Thanks for the reviews guys. I own nothing.


XXVIII: Searching

Back to the present

Amy, Tails and Knuckles all sat there, staring into the now clear water, not breathing a single word to each other. Reliving the events was more difficult than either of them could imagine. Amy could remember everything now and the weight of the truth pushed painfully down on her chest. Sonic was out there somewhere, dark and angry…all because of her.

"So I was right." Tails mumbled, although his voice sounded loud after the eerie silence. "Your death was the cause."

A tear spilled out of Amy's eye and slowly trickled down her left cheek. "I can't believe it."

"I'm just so happy that you're alive!" Tails choked out as he ran towards her and hugged her tightly. Amy, shocked by Tails' display of emotion, returned the embrace.

"Hey now enough of that mushy stuff." Knuckles yelled before smiling at Amy. "It's good to have you back pinkie, but right now we need to find Sonic. Maybe seeing you alive will help make him snap out of it."

"Right." Tails said as he pulled away from Amy. "We should head back to the tribe, I'm sure that's where he would've gone first. Are you ok to leave the temple?"

Amy nodded and she led the way out, before the three of them took off running back towards the tribe. Once they reached the tribe, the place was in ruins. Amy, Tails and Knuckles gasped at the collapsed tents, some of which were on fire, and many hedgehogs were wondering around, begging the gods for mercy. They began to grow panicked as they saw no sign of Sonic and Amy's eyes widened at the sight of her father's and Nero's tent which had been destroyed.

She walked towards it and covered her mouth with her hand in shock as she saw blood stains on the fabric and in the grass. What had happened here?

"You don't think…?" Knuckles breathed out as he walked up behind her.

"Look! It's her!" Someone from the tribe shouted and Amy twisted around to see everyone staring at her as if they had seen a ghost. Well…she guessed she could understand their reactions.

"You were dead!" A brown hedgehog yelled before the Oracle pushed his way through the crowd and glared at Amy.

"You!" He yelled. "How did you survive?"

"I had a little blessing from Scorpion himself." Amy smirked and the Oracle's eyes widened.

"Impossible! You were a traitor!"

"Turns out the gods hate all of you for what you do. Scorpion told me that all the gods wanted was to watch their people be happy and help each other. None of these silly rituals and sacrifices and they especially hate the way you torture innocent people." Amy snapped, placing her hands on her hips as she faced the Oracle.

"We are peaceful people though." The Oracle chuckled. "These are just the ramblings of a deranged girl."

"No!" Amy pleaded. "Scorpion really told me all this, you have to listen –"

"Silence!" The Oracle ordered. "Seen as killing you seems to have failed, I hereby banish you and all your friends from the tribe. Especially that Sonic boy who has caused all this destruction, not to mention murdered his own parents and your father."

"Oh the horror of being banished from this amazing place!" Knuckles cried out sarcastically before Amy looked at the Oracle in horror.

"No…" Amy gasped. "Sonic would never kill…no matter what."

"Well he has, now get off our lands." The Oracle shouted, pointing into the distance.

"He obviously isn't here." Tails sighed. "We need to find him fast."

An explosion of energy in the distance suddenly caught their attention. They twisted around and saw what looked like some sort of battle going on a few miles away.

"That's Shadow!" Tails cried out as he recognised his chaos energy. "We need to get there ASAP."

"Hold on Sonic." Amy whispered to herself as they ran towards the scene as fast as they could.

They arrived in a clearing and Amy gasped at the sight of Sonic levitating in the air. His back was towards her, but he looked…different. His fur was a few shades darker, his spines turned up slightly and there was a dark aura that surrounded him that sent chills down Amy's back.

Sonic shot a blast of energy towards Shadow, who quickly did a backflip to avoid it.

"There's no use trying to stop me!" Sonic's manic voice echoed across the landscape.

"Sonic!" Tails shouted trying to get Sonic's attention, but he didn't seem to notice.

"I'm trying to help you faker and this is the thanks I get?" Shadow spat. The black hedgehog began glowing with red energy. "But fine, if you wanna do things the hard way…CHOAS BLAST!"

Knuckles quickly pushed Amy and Tails to the ground as the red chaos energy shot out of Shadow, uprooting many nearby trees. Amy growled to herself. What was Shadow playing at? He was supposed to try and stop Sonic, not kill him!

Once Shadow had calmed down, Amy looked up to see Sonic still in the same position and laughing hysterically before swooping down and grabbing Shadow by his neck and pressed him against the trunk of a tree.

"Sonic stop!" Amy screamed, but Sonic was too concentrated on Shadow to hear her screaming at him from across the field.

He threw Shadow away from him and rose into the air again, preparing to shoot another blast of energy at the black hedgehog.

"Amy wait!" Tails yelled as Amy ran out into the field towards Sonic and Shadow.

She leaped into the air and grabbed hold of Sonic's floating form, jumping onto his back and pulling his hand back so the energy ended up being shot into the air rather than at Shadow. Sonic thrashed under her grip trying to throw her off, but Amy clung on.

"Sonic stop this please!" Amy begged. "I'm alive! Please just snap out of it!" Tears began trickling down Amy's cheeks as she caught sight of Sonic's white glowing eyes.

"Get off me!" Sonic ordered her and Amy gasped at the coldness of his voice. Did he not recognise her?

Amy didn't have time to say anything else as Sonic grabbed her arm in a vice like grip and threw her to the ground. Amy gasped as the air was knocked out of her by the fall and gazed up at Sonic with fearful eyes. She didn't know what else to do.

"This is obviously a trick!" Sonic spat as he pointed a finger at her. "The real Amy is dead! You're an imposter sent to distract me!"

"You idiot!" Knuckles yelled wildly, running towards them with Tails hot on his heels. They both jumped in front of Amy as Sonic prepared to shoot a blast of energy at her.

"She is the real Amy!" Tails yelled at his older brother. "She came back to life, now please just come back to us Sonic." Tails began crying and Amy peaked over their shoulders at Sonic and stared him straight in the eyes.

She didn't know what happened, but he must have seen something in her eyes that convinced him she was real and Sonic slowly floated back down to the ground.

"Amy?" Sonic croaked out, his voice sounding more like his old one.

"I'm here." Amy replied, smiling slightly, hoping that Sonic would start calming down.

Sonic ran towards her, his fur becoming lighter with each step. He pushed past Tails and Knuckles and grabbed hold of Amy, squeezing her painfully hard as if he never wanted to let her go again. He buried his face in her quills as Amy returned the embrace.

"I thought I'd lost you forever." Sonic cried onto her shoulder.

"You can't get rid of Amy Rose that easily." She chuckled before gasping as Sonic's full weight collapsed on top of her, knocking her off balance slightly. She managed to catch Sonic as he fell forward before his head hit the ground.

"Sonic?" Amy called out his name and panicked when she saw he was unconscious.

"He's probably just exhausted." Tails said as he checked Sonic's forehead. "Let's take him home."

Amy smiled as she gently kissed Sonic on the cheek. "Home sounds nice."


Well, the last chapter will be posted tomorrow. Can't believe this is nearly the end. Feel free to leave your opinions.