a/n: This chapter was almost longer, but I decided against it. Gonna pick up from it pretty soon, hopefully. Thanks for all the support, and enjoy.
"Man, it's been years since I ran through this place..."
Sonic and Amy came to a stop inside the Lava Reef, sweat dripping off of their quills. The blue hedgehog wiped his brow and sighed as he looked at the road ahead.
"...Yeah. Been a while. There was a good reason for that."
"You think so?" Amy quipped, her hands on her knees. "Gee, I thought everyone liked boiling alive!"
Rolling his eyes, Sonic walked ahead as Amy followed. The lava flows were running beneath them, molten rock cresting and breaking into waves that lapped against the walls. It would have seemed beautiful if not for the fact that falling in meant your doom, more or less. Sonic had managed to skip briefly across the lava when he was younger…of course, this was whenever he was in trouble. Those days were pretty reckless, in hindsight.
Then again, recklessness had been the least of his worries at that point in time.
The two leaped over gaps and flew off of well-placed ramps, using their speed to their advantage. They spied a certain red echidna sitting on a rock, looking far more composed than they were at the moment.
"Yo, Red."
Knuckles opened his eyes and looked over the two visitors. "Heat too much for you?"
"Ah, nothing we can't handle," Sonic smartly replied. "What's going on? You're not usually around here other than for training, right?"
He nodded. "I found someone in the peaks. She was in really bad shape, and even now, I don't know if she'll make it."
"She?"
"It must have had something to do with Chaos Control, because her energies were completely drained. I thought of taking her to the Master Emerald, but she could have frozen before then…"
"Why would you think it was Chaos Control, Knuckles?"
"There was a huge burst of light and Chaos energy above the mountains before I found her. Not only that, but…well. You can see for yourself." He nodded towards the entrance to a cave. "Just don't try to move her right now or anything."
"Yeah, got it. You coming, Ames?"
She nodded and followed him to the cave interior, which was noticeably hotter than anywhere else they had passed through. A hedgehog girl lay still on a slab of rock, surrounded by a moat of molten lava. It seemed to be freshly made, too.
"Knuckles must've set this up, to keep her warm. Sheesh…she doesn't look too good, does she?"
"She doesn't…"
"Wish that we could do more."
"Me too."
Amy slowly moved towards the girl as she lay still, reaching out to touch her hand. "Hopefully, she'll pull through this. She seems strong enough. Kind of reminds me of you for some reason…"
"Me, huh?" Sonic scratched his head. "Well, she's certainly got a look about her. And a nice pair of kicks, if I don't say so myself."
"Hm." Amy looked over the strange girl, noting the roughness of her attire. Everything from her jeans, to her tanktop, to the blue vest she wore, they all had some sort of heavy wear on them. Even those shoes, which looked identical to Sonic's own, had plenty of marks on them.
How much had she gone through, exactly?
More importantly, Amy wondered why she felt this strange connection to the sleeping girl. It was as if they knew each other, in a different time and place.
The girl stirred from her sleep, eyes opening slowly. She weakly rolled her head to one side, staring at the pink hedgehog grasping her hand tightly. Everything was still a blur to her, and it was sort of hot for some reason. Why was that? The last the she remembered was the snow all around her…
"I think she's waking up," Sonic said, noticing her movement. "Hey, Knuckles!"
"Yeah?"
"I think your girl's coming to!"
"Oh? Okay, then." Knuckles got up and walked into the entrance of the cave, looking over at the strange visitor as she grasped Amy's hand tightly.
"Why is she…?"
"No clue," Sonic said quietly. "Maybe there's something she's sensing from her?"
"Could be possible."
"…"
Amy's ears perked up as she heard a soft whisper.
"…"
Is she…saying something?
"…y…"
"What is…?"
"A…"
"Please, just a bit louder…"
"…glad you're here…Amy…"
The pink hedgehog felt her heart skip a beat. "How…how do you…"
"…I'm sorry…I couldn't…change anything…"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm…sorry…"
"No, you don't have to apologize…! It's okay, I'm here!" She moved to step across the lava moat, but was stopped by Sonic as he touched her shoulder. Before she could protest, he pointed her to Knuckles, who carried a slab of rock over, making a bridge over the lava.
Sonic smiled and took her hand, guiding her up onto the small bridge. As Amy reached the other side, she took the shivering girl into her arms, hands entwined with her own.
"This feels like a dream…though I know I left you that time…"
"Well…I'll be right here, as long as you need me. I promise," Amy said with determination. "I won't let you down."
"I know you always…keep your promises," she replied drowsily. She soon fell asleep in Amy's arms, and by that time Sonic and Knuckles were already outside.
"How do you think they know each other?" Knuckles asked. "Could it be a meeting from a long time ago?"
"Maybe. But Amy's not one to forget her friends, and she didn't really have any before we met. Not to sound too blunt or anything."
"So…what do you think it could be?"
"Picking my brain, eh?" Sonic quipped.
"I have my own theories. But I'd like to hear yours first."
Sonic nodded, a seriousness overtaking his features. "You mentioned Chaos Control, and I believe that's exactly what happened. That girl must have come from another time or place…possibly even both. My guess? She came from a possible future."
"What brought you to that conclusion?" Knuckles asked, curious.
"The way she was speaking about Amy…and how Amy reacted. There was no way that Amy knew her, but I think it's very much possible that she met Amy at a different point in time. It's not exactly out there, Red."
The echidna nodded. "You have a point. Time travel's not out of the realm of possibility, considering what the Chaos Emeralds can do."
"Right."
"Hey, maybe she's your...you know."
Sonic blinked. "My what, Knuckles?"
"You know what I'm getting at. You and Amy might...well."
Sonic nodded and exhaled deeply, much to Knuckles' surprise. "I'll admit that the thought crossed my mind."
"A little out there, no? Green?"
"She's in her teens. Could be dyed."
"Makes sense. But..." Knuckles scratched his head. "You seriously gave that some thought?"
"...She's a nice girl, Knuckles. I know that she means well, even when she's not on target, you know? I've honestly thought about it...returning her feelings for me."
"And?"
Knuckles only got a sad smile in response. "If that's our daughter, she's certainly not from this timeline."
"Your mind's made up, huh..."
"Yeah. I'm surprised...I thought I would feel better after making up my mind. I've just started feeling worse each time I think about it. It was...supposed to be an easy thing, you know?" He sighed. "Now I realize how much I care about her. I can't stand the thought of making her cry, even though...we won't be like that. You get what I'm saying?"
"Sort of," Knuckles admitted. He wasn't exactly an expert on relationships himself.
"It's complicated, anyways. I don't think I get it all myself, hehe."
Amy wiped her forehead of sweat as she emerged from the cave. "She's fast asleep again, but she's warm this time. Really warm, actually. We both worked up a good sweat in there," she said with a laugh. "You really saved her, Knuckles. Thanks."
"No worries...I just did the right thing, after all."
"You saved someone's life! It's totally a big deal." She pecked him on the cheek. "Be your prideful self this time, eh?"
"Oi..."
"Sonic, are you okay?"
He shrugged. "I'm fine, just doing some thinking."
"You look down, though. Remember, when you smile, you make me smile, too! So cheer up!"
"Sheesh, Amy...you gotta say those sorts of things out loud all the time?"
"Yup," she said with a grin. "I'll tell the whole world if I have to!"
Sonic shook his head as she skipped away. "Come on, let's get out of here! I'm gonna faint if we're stuck here any longer!" she called over her shoulder.
"Yeah, catch up with you in a bit!"
"It's a better solution than leading her on," Knuckles commented. The echidna left to carry the sleeping hedgehog out of Lava Reef.
"Well...let's hope she sees it that way," Sonic said to himself as he followed.
"Shadow, Rouge, Omega. Good work out there on that last mission."
The three members of the unofficial Team Dark had gathered in one of G.U.N's military offices. The Supreme Commander, known to a few as Abraham Tower, glossed over paperwork as he debriefed the squad.
"Execution and competence. That was all we required, sir," Shadow replied.
"Concise as always, Shadow."
"We managed to complete both the primary and secondary missions with no delay," Rouge said. "In addition, we have extracted the information from several of the servers on site and terminated them as requested."
"Capacity of enemy operations has been reduced to thirty percent. Rapid communications: offline. SAM sites: offline. Nuclear silos: offline. Reduction of transmissions to twenty-five percent. End of relevant data listing. Further information may be procured from the mission data."
"Good to know, Omega," the Commander said.
"Permission to speak, sir."
"Permission granted, Agent Rouge."
"I am soooooooo tired right now, seriously! Can we get a week off, at the least?"
Shadow grunted at that, mostly in disapproval towards the bat's lack of tact. Tower only chuckled a bit at the display.
"You three won't be needed for a month at the least. This mission was important in opening up our foreign agenda, and you exceeded my expectations by miles. You deserve all the rest you can get. With pay, of course."
"Oooh, I like the sound of that!"
"Figures," Shadow remarked.
"Oh, knock it off. You're more tired than I am. Besides, a vacation would really do you good, Shadow."
"Hmph."
"You three are dismissed. I'll correspond with you on any other important matters, but until then, rest up. Agent Rouge, I'd like to talk with you before you leave."
"Yes, sir." She waved to Shadow and Omega as they left. "Have fun, boys."
Shadow let out another 'hmph' while Omega nodded slowly, the door slamming shut behind them.
"Agent, with the rotations as they are, I'm estimating that it'll be a minimum of at least two months before I need you back in the field. As a G.U.N Agent, I mean."
"I see, sir."
Tower poured himself a glass of water and sipped it before continuing. "There's a rumour going around, something about splinters of Project Shadow being used in experiments. One of the people on the original project fifty years ago was a Nick Pearson. Used to work with Professor Gerald Robotnik until things got...hairy. You know the story. Anyways...things have been flying around about some new 'experiments' that are similar to Shadow. Most of the things we encounter like this are just white noise, but I want to be sure beyond a doubt this time. Doc Pearson is considered a holy man next to Gerald in the field of Chaos Energy study – nothing about his work should be taken lightly."
"When should I start, sir?"
"Whenever you feel ready. There's no rush at the moment - again, these are just things from the rumour mill. Not much to go on otherwise."
"How am I going in, sir?"
Tower managed to suppress the grimace that would have crossed his face. "This mission's black, Agent."
"Ah?"
The Commander knew his personnel down to the way they stepped into their uniforms each morning. If he could have sent anyone else on this mission, he would have done so.
The bat didn't even attempt to hide the look that crept into her eyes…the one that showed up whenever she was let off of her leash within the ranks.
He didn't like that look at all.
"The only ones that are to know about it are you and I. Use…whatever means to get the information that you need, Agent."
"Sir, yes, sir."
"Dismissed."
Rouge saluted the Commander before leaving. As the door closed, she licked her lips in anticipation, while on the other side, he reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of bourbon, pouring himself a glass.
It was going to be a long few months ahead.
"I'll probably live to regret this," he said as he downed the drink. "But God help us if those rumours are true. For everyone's sake, I hope she doesn't find a damn thing."