow cruel. But he wasn't. You're the cruel one."

"Shadow was cruel."

"Okay, fine, he was. But that's not all he was. He had so much more to him. So he may not have cared that his enemies died. He's still a better person than you, though, because you don't care when your friends die."

Sonic laughed at that. He picked up his sharpening stone again and began to run it against his sword. "You really think that about me?"

"Yes! And you're proving it right now!"

Scrape, scrape, scrape.

"If that's what you see," he said, after a moment.

"What?"

"I try to let my actions speak for me," he said. "What you see is what you get. Then again... I don't think you're seeing what's really happening here."

"I hate it when you talk down to me," she hissed.

"Sorry. I didn't mean it like that. It's not obvious, but this is how I show I care."

"How is sharpening a sword caring for a person?" she said acidly.

Scrape, scrape, scrape. "Amy, the other four warriors died to save the village. Oh, they had personal reasons for being here, too. Knuckles had his reasons, Rouge had hers, and the rest. I hope they got what they were looking for. I know Vector did. I think Shadow might have."

"Shadow didn't!" Amy said, and her voice approached a wail. "He was supposed to live!"

"That's what you wanted for him," Sonic said gently. "He wanted something different."

"What would you know?" she said viciously. "He and I were closer than you can imagine. You didn't know how he really he was. Only I did."

Sonic sighed. "I'm not going to argue about it, it's not the point. The point is that each of them died while fighting to save the village. So if we're going to make their deaths really mean something, we need to finish what they started. We need to see this through. We need to win."

"Death is meaningless," Amy lamented. "Don't try and make it okay. It's not okay! All their futures, all they would have done, all of it's gone."

"Yeah."

"And you're fine with that?!"

Sonic gave another couple of scrapes. "Ray was the first," he said.

"What?"

"Ray was the first person to die fighting by my side. He was a good friend. But we were fighting Eggman, and we got separated inside one of Eggman's operations. Ray ended up aboard a transport ship that was fleeing the area. He was in the cargo hold. It wasn't pressurized or heated. So when the ship got to high altitude..." he trailed off, letting Amy's head fill in the dreadful image on its own.

Amy shivered. "But... how do you know he died? How do you know he didn't escape?"

"Because Eggman found the corpse and used it to try and break me."

Sonic didn't elaborate. Amy didn't ask.

"It made me wonder," Sonic said. "What was I fighting for? I couldn't save everyone. I couldn't even save a close friend. Did Ray think about me, while he was up there freezing and gasping? It's a slow and lonely way to die. There's time enough for regret. Was he waiting for me to bail him out? I'd promised him I'd watch his back, and I didn't make good. Did he hate me for that? Did he spend his dieing moments cursing my name for abandoning him? That thought stuck with me for a while.

"Would he have rather I died in his place?

"Eventually I decided no. Ray wasn't that sort of person. He wasn't jealous like that. He wouldn't have wanted me to die just because he died. He would have been glad that one of us had lived."

"A lot of people have died following you, huh?"

"A few."

"So you get used to it?" Amy asked. "You get used to people around you dieing?"

"Sorta yes. And kinda no."

"You still messed up, didn't you? Maybe you're not supposed to get used to people dieing. If you get used to it, you stop trying to keep them alive."

Sonic snorted. "Is that what you see in me?"

Amy gritted her teeth. "No," she had to admit.

"Do I wish Ray was still alive? Of course I do. And Mighty and Knuckles and the rest of them. But I won't lose my present because I'm stuck in the past. If I got bogged down in all the things I've done wrong, I'd never be able to do right."

"That's just it," Amy sniffed. "You're still making mistakes. If you had stopped, Shadow would be alive now."

"And Kenji and Koji and the rest would be dead," he countered. "Who am I to compare the two?"

Amy struggled with this. "It's... so hard. It's not like you knew... What makes you think you know what's right?"

"Huh?"

"You know you've made mistakes, and that those mistakes have gotten people killed. How can you possibly move forward? What makes you think you'll be right next time? How do you know you won't be wrong again?"

Sonic grinned wryly. "Amy, it doesn't matter who's wrong and who's right. As long as the voice inside me says "go", I'll always keep on running. I'll go by my own sense of justice and the sound of the wind in my ears."

Amy shook her head incredulously. "Do you know how easy it would be to call you the bad guy? Or just totally irresponsible?"

"Yep," he replied. "So the question's the same as the day after we arrived here. Do you trust me to do my best? Do you trust me to try my hardest? Do you trust me to be the good guy? Place all your bets on the one you think is right."

He smiled at her, then. He smiled his guileless, comfortable smile. It made Amy want to rip his head off, or smother him with kisses.

Instead of doing either she wiped her eyes and said, "Damn you, Sonic Hedgehog."

He laughed. "I have that effect on people."

"It's not funny!" she protested. In vain. "You're not getting out of this until you tell me more."

"There isn't more. You're overcomplicating things. What you see is what you get- just a guy who loves adventure."

"But it's not an adventure! It's life and death!"

"Death sounds like an awfully big adventure. If that skinny ol' guy could catch me at all, heh."

"It's not just you, though," she protested. "It's also the people who die because of the choices you make."

"They made their choices, too."

"That's not true. Some of them did nothing at all."

"Doing nothing's a choice like any other. Anyway," he added, "sure, I've made mistakes. But I've done more good than bad. And I'll do more good in the future. I can learn. No u-turns. 'Cause I'm the hero, you know?"

Amy opened her mouth to accuse him of repeating himself. She stopped, because in a way, she was too. And the discussion just repeated the story of Sonic's life.

The only way to escape the disasters of the past was to push forward. Sonic lived in a tunnel, forever chasing the light at the end, no matter how deep the surrounding darkness became.

Scrape, scrape, scrape. Sonic lifted the sword and gazed down its length. His eyes searched for the slightest imperfection in the blade.

"If you're so sure you're the good guy," Amy asked, "why did you sound surprised when I called you a decent person?"

"When... oh, back in Akemo, you mean?" He frowned and began to scrape at the sword once more, focusing his efforts near a small chip. "Sure, I think I'm decent. But other people... the jury's still out. I've made some people awfully angry with some of the things I've done. So hearing someone else say I'm decent... I didn't expect it."

"But you think you were doing the right thing?"

"I think I tried my best to." He laughed at himself. "Even if I wasn't sure, I wouldn't change a thing about my life. What kind of person would I be today if I hadn't made those choices? I wouldn't be Sonic Hedgehog, that's for certain."

Amy pursed her lips. "So... why did you tell the peasants you'd never won a battle?"

Sonic inspected the chip in the blade again. "Well... maybe you'll know soon."

"No more soon!" Amy demanded. "You say 'what you see is what you get', but that's a lie! There's always more to you that you won't talk about, always another level of thought and planning going on."

"I don't lie," he said, with such conviction Amy faltered for a moment. She rebounded smartly.

"Oh yeah? Then why do you say you've never won? And what's this Knight of the Wind business? I know what a "knight" is. It's someone who pledges his sword and honor to a lord. You can't have that kind of relationship with air."

Sonic chuckled. "I'm not the one who came up with it," he said.

"But you embraced it, which is close enough."

"Yeah, I suppose. See, the first people who called me that were soldiers in the Eggman Wars. On an awful lot of battlefields where soldiers were being defeated by Eggman's robots, I would show up out of nowhere, break most of the robot pursuit, and let the soldiers get away safely. But I'd be gone almost before they knew I was there. They called me the Knight of the Wind because you can't see the wind, either. It just blows through and vanishes.

"To them, I was a force of nature. You couldn't ask for me to show up, or bargain for me to stay. I just came and went. That didn't stop people from trying, even though they knew it was pointless. You can't reason with the wind.

"It cracked me up at first. It took a while for it to sink in how true it was. You say I can't serve the wind. You're sort of right. But I do go where the wind takes me. I keep running because the wind keeps blowing. And I won't stop until the wind stills." He laughed at himself. "That gives me an awful lot to do, I guess."

Amy shook her head in confusion. "That's not really serving the wind, like a knight would. That's... I don't know, trying to commune with it? It's more like a... what do you call it... a shaman than a knight."

Sonic was smiling so much Amy was sure his cheeks had to hurt. "Yeah, but "Shaman of the Wind" sounds like crap. And what shaman ever used a sword?"

"How would I..." she trailed off.

"What?"

"I get it now," she said in neutral tones.

"Get what?" he said, thrown by the sudden change.

"You're not going to stay here once the bandits are killed, are you?"

Sonic shook his head. "That was never in the cards."

"You don't know where you're going next, do you?"

"Depends on the wind."

She closed her eyes. "So that's why," she said. "So that's why you turned me away. Because whatever happened to us in this village- whatever happened between us- at the end... you'd leave."

Sonic put down the sharpening stone again. He made a show of inspecting the blade, but his eyes weren't focused on it.

"That was the plan all along, wasn't it? To ditch me as soon as we were done here."

The rain filled the silence that followed. The steady drumming of it was oppressive in the close confines of the room.

"Sort of," Sonic said slowly. "I knew it was possible. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, to be honest. I knew I wasn't going to stay here, that was certain. And I couldn't guarantee we'd both survive this. So why set you up for disappointment? It wouldn't be fair to you."

Amy shook her head. "And you couldn't have explained that to me... why?"

"Would you have believed me?" Sonic said. "Would you have understood what I am? And would the possibility of either of us dieing even have crossed your mind?"

"Sure, it would have crossed my mind."

"Would you have taken it seriously?"

Amy ground her teeth. "I would have..." she pouted defensively, before murmuring, "...not."

"So I had my reasons," Sonic said. "They may have been dumb, or cowardly, or whatever. But I was trying my best to look out for you." He laughed at himself. "Listen to me! It's not like me to worry about what's coming ahead. I was so scared about messing you up that I fumbled what I was doing. Can you blame me? I just didn't want to get you hurt."

"I still got hurt," Amy said numbly.

"Not for lack of trying on my part."

"This is all too much," Amy said, holding her head. "Too much... emotion and confusion and... and I don't know, anymore, who I like and who I hate, and..."

She lay down on her back on her mat. She had both hands on her head as if to keep it from falling to pieces. She said nothing as Sonic finished preparing his new sword. She was preoccupied.

The door rustled. Tails stepped in, soaked to the bone, his fur plastered to his body. He shivered.

"It's done," he said. "We've finished repairing the fence."

"You're amazing, Tails," said Sonic, placing his sword at his hip. "They've got a fire going in the main hall. You'd better get over to it before you get the chills. I'm heading there myself."

"Sure thing." He headed out the way he'd come. Sonic followed.

"Sonic," said Amy. The blue hedgehog paused.

"Yes?"

"I really, really wish Shadow had lived."

"I know. Me too."

"But... I'm glad... you saved me. It couldn't have been easy."

He flashed his smile again. "It's what I do. And it's no fun if it's easy."

He walked out.

Amy's heart complained to her brain that life just wasn't fair.

"It is pouring," Sonic said.

"It's lighter now than it was, believe it or not," Tails replied.

"I'll believe it. What I can't believe is that you were out working in this. I couldn't stand it. I hate being wet."

"Is that why you never learned to swim?" Tails teased.

"Eh, it's part of it. But don't try to change the subject. Did you or did you not do an exceptional job repairing the fence under harsh conditions?"

Tails' tails twitched in what Sonic alone could recognize as embarrassment. "Well, I wouldn't call it 'exceptional'..."

"By your standards, you mean."

"Well, yeah."

"So by anyone else's standards, it's exceptional."

Tails couldn't fight off the smile. "I hate it when you do this!" he protested.

"Liar."

There was a buzz in the main hall before Sonic and Tails arrived. When they entered, almost no one noticed.

Sonic, curious, deposited Tails by the fire and made his way towards the focus of the crowd. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Sensei woke up!" a villager replied.

This Sonic had to see. He sidled into the closest ring of standing peasants.

Sensei's mat was pulled against the wall so he could sit up and support himself against it. Seiji was sitting against the same wall with his right leg sticking straight away from his body. Heavy bandaging obscured his knee. Sensei and Seiji were talking. Animatedly.

Sonic had never heard Seiji say so may things in one go. He gathered that no one else had, either.

Seiji noticed Sonic. "Sonic!" he said. "Get over here. Sensei never did see you properly. Sensei, this is the leader of the warriors. He's been helping to run things while you've been ill."

Sonic grinned. "What's shakin'?"

Sensei couldn't help but return Sonic's smile. "I understand we have a lot to thank you for," he said. "Seiji has had only good things to say about you."

Sonic shrugged without modesty. "What can I say? You lucked into the best."

"I daresay we did," sensei answered.

"The only thing that really gave me trouble was trying to get Seiji back here with that bum leg. He's a big dude."

Seiji nodded, un-offended. "They say I probably won't be able to walk on it again," he said. "The first arrow caught on the armor I was wearing, but the second went right through the knee."

"I was surprised we were able to find any armor that fit."

"I improvised a bit. Speaking of which, sensei, I was thinking about how we can convert some of the bandit weaponry into tools..."

And, like that, Sonic vanished from the conversation.

He didn't realize what had happened, at first. Part of him was intrigued about the prospect of Seiji talking so much. The rest of him kept expecting to reenter the discussion at some point.

It never happened. To Sonic's surprise, this made him more than happy.

He wandered back over towards the fire, where Tails and a few sopping peasants were basking in warmth. "Hey Tails, you see that?"

"Hm?" Tails opened his eyes blearily.

"Sorry, didn't realize you were so close to sleep. Anyway, you see what's going on over there?"

"Not really. There's a crowd in the way."

"Oh... right. Well, inside there, sensei and Seiji are holding court."

"Really? Seiji?"

"You bet! It's like that arrow to the knee unstuck his mouth. But what's really going on is the future."

"The future can't happen now, it's not here yet. That's what makes it the future. You've traveled through time once too often."

"Smart aleck. You know what I meant."

"Yeah," agreed Tails.

They watched for a few more moments.

"Did the rain stop?" asked Sonic.

"I think so."

Sonic reached into a pocket of his leathers and withdrew his gloves. Tails noticed.

"Where are you going, Sonic?"

"We're past the tipping point. Numbers are on our side, now. The bandits aren't able to draw this out any longer. They have to commit everything to battle. One more and this is over."

"So where are you going?"

"To tell the bandits, in case they didn't know."

Sonic left the building. He hadn't asked for help, and truth be told Tails was in no condition to offer it. He hoped Sonic didn't do anything reckless and stupid.

He buried his face in his palm.

Amy's thoughts raced. The whole gamut of emotions coursed through her as she writhed in place.

This was too much for a girl so passionate. Too much for someone whose emotions ran so close to the surface, and who gave them such free rein. They rolled through her one after another like so many thunderheads. Each fresh storm disturbed her anew.

In cold temperatures, warm-blooded creatures expend more calories than normal just to keep the body functioning. Amy was in a similar situation. Simply lying there as sensations rocked her took all her concentration and energy.

Eventually, sleep claimed her from sheer exhaustion.

The bandit sentry wasn't supposed to have to deal with things like this.

The camp was supposed to be secure. He was just supposed to have to stay awake, and wait for his relief. That was supposed to be enough. But nooo- that blue terror just had to step into the light of the bandit's torch.

The first thought that came to the bandit sentry was, "Couldn't he have done this on someone else's watch?"

And then all sense and reason left him. He reached for his sword.

"Nuh-uh," said Sonic, wagging a finger at the sentry. "You don't wanna do that."

The bandit froze insensibly.

Sonic said, "I want to talk to your boss. Blow your horn, will you?"

With fumbling fingers, the bandit pressed his hunting horn to his lips. Its sound was loud and harsh at this range, but Sonic didn't seem to care. "That's more like it," he said, and walked brazenly past the sentry.

The bandit camp was all astir. Sonic stopped a few paces from the first of their tents. "Yo, bandit leader dude! I've got a message for you."

One of the gathering shapes was much larger than the others. Sonic guessed he was the leader. It spoke- that confirmed it. "You've got a lot of nerve, pincushion," the leader snarled. His voice was grating and rough. If sandpaper could talk, the bandit leader's voice is what it would sound like.

"So what else is new? I'm here to tell you about the last battle." He paused for a moment to let them focus on him. The bandits were all awake now, and all- the sentry excepted- in front of him. Curiosity held them in place for the moment, but that wouldn't maintain forever.

The thrill of danger spiked in Sonic. It was why the grin never left his face.

"You'll attack two mornings from now, right at dawn," Sonic said. "That'll give you enough time to prep. See, we've got numbers, now, so we could come and attack you. But I'll give you the chance to attack us. So two mornings from now, come with everything you've got."

"Or else what?" laughed the leader. The bandits were starting to edge closer to Sonic.

"Or I'll hunt you down," Sonic said cheerfully. "I don't leave anything half-done. I'll pick you off one-by-one if I have to. You'll never escape me. You can't run far enough or hide well enough to get away."

"Cheeky punk," growled the bandit leader. "You think you can threaten us?"

Sonic laughed. "It's not a threat. It's just how it is. So what do you say, bandit man? One big fight, two mornings from now, winner take all. Deal?"

The bandits shuffled ever closer to Sonic. They began to creep around his sides, but slowly. They kept their cool exceptionally well. Their attempt to surround him was not obvious. The bandit leader sneered. "Deal... with the exception of tonight, of course."

"Of course," Sonic replied cheerily.

The bandit sentry began to draw his sword to complete Sonic's encirclement.

It was the sentry's last mistake.

Sonic took a single step backwards, taking him into range of the sentry, and turned. That allowed him to unleash a battoujutsu so perfect Shadow would have claimed it as his own.

Sonic had vanished into the trees before the sentry's body hit the ground.

The last instructions were given. The walk-throughs were complete. The defense was ready.

Amy was not.

The peasants retreated towards the main hall, chattering excitedly. Seiji watched them carefully with the aid of a makeshift crutch, and said a word or two to some of them as they passed. Each time, initial surprise quickly faded into acknowledgement and new respect.

Amy waited until they were all gone and Sonic stood alone at the bottom of the Alley.

"Sonic," she said, her voice wavering.

"Hm?" He turned towards her. The sight of him, and his eyes upon her, made her knees weak for a moment, and she almost couldn't bear to approach him. She gathered herself and, with effort, forged ahead.

"I want to apologize for earlier. I thought that you weren't feeling the pain of loss at all. I was wrong. You've been feeling it for years, haven't you? So you know how to deal with it, at least a little bit. I couldn't tell the difference. I'm sorry."

"Don't sweat it," he replied.

She bit her lip. "I need your help."

"How?"

"I'm not ready for this battle. I know," she added before he could speak, "I've fought before, and... killed before... but I'm having trouble. It's like every time I try to swing a weapon, I see Rouge's face, or Vector's, or Knuckles'. And I can't pull up Shadow's face at all."

Sonic nodded slowly. "It still hurts, doesn't it?"

"Yes," she said. "And... and I thought, since you're so good at moving forward, maybe you could... help me. I was wrong about that, too, when I said I didn't need your help. I was proud and angry. It turns out I really could use a hand. If you're still offering," she finished stiffly.

"Course I am," Sonic replied, and Amy thought she might swoon from relief. "What did you have in mind?"

She'd kept her right hand discreetly behind her back. When she brought it forward, it revealed the sheath of a sword.

Sonic's eyes flicked down to it, then returned to Amy's face. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," she answered, with more confidence than she felt. "If Shadow could communicate with you like this, maybe I could."

"Don't get your hopes up," said Sonic. "It's not all it's cracked up to be. Shadow only did it that way 'cause he couldn't get there with words."

"I'll decide that for myself," Amy said.

"Are we going for points, or just sparring?" he asked.

"Whatever you think is best."

"Sparring, then."

He drew his sword and carefully set the blade against a nearby hut. He walked back with the sheathe alone. He settled into an unusual stance, just out of range. "Whenever you're ready," he said.

Amy frowned. His stance suggested an opening she might exploit, but with a twinge she remembered the last time he'd looked vulnerable. He'd been trying to teach her, then. Would that he had taught one of her other companions; they might have lived...

Amy's attention began to drift away. Sonic noticed this and stepped forward with a flourish of his sheath. Amy saw it and lashed out, attacking the opening he'd given her. He fended her off and slid around to the side. Amy was forced to reposition to face him again. This time he attacked her. It was slower than she'd expected. Her block got there in time, the only block that would have worked, the only block that made any sense to use. She struck back immediately, but by the time her sheath reached where his head should have been, he was gone.

She spotted him, grinning in typically self-satisfied fashion. His face was expectant. Amy didn't know how to respond. It seemed like he was waiting for her to say or do something. She knew not what. She kept all her attention focused on Sonic, for sooner or later he would move, and she had to be fully alert to catch it. No memory of her fallen comrades touched her mind.

Eventually he decided he hadn't seen what he was looking for, and attacked her.

Three times they clashed, then broke apart. Three times he waited for her between touches, expectant and patient. Three times she stared back at him, trying not to feel- or reveal- her bewilderment.

After the fourth touch, the barest hint of impatience crossed Sonic's face. He approached again. Amy recognized his stance as the same one he'd used the first time. Her response hadn't worked that first time, but she couldn't think of anything that might work better. She obligingly struck for him. He blocked exactly as he had the first time, but faster. Amy knew where his next motion was going to be. Yes, he slid around to her left, forcing her to move to keep him ahead of her. He attacked her again, such that only one block made sense. Without thinking she parried the attack and retaliated. Her sword missed his head, but only because he dodged away.

Missed his head?

Amy staggered as realization hither. "That was exercise number three," she said.

Sonic's face lit up when she said it. "Try this one!" he said eagerly. He attacked first. Amy recognized it from the block she would have to perform- exercise number four, of course. She flew through it, but this time instead of cleaving air she used it to beat Sonic back, faster than she'd thought she could swing.

Sonic didn't let her rest. He forced her quickly into exercises one and two. She responded beautifully. A lower, simpler part of her mind took control, a part that didn't care to dwell on the past.

What was that? Sonic made a move Amy couldn't recognize as part of any exercise. She stalled for half a heartbeat, then moved to block. When he made a second unexpected move, her tentativeness was gone. She briskly countered, forcing him to go defensive instead.

Just like that, Amy slipped out of the exercise routines and into high-speed sparring with one of the best swordsman she'd ever seen. The cracks of the sheaths rang off of the nearby huts. If Amy had tried to follow either of their weapons, she'd have lost track of the fight immediately. If she had tried to think about anything, even something about the fight, it would have so diluted her focus that the match would have ended instantly.

Instead she swung, and blocked, and stepped, at a speed and intensity that defied her highest expectations.

It couldn't last forever. Nothing ever does. The end came when she swung laterally, with force enough to carry her swing far to her right. Sonic knifed in. His response aimed for her shoulder, though as it approached her he had to draw back to avoid hitting her. Both of them retained their momentum. They collided, gently, and stuck, with Sonic's sheath pinned between them, the only thing separating them.

The weight of her exertion caught up with Amy. She hadn't even noticed she was out of breath until she stopped. She leaned into the sheath for support.

"You're awfully impressive," she said. "To think you reverse-engineered the exercises, then attacked in a way that would get me to go through them without knowing it... that's incredible."

"I know." It was hard to compliment Sonic more than he complimented himself.

"It worked," she said. "It worked just like the practice helped me overcome my jitters... that night. But part of it bothers me. Is overcoming grief just... forgetting?"

"No," said Sonic shaking his head. "Never forgetting."

"Then what?"

"Distance. It's about having a life so full that your sadness can't swamp it all. It's about knowing that sadness has a time and place, and that there are other things to do after."

"You sound like you've had plenty of experience with this."

"My share. So what?"

"You just seem so happy-go-lucky."

"It's not an act, if that's what you're thinking. I'm not fooling myself into being happy."

Amy chuckled. "What?" Sonic asked.

"When I first knew you, I thought to myself, 'He seems like he's lived as much as any two men.' I guess I was right. I just didn't expect it to be deliberate."

Sonic grinned. "If you're not living, what are you doing?"

Amy flushed. She looked away from him. She was suddenly aware of their intense closeness. It was as close as they'd been since Sonic had turned away her advances. "Even now, I know you're supporting me," she said. "To think I'll be losing you before long..."

Sonic didn't trust himself to speak.

She pushed herself away, held him at arm's length. "I can learn, too. And I respect you more than I did before. It's funny, isn't it? I've admired you, and honored you, and lusted for you, but only now do I respect you. I didn't understand the difference."

Still Sonic said nothing. Amy could see things she'd missed before and, for the first time, saw him not as a veteran soldier, or her instructor, or a mortal enemy. She saw him lady-'hog to gentle-'hog, and realized that this situation was every bit as difficult for him as it was for her.

"So... I understand... if the answer's still no. And when tomorrow comes, and we fight one last time, I'll be every bit the warrior you want me to be. No distractions... and no regrets."

Sonic swallowed. "That sounds good," he managed.

Amy felt them each back away from the precipice. The danger passed. Her hands returned to her sides. He stepped back, suddenly, as if breaking free from restraints. A dazed expression crossed his face.

"Bye," he said, and turned to leave.

"Sonic!" she called after him.

He looked back at her, confusion still in evidence.

"To everything there's a season," she said. "A time to every purpose under heaven. Even for you."

Sonic didn't say anything. He just ran.

Amy tipped her head backwards, closed her eyes, and laughed an empty laugh.

Next time: The Fifth Robot