Chapter 28: A bit like starlight
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Rouge had a sort of hunch as to where the last emerald was.
And with that she meant, that she had flown to the coast as fast as he could. Leaving Station Square behind her she had followed the beach, flying just above the line where the waves washed ashore. The green hills sloped down onto the beach, where it was just miles and miles of sandy fields, smooth and wet by the water washing over it…
-She had been trying to find it from above. Bats didn't have the best of eye-sight though, and so far… well, at least it wasn't a disaster yet. She beat her wings, a forest approaching on the far horizon next to the beach, and continued to scan the sandy mass below, which was occasionally struck with a bout of water and foam.
And then something glinted.
Like, shiny-and-suspicious glinted. Rouge immediately stopped and dove, and the air rushed past her for a brief second before her boots sank down into the wet sand with a muted, squelching sound. She then looked around at the ground with a gaze of jewel-thieves, of secret agents, and there
lay the emerald.
It was perfect, the emerald, lying there on a bed of sand, gleaming with a soft kind of otherworldly light, the sea lapping at it but never managing to actually drag it down…
…and then it did.
Rouge let out an angry sound and darted forward, but the wave was already drawing back, the emerald getting swept back with it. The bat ran a few more steps before leaping up into the air, beating her wings while desperately trying to focus on the emerald. It shone like a beacon through the water, but the wave was still retreating with it and – she just didn't want to get wet, okay?
Preferably.
Though that held about as good as Eggman's robots, so she let out a disgruntled little noise – and Chaos dammit – promptly dove into the water. Foam and bubbles whirled up around her, and her wings immediately went big and stiff and soaked like bedsheets clinging to your back, the water swallowing her quickly. She kicked and moved her arms, and managed to swim pretty well downwards…
She looked around her surroundings, which in this case was sand going downhill with some junk, cliffs and seaweed scattered around, all submerged in almost turquoise water. –And hey – there was the emerald! Glimmering at her from where it had gotten stuck between two rocks, and Rouge started kicking again, swimming towards it determinedly.
She was running out of air, but still there were no problems except for the waves that tugged at her form and made her swimming wobbly, and her clothes were going to be more than a bit icky after this…
Shadow owes me when all this is over
…And then a push of water managed to jerk the emerald away from its hiding place. And then the emerald was tumbling through the water like it was slow-motion, and Rouge frustratingly began kicking again, but then another yank of the water almost sent her up to the surface, and she couldn't see anything for all the bubbles and now her lungs were seriously starting to-
Splash
With an instinctive gasp of air Rouge broke the surface, keeping herself afloat by kicking her legs as she rubbed at her eyes, her hair sticking to the back of her neck. Dammit all. She had forgotten to take of her gloves, and now they were all ugh, and-
Emerald.
By some miraculous force – probably water – the emerald had been pushed up towards her again, and now she just acted and threw herself back down, hands reaching out desperately as the water splashed up around her… and then she caught it.
She quickly got up again, water splashing as she gasped for breath a second time, rubbing at her eyes with one hand as she firmly held the emerald with the other, the waves washing against her… And she would probably have felt more accomplished if everything wasn't s frigging wet and gross and –as long as Sonic and his gang of dimwits hadn't managed to die yet, then this could work…
Meanwhile…
"Wait here with Mister Soldier, and I'll be back with more bandages soon."
Cream nodded hesitantly, her hands pressing down on the gauze on the soldier's arm, trying to stop the blood from flowing out of him like a leaking bottle. Vanilla gave her daughter a fond but terribly worried look, not wanting to leave her daughter alone but having to anyway, and hastened away with her tattered skirts sweeping behind her.
Cream sniffled, and Cheese cooed comfortingly at her side. She said quietly, "Thanks," to Cheese, who patted her shoulder, and then the rabbit had to focus on the human again as he writhed and moaned in pain. This is so horrible, Cream thought sadly. I just wish the fighting would stop…
Meanwhile…
At last, Knuckles was finished with patching up Amy, and the hedgehog in question was out cold. Tails hadn't cried, but he looked small and weak and tired, like a nine-year old who just wanted to go home and tinker with his machines. Knuckles looked mostly serious – haha, like usual – but maybe a bit exasperated as he then put away the spare bandage and simply dumped the kit next to the wall.
And Sonic felt like he would fall asleep at any given moment, like he was floating somewhere between wakefulness and the land of dreams… okay, maybe not that extreme, but his eyelids had kept inching closer and closer ever since Shadow had started to run his hand through his quills…
And then his eyelids opened a bit more, as Tails got up from the ground and silently padded over to him and Shadow. The fox sat down in front of Shadow, and Sonic glanced up from where he had been dozing off in Shadow's lap, arching an eyebrow slightly in question. Tails fiddled with his gloves – the way he moved just spelled out 'weary' – and glanced at Sonic almost amusedly.
"So… you and Shadow?"
…Ah. So that's what he wanted to talk about.
Stifling any feelings of embarrassment he might have had Sonic then sat up and stretched, Shadow leaning back to avoid his arms. The hero of Mobius then turned to Tails, roamed his brain for any interesting spare vocabulary, found none, and said simply, "Yup." He studied Tails' expression more intently, and asked, "Surprised?"
"…A bit," admitted Tails. He sounded like he couldn't really believe they were discussing this, here and now of all times! –to be fair Sonic couldn't really understand it either. Tails looked a bit awkward, and then he said, "…This is just so weird, but… Well, it didn't work out with Amy, did it?" He then continued before Sonic had time to say something, saying a bit sadly or wistfully, "…I hope Amy will be okay."
Sonic had been prepared to face questions about his sexuality, or Knuckles teasing him, or… well. But when this discussion happened now, with Amy laying half-dead on the floor just a little bit away from them… When her blood was still drying on the floor, and – and maybe he should have been honest with her from the beginning but, but-
Probably sensing his distress or something, Shadow then slipped an arm around his waist and nuzzled into his shoulder, Tails smiling faintly as Sonic's ears slowly went redder. "Yeah," Sonic then said quietly as a reply to Tails, and they all glanced over at Amy. Sonic kind of hoped that Shadow really wasn't just glancing at her because they were, and…
…and what? Was concerned for her? Amy hadn't been his friend for three years, and – and how long had Shadow been in love with him? Because it would be both weird, sad, a bit ironic and hilarious, if he would have had Amy as some kind of rival in love, or something-
It was at this point that someone promptly burst into the corridor.
Sonic and the others except for Amy – obviously – sprung to their feet, and then the certain someone landed with a screeching sound as she slid across the floor, folding her wings as-
"Rouge!" Exclaimed Knuckles, narrowing his eyes again. "Have you got it?"
She huffed, brushing off imaginary dust from her arms. She looked… wet, Sonic then noted with mild confusion, and then Rouge glared at Knuckles and said, "Not even a 'hello'? Or 'how did I find you'?"
"You knew we'd be here," said Knuckles unceremoniously, glaring back. "Now have you got the emerald or not?"
"I have it," she said. And then she smirked, batting her lashes. "But why don't you… come and get it?" she suggested, pursing her lips almost cutely. And Sonic… well, Knuckles certainly looked funny as he blushed, but dear Chaos, they did not have time for-
"Rouge, you two can flirt later – we need that emerald right now." –And then Shadow said that, promptly cutting Rouge's act off and getting Knuckles to blush ever fiercer, gaping at him slightly. Sonic blinked, once, and then Rouge huffed and looked darkly at Shadow.
"Yeah, yeah, sweetie," she then said, producing the last emerald from behind her back, the gemstone radiating light and warmth. She glanced at Shadow with a look, and promptly threw the emerald at them, saying "Good luck."
Shadow didn't answer, just pushed Sonic aside lightly to snatch the emerald out of the air as it came down, a faint swishing noise as he caught it.
Well then. Oh yes. Finally, this, this kidnapping-turned-war-turned-whatever, was going to end.
The emeralds almost seemed to agree, then, when they as if sentient floated up from Amy's body and Sonic's hands. The whole room seemed to hold its breath as the emeralds came to hover, to fly, in a circle around Sonic and Shadow, and Knuckles nodded at Sonic and he nodded back, and then-
There was light. A firework entirely in gold, a burst of blinding light, a spark and a wave of white and gold- and floating slightly above the floor as the light cleared, was Sonic and Shadow. Both their furs turned gold, Shadow's a soft cream-coloured one while Sonic's was starlight. They were doing it. Finally. A rush of excitement went through Sonic and he grinned, Tails grinning back and Knuckles looking almost amused. Rouge gave him a thumbs-up and a small smirk, and he nodded back at her.
…And Amy. Sonic touched Shadow's arm briefly – wait a moment – and floated over to where Amy was lying on the floor. Pale? Certainly. Looking frail and awful? Indeed.
He leant down, placing one knee on the floor like he was about to be knighted, and put a hand on Amy's forehead. The others gave him various strange looks, but he ignored them and simply pushed some chaos energy into Amy, thinking of healing and mending…
And for the Super-forms with their advantage of a vast sea of chaos energy, Sonic barely felt any strain when Amy's wounds then faded away, skin mending and blood going back inside her body, the veins repairing themselves and bruises fading to only a faint hint of purple-
"Wow!" Tails piped up, just as Rouge said, "What the hell?"
"Healing powers," Sonic said, brushing a loose strand of hair out of Amy's face, to which colour was rapidly returning. "Comes with the Super-form." And then, so quietly that only Shadow, Rouge and Amy heard – if Amy was awake, "It'll all sort itself out, don't worry."
Amy thought she heard something, but… but maybe she dreamt it. Though suddenly her body felt so much lighter, and tiredness overcame her again like a soft blanket, and contently she then fell deeper into the land of sleep, like diving into a deep, deep lake…
"Ready to go?"
Sonic had then just stood up, dusted off his hands, and turned vibrant red eyes to look at Shadow. Who nodded, swallowing any questions he had. It was time. It was time, and when Sonic asked, then he just had to say, "Yes."
Shadow floated over to him with a dash of gold, and Sonic's hand groped in the air after his hand, which he then took. And now Tails and Knuckles an Rouge reacted, Knuckles blurting out a, "Hey wait a minute-" With Tails rushing towards them as Amy let out a racking cough and Rouge-
-disappeared in a flash of light.
In that second of chaos control following that, Shadow felt Sonic squeeze his hand, and it was all if the borders had been cut. Usually with chaos energy, it was just a low hum in the back of your mind, residing somewhere next to your heart, dormant. And when he touched Sonic, he would feel his energy, and it was there and it was alive, and that was it. But now, in their Super-forms, chaos energy practically leaking out of them, when they were bright and brief like fireworks…
In that second of chaos control, their energies just merged, briefly. There was too much power to stop it from going through their joined hands, and it felt like a shock of electricity going up his arm, before Sonic then let go off his hand again, their surroundings unfolding themselves rapidly around Shadow.
Sky spread out all around him, and he became aware of that they were flying somewhere high above the ground, as strips of clouds painted themselves into existence. The cold and humidness of the air struck him all at once, and after blinking a few times he could see the ground far below…
…And Eggman's fleet.
"Is this your strategy?" Shadow blurted out, incredulous bordering on annoyed. "To just blast his fleet without any – any-"
"Chill!" Sonic interjected, grinning cheerfully like he was finally free of everything. "He has no emeralds – we just have to just destroy some ships, chase down whatever robot he's hiding in, and then we're done!" –At Shadow frown and opening mouth he then quickly added, "Almost. But could we hurry up?"
A, people might be dying out there, hung in the air, but neither said anything. And then Shadow sighed, because he was Sonic and this was a (sort of) war, and their Super-forms wouldn't last forever. "Lead the way," Shadow said, and Sonic winked at him, wasting no time before shooting away like a falling star into the horde of airships…
And obviously Shadow followed, though it might have been a bit exasperatedly… but Sonic's attitude was, maybe, actually, quite endearing.
To be continued…
A/N: I just want this story to be finished soon
