Before we start; this is for my dear reviewer Pandamonium. He … or she, asked me if Mana wasn't the good part of your soul in the Egyptian mythology. The one thing that is clear is that Mana really does appear in the Egyptian mythology, but it appears in many, many other cultures and religions as well. The actual concept of Mana that we know today comes from oceanic isles, like New Zeeland. It's mostly described as a mysterious force that resides in people and allows them to live, meaning that it's pretty much another word for Chakra, also called Chi. Another meaning that pops up pretty often is that it's the source of supernatural abilities, meaning magic. Since that magic comes from the soul, Mana is said to be the substance that the soul is made of.
Next to island cultures like Hawaiian, New Zeeland, Polynesia or Melanesia, Mana also appears within the Aboriginal culture, the ancient Greek, the Egyptian, the Finnish, the Inuit, the Roman and a heckload of other cultures. They all have their very own picture of Mana and I would be sitting here for the next three weeks if I tried to explain them all.
In the universe of this story, Mana is nothing but energy in certain forms that allows people to have different abilities. Amy has a very pure form of Mana, Blaze has another form that allows her to use fire and Violett has tons of different kinds in her, inherited from her ancestors. But as said, in later chapters, the concept of Mana and Magic will be explained further.
I do not own Sonic the hedgehog nor any of its characters except for Violett. All rights belong to Sega. I almost wrote Silver instead of Sega. But I bet if he owned this all, Sonic the hedgehog would be a bit different than it is today …
Don't go, Amy!
Amy didn't quite know how to react. How long had it been since the last time she had seen those ruby red eyes? He was scowling, like he always was. There was nothing different about him, he was the way she remembered him. But he was supposed to be dead. On the other hand, he was the ultimate life from, Could he even die?
"What did you just call me?"
Even when he pressed his gun harder against her head, she still didn't react. She just stared at him, not quite knowing what to say, not quite knowing what to do. She was lost, even more then she had been the last three days.
"She's just a girl. Put that gun away and let's go."
For the first time, she saw the other hedgehog as he stepped forward and put his hand on his arm. His fur was silvery white, the color of his eyes reminded her of Blaze and he had a really weird hairstyle …
"Don't touch me", Shadow said coldly. "She ran into me, that's more than enough reason for me to blow out her brain."
Blow out her brain? She had not travelled through dimensions, fought against killer robots and freaky shadowy warriors, learned that she was a purehearted and had saved her love's life to get her brain blown out now by this wannabe Sonic! Who did he think he was, threatening her like that? And now he didn't even pay attention to her anymore.
"We have more important things to do! Come on, let's go."
"You go on. I want to kill her first."
That was it. Before the two males even knew what was going on, Amy had her hammer in her hands and stood up. He wanted to kill her? Well he was about to learn a lesson. She might not have been able to compete with him before, but she was stronger now. She would show him what it meant to threaten Amy Rose. She hit the gun out of his hands, making sure not to break it and held the hammer against his face, similar to what he had done with his gun.
"Whoever said you could just come here and threaten me? I am not going to die until Sonic comes back safe and sound, get it?" she pouted.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you", the white hedgehog said. "He's really no guy to mess with."
"And I'm no girl to mess with."
"You really want me to kill you, don't you?" Shadow said, raising an eyebrow, impressed by her courage.
"I'd like to see you try."
The black hedgehog smiled and disappeared from the spot, only to reappear behind the girl. She spun around and tried to hit him, but he evaded by jumping into the air. Knowing that he would do something like this, she got ready and jumped after him, trying to hit him over and over again while he just kept jumping backwards. He hadn't expected her to fight so well, she could see it in his face.
But he still wasn't taking her serious. That enraged her even more. She had been training so hard to be able to keep up with Sonic. She had fought alongside him and she still hadn't been able to save him. He had to protect her. That was the reason he was so hurt right now. No matter how far ahead of her he was, she would always try to keep up with him. How dare Shadow not take her seriously when she was trying so hard?
His next move. Her countermove. It was so easy to react to him. She had seen him fight so often, almost as often as Sonic. But Sonic was fighting differently now and even though Amy knew him so well, she could no longer predict his moves. It was different with Shadow. It was so easy to see what he was going to do next. If only she would be able to keep up with his speed.
She could almost see it; his next move. No, she could see even more than that. When he jumped, she knew where he was going to land, where he was going to place the next step and where he would try to attack before he would evade another one of her attacks. She had to catch him just once. One opportunity. He jumped. She turned. He landed. She hit. It was one hit with her hammer, swung with only one hand, right against his skull. All her strength had been in that hit. He was surprised; she saw that in his expression. Then he fell to the floor like a water sack.
She had won. It was luck, she knew it. He hadn't taken her seriously. Had he done that, she wouldn't have stood a chance. But still, she had actually managed to beat Shadow, something that even Sonic had problems with. She really had gotten stronger. Pride filled her, even though she was completely out of breath.
"Wow" the other hedgehog said.
That's right, there had been another one with Shadow. She had been so surprised to see him that she hardly even noticed. Turning around, she saw him walking towards her.
"You actually managed to beat him. That's impressive."
"He wasn't taking me seriously."
"Because he didn't expect you to be so strong."
Amy turned away from the silvery hedgehog, back at the black one at her feet. He looked so much like Sonic, who was unconscious as well right now, lying in the ship, weak and helpless. And it was her fault.
"You're wrong. I'm not strong. Not strong enough, anyways."
)§)§
"So that's what happened …" Silver thought out aloud.
Amy nodded depressed and ran her hands through the fur of the black hedgehog lying on her legs. He was still knocked out from her blow and Amy had dragged him to the nearest bench and allowed him to rest on her lap. Silver was sitting next to her.
"You called him 'Shadow' just before. Do you know him?"
"Yeah", Amy couldn't help but giggle. "He caused us a lot of trouble, but he also saved all our lives … more than once. I wish I could do that as well."
Amy looked up at the silvery hedgehog. He didn't smile. She hadn't seen him smile once. But he looked at her so intensely and so sincerely that she couldn't help but wonder if he was right. And her look was so pure and filled with so much guilt that he couldn't help but to try his best to cheer her up.
"I've seen you fight him … Shadow just there. You're strong. And if I understood you right, you're the entire reason that Sonic is still alive. You DID save his life."
"Yeah, after I made sure that he got hurt."
"I wouldn't say that in front of Sonic if I were you. I'm sure that's the last thing he'd want to hear. After all, he did risk his life to save you."
"THAT'S THE PROBLEM!" Amy cried, tears welling up in her eyes. "HE RISKED HIS LIFE! HE GOT HURT! HE WAS ABOUT TO DIE! AND IT'S MY FAULT! BECAUSE I WASN'T STRONG ENOUGH!"
Shadow stirred in her lap and that had her shut up. But her tears kept flowing and soon, they were falling on Shadow, one after another. A sob escaped her lips, then another one and then she started crying uncontrollably. Silver had enough experience with unsecure girls. For the first time since Amy met him, he smiled warmly and put his head on her head, stroking it delicately. Amy stopped sobbing and looked at him with big, red, puffy eyes.
"Why don't you start thinking about Sonic for a change?" he said.
Amy's eyes got even bigger at that. Thinking about Sonic? That was the only thing she had been doing for the last three days. Couldn't he tell?
"You know", Silver went on, "I'm pretty sure Sonic didn't go so far just to wake up and hear that you left the team. You must be really important to him, you know."
"Why do you think that?"
"Well, if you weren't, he wouldn't have gone so far to save you. I know what it means; going all the way for somebody important. Besides, I'm sure having you feel guilty is the last thing he wanted. If you really want to make him happy, you should stop saying that it's all your fault and start being thankful for what he did. I give every bet that's what he'd want most."
"What Sonic would want most …"
What would he want most? Amy had been so busy worrying about how she wanted him to be safe that she had completely forgotten what all the others had wanted. On the other hand …
"It doesn't matter what the others want. The most important thing is that they're safe and they're a lot safer if I'm not around to hold them back."
Silver gave a low chuckle. "You really believe that, don't you?"
Amy nodded.
"What about you?" she tried changing topics. "What are you doing here with Shadow? And how come he's lost his memories again?"
"I don't know how he's lost his memories. He already didn't have them when I found him half dead in the shatters of a broken house. But we soon found out that he could use the Chaos Emeralds as well, so I tried something out that had happened a long time ago; have to people cross the powers of the Emeralds. And the result was that we managed to travel through time. We needed each other to do that, so we decided to travel together, him looking for his memories and me looking for my friend. I'm pretty sure that she is somewhere on this planet, only in another time."
The female tried laughing, but with her nose still stuffed from the tears, it sounded more like a weird kind of hiccup.
"Well, Shadow surely found reached his goal. I'm sure Tails and Violett will be able to find a way to retrieve his memories. And maybe he can help you as well."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, what if that friend of yours is not on this planet? Maybe she's on another planet. If you're lucky, she's on one of the planets that they'll visit. Besides, your powers are awesome. I'm sure you'll be able to help them a lot with it. What did you call it?"
"Telekinesis."
"Can you show it to me again?"
Silver sighed, but obeyed anyways. He raised his hand and immediately, it started glowing turquoise. Soon after, Shadow started glowing, then Amy. The pink hedgehog started flowing off the bench while Shadow gently flowed back on it. Once in the air, Amy made loop-de-loop after another. She giggled and laughed and Silver couldn't help but smile as well. Then he let her back down on the bench, with Shadow's head on top of her lap. Still, Amy was giggling and laughing heartily.
"That's awesome", she laughed. "It's even better then what Violett can do!"
"Violett?"
"The magician who trained me. She can use telekinesis, too. But yours is a lot stronger."
Silver's brows furrowed but both hedgehogs' attention was turned to Shadow in Amy's lap a split second after . First he stirred, then he moaned and finally, he opened his eyes.
)§)§
Heat! So much painful heat. It was consuming him, driving him insane. Where did it come from? Why didn't it go away? It hurt. It burned. What did he have to do for it to stop? Fire. Lightning. Blaze. Was she doing this? Was she the one who caused this unimaginable heat? He had to try and see it. Get away from the blackness. Open his eyes. But he had to fight. Use up all his energy just to open his eyes. And finally, he managed to do so. But where was Blaze? If she wasn't causing this heat, then who … or what … was?
"Sonic?"
The blur turned his head slowly, only to meet a pair of gentle looking, hazel eyes, surrounded by creamy fur. They were familiar, but it took a while for Sonic's memory to kick in and remember who exactly she was.
"Vanilla …" he moaned weakly. "What happened? I feel like I usually do after I ditched Amy, only a billion times worse."
"You got injured quite badly. We've been fearing for your life for a while, but I'm glad you're back up."
Sonic opened his mouth to say something, but something else came into his mind. His eyebrows furrowed and he closed his mouth again. Then his eyes went wide and he shot up, only to grab his chest and crouch over in pain, groaning.
"Easy there. I told, you, you've been wounded heavily", Vanilla said and pressed the hedgehog back down on the bed gently, but with strength.
He let it happen, pulling a grimace in pain and panting heavily from the immense pain.
"Amy", he huffed. "Where is Amy? I remember her being attacked and …"
"Calm down Sonic. Tell me everything that happened from the very beginning."
"We … we were in that hallway in Eggman's ship and then we came into this huge hall with all these weird shadowy creatures. They had us surrounded, Amy and me that is. So we started fighting, but they were so hard to defeat, so hard to destroy. And Amy; her fighting was so awesome. I think she destroyed even more of these … things then I did. I wonder how she got so strong."
"Violett was training her as well."
That made Sonic laugh, but he stopped immediately and clutched his chest in pain.
"That explains. There were way too many of them. Amy was fighting so many of them as once and then there was one attacking her from behind. She didn't see it, how could she? Somehow, I saw her in front of me, covered in blood, not moving, not reacting. And then my body started moving on its own. I couldn't control it at all. The next thing I remember is pain and a lot of it, too. And Amy's face. I remember seeing her crying and then … nothing until the moment I woke up here."
For the first time, Sonic actually looked at his chest and saw the thick bandage. He had bandaged often enough to know that this injury must be big if it was bandaged this thickly. And Vanilla had said that they had been fearing for his life.
"How did I survive?"
"We're not sure. Amy never told us. But whatever happened, it's thanks to her that you're still alive. She brought you to safety. And when you were on the verge of death, she used some kind of magic to heal that injury of yours. That made sure that you wouldn't die anytime soon."
"Guess that means I have a buckload to thank her for then, huh? Where is she anyways? I somehow expected her to stay at my bed until I woke up."
The rabbit's smile vanished in an instant and she looked at the floor, not wanting to meet the hedgehog's eyes. Sonic noticed this and furrowed his brows. He didn't like that reaction. Something was off here.
"Vanilla, where is Amy?"
"She's … not here."
"What do you mean 'she's not here'?"
"Sonic, we're back on Mobius right now, And Amy … she's the entire reason we're here. She wants to leave us."
"WHAT?"
Sonic shot up again, with the same result as before. He groaned in pain, clutched his chest and pulled a grimace. But he refused to lie back down and instead looked at Vanilla agitated.
"She wants to leave? Why on earth does she want to leave? Wait, this is completely wrong! I'm usually the one walking out on her, not the other way around. How did this happen?"
"She says that she's tired of fighting, but we all know that that's nonsense."
"So then what's the real reason?"
"Well, Violett said that she believes that your injury is her fault. And to prevent something like this from ever happening again, she decided to leave us."
"It IS her fault."
He earned a death glare from Vanilla for that and grinned sheepishly as an apology. Then he clutched his chest tightly and made attempts to stand up. Vanilla's shoulders sacked as she watched him do that.
"What are you doing?" she asked flabbergasted.
"What does it look like? I'm going to find Amy and knock some sense into her."
"Oh no you don't. You just woke up after you've been out for three days. There's no way I'm going to let you …"
"THREE DAYS? I've been out for THREE DAYS? Man, that must have been one hell of a hit."
"They pierced your chest."
Now it was Sonic's shoulders that dropped and he looked at the rabbit thunderstruck. For a few moments, nobody moved as Sonic tried to swallow that shock.
"You're kidding, right?"
"As said, it's thanks to Amy that you're still alive."
"That's it. I am so going to knock sense into that girl."
"No, no wait, you have to lie down. Your wound is going to open again. SONIC!"
Named hedgehog didn't listen and tried storming out of the room, although it looked more like a frog trying to walk on two feet. Every step brought agony. It felt like the flames of hell was burning in his chest and Vanilla trying to stop him didn't help. But he was thankful to her anyways when she finally gave up and decided to help him instead. With him leaning on her, they walked out of ship slowly and pulled the attention of all the others on themselves. They were all glad that their hero was back.
So let's see what the situation here is; Shadow is out, Silver is somewhere on Mobius with Amy and Shadow and Sonic is finally awake and already overdoing it again. Yap, that's Sonic the way we know him. I also gave Vanilla a small motherly scene here. She deserves some of the spotlight as well, don't you think?
And Amy actually beat Shadow. Granted, he was really just toying with her, but I guess that was his downfall. He'll never let that happen again, I can assure you that. The next time these two get into a fight, he'll have her pinned before she even knows what happened.
Remember way back in Blaze's kingdom when she was telling Tails about that friend of hers? Well, it looks like Silver's looking for a friend as well. I wonder who it might be … At least now you all know why these two are on Mobius. That's something, right? Right?
Comment please ^^
