Author's Note: Sorry for the delay again. Busy with life and one of my other stories. But don't worry, here's a new chapter for this shared story Sonic245 and I are working on together. Enjoy!
Sonic245 and I do not own rights to Sailor Moon, Sonic the Hedgehog, Cardcaptor Sakura, Pokemon, Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Final Fantasy, Shrek or Ice Age, only the OCs.
Chapter 9: Memories of a Lost Timeline.
"Okay?" Shrek muttered, as he and pretty much everyone else weren't expecting to be back in the real world that soon, let alone just after defeating Ursula and regaining one of the missing Chaos Emeralds.
"Wasn't expecting that to happen." Manny muttered, dumbfounded.
"What's going on?" Ash asked, bewildered with Pikachu echoed.
"How did we...get back home?" Sora wondered, glancing around.
Goofy tapped the side of his head, before suggesting. "Gawrsh, maybe somebody out there's causin' problems and sent us to that weird place and the only way out is to fight somebody from our memories and get the Chaos Emerald back."
"I think you're right, Goofy." Tails agreed almost immediately. "It was a mixture of the Realm of Memories you guys told us about, and the Null Space that Prime mentioned."
"And the Ursula we fought was from our memories almost made real." Sailor Mercury added in agreement, holding up her mini computer. "I did my best to scan her during the battle. She held traces of unusual particles connected from our memories as well as a powerful source that is linked to a virtual reality."
Prime softly gasped at this at the word of virtual reality. "The Phantom Ruby." He realized. "But, how can that be? I destroyed that thing twice now."
He then turned to Sonic and questioned. "Hey, Sonic. Did your Infinite have anything like a red ruby in his chest?"
"No. All he had was Iblis inside him and that was dangerous enough." The younger blue hedgehog responded with a shrug. "Like I told ya this morning, the only way for that guy and Mephiles to merge back into Solaris was to have Infinite killed and sacrifice Elise by extracting her heart since she was bond by the medallion that held the power to take out the vessel. We tried to keep her safe by using the Chaos Emeralds to get Iblis out and destroy him without killing her, but that back-fired."
"Mephiles...extracting Iblis from the vessel of..." The older blue hedgehog muttered, just as suddenly he felt something jolt painfully in his mind like an electric bolt, as he first remembered how during the battle against Ursula and he accidentally knocked himself back when using his attack against her before she captured most of the Guardians which prompted him to save them, he hit something he didn't even notice and something it shattered something in his mind, like a block, that he hasn't even noticed was in there.
Crying out in sudden pain, Prime grunted as he placed a hand to his head as though he was suffering a massive migraine, squeezing his eyes shut and felt wobbly on his legs, his vision going all blurry in and out.
"Prime! What's wrong!?" Sonic cried out in alarm as he and the others gasped in shock, seeing his older self going through some kind of episode.
"...Ngh...M-my, head..." Prime wheezed, having trouble breathing.
"Prime!?" Sakura exclaimed worriedly as she, Sonic, Sailor Moon and Knuckles hurried over, all four of them attempting to reach them, only to be held back by Riku who got to the struggling older blue hedgehog first.
"Wait, guys! Give him some space!" The silver-haired teen instructed, kneeling by Sonic Prime's side, gently holding him with his hands on hedgehog's chest and back, rubbing the latter. "Easy, Prime. Take it easy."
"It...feels like...my brain's g-going into a-a Spin Dash..." Prime panted, placing both hands onto his head now as he nearly feel to his knees, but was slowly lowered by Riku who kept him steady. None the less, it scared not just the seventeen year old Keyblade Master, but also everyone else.
Sailor Moon froze in horror, as she felt terrible cases of deja vu. She's seen this before; back when Cloud's memories were a mess at the Northern Crater in the past 8,000 years ago, and Loran had his memories return painfully to him the moment after they confronted Sephiroth in Hollow Bastion during the Ultimecia crisis. Plus according to Jason, Mickey and Axel, both Ven and Roxas had the similar problems, as did Xion. She wasn't sure why, but this felt too much like those times, as she couldn't think of any other logical reason as to why Sonic "Prime" the Hedgehog was suffering this way.
"G-guys? I-I hate to say this, but...I think Prime is regaining memories that he somehow lost...!" The Moon Princess muttered shakily.
"What?" Knuckles demanded, cluelessly. "What do you mean?"
"I've seen this before. The same thing happened with Cloud and Loran." Sailor Moon answered.
Sailor Mini Moon gasped, remembering what Merlin mentioned when Loran had the similar thing. "Prime's suffering from the Memory Shock!"
"Memory Shock?" Sailor Luna asked, worriedly.
"What's Memory Shock?" Amy asked, concerned.
"Merlin once told us that it happens to someone who lost really bad memories and begin to get them back when see or hear something really familiar that's too painful." The 30th Century Moon Princess began. "It can even effect the heart and mind."
"And if the memories are too painful to handle...it could easily kill that person even though it was all in the past." Puss added gravely, which horrified the newest members of the Sailor Team, all of Team Sonic and Cosmo. "If we're lucky, Prime will only be unconscious...hopefully."
"But, what is it that Prime's remembering that's causing this to happen!?" Sonic demanded, as he struggled to keep himself calm. Normally he could, but even this sort of thing was scaring him to death.
"If the memories are that painful, it could damage one's heart. Shatter it, even." Namine added fearfully, her body freezing up in too many memories returning to her as well, the times she was forced to mess with Sora's memories and finding that he held Ven's heart which also held the older boy's painful memories of his past.
"No..." The teenage hedgehog hero shook his head, turning back to Prime who continued to grunt and struggle in pain. Sonic felt utterly helpless. He didn't know what to do. "Prime...hang in there. Don't die on us, please!"
Prime by then couldn't hear anyone or anything from reality. Instead, he almost screamed as the images of what felt like memories before returned to him, only this time they became more clear, and he saw more appearing like a fast-foward type. Except he could hear almost everything...from a Time he forgot.
He saw himself as Sonic's age, beating up Eggman Prime's robots during a festival, rescuing Elise Prime and wrisking her to safety only to have her kidnapped behind his back, her tossing him a Chaos Emerald, later that morning reuniting with Tails Prime as they made attempts to find the Princess. They rescued her and fought their way through, Sonic Prime taking Elise Prime to safety once more, quickly befriending each other as they shown one another of their kindness, Sonic Prime saving her life because he felt it was the right thing to do, Elise Prime bandaging up his injured shoulder, the two walking side by side as she explained the history of Solaris the Sun God.
Then the duo, on their way back to the Kingdom, to Prime's shock, met Silver for the first time to fight him but was held back by Amy Prime who let Sonic Prime to go and rescue Elise Prime who had been kidnapped again, and Silver had actually been tricked by Mephiles Prime who stole Shadow Prime's shadow to take a form and enter a ruined future where Silver and Blaze lived in, tricking them into beliving that Sonic Prime was the Iblis Trigger which destroyed the world, sending both Shadow Prime and Rouge Prime into the future, Sonic Prime, Tails Prime and Knuckles Prime who met up with them, sent there as well by Eggman Prime, the five of them reuniting and learning of the truth, returning to the past.
Sonic Prime then attempted to rescue Elise Prime as well and met up with Silver and Blaze who, after being defeated by Shadow Prime who told Silver the truth, made no attempts to fight him, all three of them too late to save the Princess who along with Eggman Prime died in the explosion which was what triggered the Iblis Trigger, much to Sonic Prime's devastation and guilt, before he and Silver came up with the idea of sending the blue hedgehog back in time to get to Elise Prime before the explosion, saving her and wrisking her to safety while Eggman Prime escaped.
It was then that, despite having succeeded and reunited with his close friend whom Sonic Prime viewed as a sister he loved so much, Mephiles attacked from behind and struck the blue hedgehog straight into the heart unexpectedly, killing Sonic Prime instantly which brought Elise Prime to tears, which unfortunately was the key of releasing Iblis from within her, both it and Mephiles fusing as Solaris who began to destroy the current reality and forming everyone together.
During Sonic Prime's death, his soul still lingered in the air, and everyone of his friends came up with a plan to find the Chaos Emeralds and use their powr to wish to revive Sonic Prime...this memory being as clear as day.
Sonic Prime's body then began to float as the Chaos Emeralds began their work in returning his soul into his body, while the grieving yet hopeful Elise Prime walked over to him.
"Sonic, come back! To me...to us...to the world!" Elise Prime pleaded, softly crying.
The Princess of Soleanna gently placed a hand onto his forehead, as a tear dropped free from her eye and onto his muzzle. Then, almost in that instant, as though her tears of sorrow and plea helped to fufill this wish, Sonic Prime's body began to glow in the familiar light of the transformation.
And by miracle, Sonic Prime transformed into Super Sonic, his injuries from the attack which killed him earlier healed, and looked so alive once more, he hovered over towards Elise Prime who nearly fell in relief and exhaustion, but caught her in his arms and the two close friends embraced.
"Thank you, Elise." Super Sonic whispered, smiling warmly, and the Princess, through tears of happiness, nodded before hugging him back.
Afterwards, Super Sonic had both Shadow Prime and Silver join him, both also becoming Super forms with the future hedgehog doing so for the very first time, and together the three of them defeated Solaris, which made everyone vanish except for Sonic Prime who returned to normal, and Elise Prime, sending both of them back in time to when Solaris had just been sealed as a single flame before the crisis which took away her father ten years before she and Sonic Prime met.
It was at that point that the two of them knew there was only one way to save their future, and Silver's future; erase Solaris from existance by blowing out his flame.
"This is where everything began. Who knew such a tiny flame could bring such devastation?" Elise Prime said, as she gently held the small opened capsule that held the flame, while Sonic Prime stood. "If we put out this flame, Solaris will never exist, and then we'll never have to worry about the Flames of Disaster, right?"
Sonic Prime nodded. Yet he knew that if that were to happen, deep down in his heart, his memories will forever be altered, because none of the adventure he went through with the Princess who had become such a dear friend to him, a sister who he grew to care for and love so much, would ever happen.
"But our encounter..." Elise Prime continued, tears filling up her eyes and voice as she came to the same conclusion. "You and I will never meet. It will never have happened."
'I know...' Sonic Prime thought, and had wanted to say, but found himself unable to do so. Instead he just looked away in sadness, fighting back tears of his own that threatened to form and escape. He'd normally make this decision in a heartbeat and not regret it. But for the first and only time in his life, in this time-line which will be erased from existence, his heart broke.
There were so many things he wanted to say before he had to lose his memories of this time-line forever, even though his death would never happen which was something he was grateful to forget, he wanted so badly to tell Elise Prime how much she meant to him, how much he loved her like a brother would. He hated tears, and he swallowed hard to stop himself from crying.
It wouldn't matter, anyway. Because none of this will ever happen.
"I...to tell the truth...I...I...don't CARE about the world!" Elise Prime sobbed, feeling the same way.
Sonic Prime knew why she said that. She didn't want to never meet him, never forget their adventures together, that he made her feel so alive, so free, having to experience things she never could due to her duties, and her miserable, tragic and boring life as a Princess. She loved him in the same way he felt about her; the sibling bond they shared. But in the end, it was for the best.
"Elise..." Sonic Prime spoke softly, smiling warmly at her with his usual carefree smirk, even if his eyes glimmered with hints of tears. "Just smile."
Even though these words were never to be spoken either, Elise Prime indeed smiled at him, for one last time and nodded. Encouraged by his kind words and his wonderful smile, she hesitated no longer, and with her eyes closed, she blew out the flames like a candle, and the room was filled with darkness.
Neither one thought anymore.
Then Prime saw his memories of visiting Soleanna for the first time, in the new Time-line he now lived in. He was running along the side and passing by people who screamed in alarm due to his speed, as he saw vague memories of Elise Prime which made no sense to him, but he felt the need to simply go to the Kingdom for the new Festival of the Sun, but for a different reason. There he saw on the main float gently drifting on the river was a more happier Elise Prime as she waved at the crowd.
Unable to resist, Sonic Prime, in a blue blur that was like one with the wind, he dashed by and let the Princess feel the winds, one of her feather's falling out as he landed on top fo the roof of a building, and watched the rest of the parade go on.
Even before he knew what was doing, he softly whispered with a soft smile. "Elise..."
Elise Prime looked around, as one of her maidens muttered to her in confusion, while she said in confusion and wonder. "It felt like...someone was calling me."
"I'm sure it's just the wind." The maiden suggested.
"Of course." Elise Prime replied, sounding a bit disappointed, like she didn't want to simply accept it but knew that she had to. "But if felt so...familiar, somehow."
From where he was, Sonic Prime smiled, and while he couldn't understand why this felt familiar to him too, he felt the sheer relief that he wasn't the only one seeing memories that didn't make sense, vague but truthful. He wasn't crazy like his friends had told him after all. He then noticed the feather and watched it drift away into the winds with the full moon hanging in the sky...
"AAAAAHHHH!" Prime screamed as the memories ended, before he fell nearly limp in Riku's arms, panting as he felt dizzy and nearly passing out.
"Prime!" Riku cried out, gently cradling the semi-conscious blue hedgehog, while everyone else gathered around, but not overcrowding.
"Prime! Are you okay?" Manny asked, worriedly.
Prime just groaned in response, his head was pounding from the intense memory recollection, exhausted from the experience. Thankfully, the aches began to dull and he was regaining his senses as his other memories came back to him. He fluttered his eyes open and saw his younger self and everyone else gazing at him worriedly, Sonic looking quite paralyzed with fear and worry in his eyes.
"Prime?" Sonic asked, softly.
"Ugh...What happened?" Prime asked, groggily.
"You were having a massive headache episode and nearly passed out. Almost gave all of us a heart attack. Don't you remember?" The younger blue hedgehog replied.
The older blue hedgehog didn't respond at first, but then he slowly sat up with Riku's help, and placed a hand to his forehead, replying. "...I remember feeling this sharp pain in my head, like my brain was being electrocuted. Then I saw images..."
He softly gasped as he remembered now; why Elise in this world, Mephiles, Iblis and Solaris were all familiar, why he saw those images earlier and why they felt familiar. Prime remembered everything from an adventure of his past...a past which never happened and had been replaced by a new Time-line. He never understood why he felt...his Elise in his doomed world felt familiar. Now he did understand.
And this realization made his guilt for failing to save his friends and his home world grow worse.
"No...they're my memories...that never should've happened." He whispered, lowering his head in guilt.
"What do you mean?" Donkey asked, confused. "I don't get what you're talking about."
Prime didn't answer him. Instead, the full realization hit him so hard that he remembered another very dear friend...whom in his dimension he realized now in heart-break that was also dead. And he never got the chance to meet her fully again, or even say how much she meant to him like in the old Time-line they both erased for the sake of the future, and in the end, it didn't matter. It just made things even worse now.
"...Elise." The blue hedgehog whispered, which was so soft that almost everyone didn't hear him. But one did, and it was his counterpart who, unlike Prime himself, didn't have to go through changing the Time-line, or travel back in time to save the Elise of this dimension; yes she had died like her now dead counterpart had, but Sonic had overcome the impossible; unlike Prime who needed Shadow Prime and Silver's help to defeat the Solaris in his world who was erased from existence, Sonic fought him on his own with the Chaos Emeralds, rescuing Elise's heart and rejoining it with her body, reviving her. He destroyed Solaris of this world and everything is still okay.
"Elise?" Sonic repeated, blinking before a realization hit him and he softly gasped, but still felt confused.
"I..." Prime trailed off, before standing up despite everyone being worried that he shouldn't be doing so at the moment. "I need time to think. See you guys at the castle."
Before the Guardians of Light and Cosmo could even ask him any further, Prime sped away to his left, leaving behind a trail of blue blur, much to the concern of the heroes of this dimension.
"Prime, wait!" Sora cried out, before turning to his friends and quickly said. "Guys, we gotta go after him!"
"Hold on, Sora!" Sonic exclaimed, stepping in front of the sixteen year old Keyblade Master, his arms stretched out to stop the slightly older teen. "None of us are gonna be any help to Prime right now. I don't think any of us are gonna be able to do anything without making things worse."
"He's right. Prime needs time to himself, even though he should talk to someone. But, I'm not sure if any of us are able to do so right now." Tuxedo Mask said in agreement.
"Well, what're we gonna do? Someone's gotta talk to him and figure out what's wrong!" Ash demanded impatiently.
Sakura, while feeling she would be the wrong choice due to her not being Prime's Sakura, knew that out of all of them, she was the only one with a counterpart from Prime's dimension apart from Sonic who was still alive. Everyone else, except for Shadow who is dead in this dimension, in Prime's world were dead; Tails, Amy Rose, Knuckles, Cream and Cheese, the Chaotix, Rouge...and somebody else which ripped her heart to shreds.
"I'll go." She volunteered. "Maybe Prime can talk to me."
"Are you sure?" May asked, concerned.
"I'm sure. Don't worry, I'll be careful." The young Cardcaptor replied.
"But how can you go after him? Only Sonic can." Eddie pointed out.
Sakura responded by pulling out the Dash Card, answering. "I can use the Dash Card. It's pretty fast."
"I forgot about the Dash Card." Sid admitted.
"Well, I didn't, 'cause I have the Moon version of the same card too." Sailor Moon replied. She then muttered to her friend, "Just go easy on him, okay?"
"Right." Sakura replied, before tossing the card up into the air and chanted while tapping it with her Star Staff. "Dash Card!"
The moment she did, she felt it's speeding power flow inside her body, and with a nod to her friends, Sakura sped away in a similar fashion to both Sonic and Prime, vanishing into the distance to find the latter. While her friends watched on in worry, Sonic thought about what he heard Prime say to himself. If there was one thing he knew, it was that Elise Prime had suffered the same fate as the rest of Mobius Prime, and as such, his own memories of Elise's death before he revived her came back and he almost lost her again today.
"Hey, guys. I'm gonna head back to the Castle. There's something I need to check up." Sonic announced. "Think you can wait 'till Sakura and Prime get back and meet me there when you do?"
While confused, his friends felt that it was somehow connected, and Tails muttered. "Uh, okay."
"Thanks. See ya later." The cobalt teenager replied, and without another word, he sped off back into the city, also leaving behind a blue trail.
The Sailor Team, the rest of Team Sonic and Cosmo could only stand there in worry and confusion, wondering what was going on. All except Sailor Moon who, somehow connecting the dots as she realized that Sonic's deep friendship with Elise must've triggered something in Prime, which began to make sense to her.
It was Prime's lost memories of his Elise that she saw...and to her devastation, long before the prime Princess's death.
'Prime must've lost his memories of the Elise he knew before their world was destroyed...and that means even she's gone too...Oh, Prime. I'm so sorry.' Sailor Moon thought to herself, lowering her head in heart-break and guilt.
But she knew, there wasn't a thing she could do to fix this, and could only hope that Sakura could give Prime some form of comfort.
Finding himself on the deserted part of the beach, Prime sat on the edge of a rock, the waves of the salt water crashing into it gently within the warm breeze as the sun began to set. He was hugging his knees against his chest, his gaze low as his expression was full of sadness, guilt and shame, thinking about his regained memories from the lost Time-line which made his actions of what happened to his old home even worse. Why did he have to remember now of all times?
It was worse when he recalled memories of how Elise grew close to him because of his heroic actions, his kindness, his love for adventure, and his freedom.
Sonic Prime raced through the Dusty Desert and made it to the beautiful grassy plains with Elise Prime in his arms, as she held onto him, not just to avoid in falling off, but also growing quickly fond of him. The heroic blue hedgehog who had risked his life to save her, merely because he liked helping out others and didn't ask for anything in return.
After a while, he slowed to a stop and gently set the Princess down while she stood, and bowed to him in gratitude.
"I have no words to express how grateful I am for your help..." She responded politely.
"Don't mention it. It's what I do." He replied with a smirk and a wink.
Elise Prime smiled a little, only to softly gasp as she noticed a wound on his left shoulder. "You're hurt!"
"Huh?" Sonic Prime blinked, before noticing a painful sting on his shoulder which he hasn't noticed and looked, to find that she was right, but he just shrugged it off. It wasn't that bad. "It's nothing. I've had worse."
"Don't say that." The Princess shook her head, and before he knew what she was doing, she ribbed a lower piece of her dress which made him flinch with his eyes wide, but then mentally sighed in relief when she didn't rip much, and then knelt down before wrapping the piece of cloth around his shoulder like a banadge.
The blue hedgehog waited patiently, surprised by her own act of kindness. This girl was full of surprises, he had to admit. But then he saw it; the look of guilt on her face. She was blaming herself for him getting hurt when it wasn't even her fault. Eggman Prime was just being his usual evil self as always.
"I'm sorry. It's all my fault..." Elise Prime muttered, once she finished.
Not one to let anyone blame themselves for things they didn't do on purpose or at all, or see anyone sad, Sonic Prime simply told her to smile. When the Princess look up, he was holding up an extended finger with a smirk of his own as though he was giving her a lesson, just as a butterfly fluttered close to him and landed on his nose. The blue hedgehog blinked in confusion and surprise as it slightly tickled him.
Sonic Prime then smiled and gestured it to Elise Prime who stared at it in wonder, as though she had never seen real life butterly in her life. She looked on in awe as a smile formed, as she gently made to touch it, which had the beautiful insect gaze at her as it fluttered onto her own finger, and then flew away up into the sky. The two watched it leave before the blue hedgehog looked back at her.
"Your smile..." Sonic Prime began, the Princess gazing back at him in slight confusion as he continued as he smiled warmly. "That's all I need."
Elise Prime stared at him in surprise as the blue hedgehog then began to walk off, and she then stood up, following him, the two walking together on the grassy plains...
Prime sighed in sadness. Here he was, remembering a moment that never happened and had lost, and now he would never experience it in the new Time-Line. At least not with Elise Prime, because she was dead. She was dead all because of his complete failure in saving his world from Mecha Sonic. What was the point of changing the future's destructive fate when it suffered destruction so much worse?
He then thought about how Sonic succeeded better than he did. Solaris was gone in this world, and Metal Sonic doesn't exist. Despite the risks of Apsu and the Ascians, and Eggman obviously, it wasn't just this Mobius that was in danger. It was all worlds of the Realm of Light, with so many heroes from some of the worlds being the Realm's guardians. They have done so much more despite him being the protector of the Omniverse. He saved them without them even knowing it, while going through a Universal War and so many time-travels.
"Sonic...in this world, you're are one lucky hedgehog." Prime whispered, even though he knew his counterpart wouldn't hear him at the moment.
"Hey, Prime."
"Huh?" Blinking in confusion and surprise to hear a familiar voice behind him as he has been so lost in his thoughts he didn't even hear anyone coming, or expected anyone to find him, the blue hedgehog looked over his shoulder and found another counterpart of a special friend standing there. "Sakura..."
Sakura stood, having caught up with him as she slowly approached before bending down to his current height level, asking a bit hesitantly. "Can...I sit with you?"
"Sure, 'course you can." Prime replied, despite that he needed some time alone, the counterpart of his adoptive human sister being here was a huge relief. Despite that he lost so much, the thoughts of Saki-Chan being at home worried about him, which made him feel guilty for that, reminded him that not all was lost. He just had to get back home to her.
As the thirteen year old Cardcaptor took a seat next to him, they were both silent for a moment, until Sakura began softly. "You really scared us back there, Prime. I'm really glad that the Memory Shock didn't even make you fully unconscious."
"Say what? What's a Memory Shock?" Prime asked, blinking in confusion. That was new to him.
"It's when...when somebody remembers really bad or painful memories that they forgot about and it comes back to them unexpectedly. It can hurt so much that it can either make you pass out for a while, or...or even kill you. It depends on how painful the past really is." Sakura explained uncomfortably, which made the older Sonic softly gasp in shock. "We almost lost a friend a year ago; Loran."
"The Grovyle who Serena and the King forgot about until last year?" He asked, remembering the two royal mention something like that.
She nodded slowly. "He passed out just after we defeated Sephiroth, but not completely. Merlin told us about the Memory Shock, before Princess Sakura from the Realm of Non-Existence explained the Realm of Memories to us. It was one of the reasons why we went there, to help Loran recover as well as help him, Serena, Mickey, Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Yuffie, Cid and Leon to get their memories back."
"Whoa..." Prime muttered, stunned before admitted as he scratched the top of his head a little uneasily. "I never thought of that. Having amnesia is one thing, and I'm sure glad I never got to experience it. But to have it and then remember stuff unexpectedly that can be really dangerous is a whole new level to me. I'm sorry that I scared you guys."
"It's not your fault, Prime. You didn't do anything wrong." She reassured.
"I wish I could agree with you, Sakura. But that's not true." The blue hedgehog sighed in sadness once more, and at her confused murmur, he admitted. "The reason for my memories being lost, something that I never fully understood why I saw them until now, is my fault. At the same time, there wasn't much of a choice. Not that it made things any better years on. In the end, it just made things worse, I think. Maybe me remembering them now is just another sort of punishment for what I did to my home planet. What has been destroyed, what I lost...what I...failed to do."
"You mean you forgot something that you did before?" Sakura asked gently.
"I forgot something that I did...but I didn't do because it never happened." Prime confessed. "I'll explain the full story when we get back to the others, but what I can say is that...I failed Elise. Twice in a row. Both in a time-line before I changed the future twice, and now in a Time-line of a future which Mecha Sonic just destroyed."
"Your...dimension's version of Elise?" The young Cardcaptor guessed, suddenly realizing where this was going and her heart ached and broke. At Prime's nod, Sakura began to tear up as she now felt guilty for asking and said. "Prime, I'm so sorry! I-I didn't mean to make you explain that...!"
Glancing back up at her, Prime saw that Sakura was about to cry, and quickly told her while gently pulled into a comforting embrace, rubbing her back to calm her down. "Hey, Sakura. Don't cry. It's not your fault. You and Saki-Chan had nothing to do with that. I'm the one who made stupid mistakes, because I was too cocky and overconfident for my own good, and..."
He trailed off, remembering what Sonic told him earlier and finished softly. "...And too impatient."
"How can I call myself a hero if I keep messing things up? I've been lucky so far, but eventually my luck will run out if I'm not careful." The guilt-ridden teenager continued, trying to calm down even though guilt held him tightly. "It's not just overconfidence or water that are my weakness. It's that I'm not smart enough to even think carefully, that I'm too impatient for my own good. Impatience in my other weakness. I'm deeply sorry, Prime. I let you down."
'I'm too impatient for my own good, too. In the end, that's what killed everyone except for Shadow and I.' Prime thought to himself, now feeling horrible for lashing out on his younger self, who had accomplished more than he ever did.
He had to talk to Sonic about this, and let him know. He looked back up to the young girl who shed a couple of tears of guilt and he felt guilty for making her feel this way.
"But still..." Sakura muttered, feeling so guilty for bringing up the subject of what Prime had just remembered when she hadn't meant to.
"Shh..." Prime whispered, gently placing a finger onto her lips to stop her from being swallowed into guilt, making her blink at him in surprise. "Sakura, it's okay. I just, needed a little bit of time to calm down. You didn't upset me at all. None of you guys did. In fact, I actually wanna thank you."
"Huh? For what?" Sakura asked once the blue hedgehog gently removed his finger from her lips.
"For cheering me up. Not sure why, but, I think just talking to you is making me feel better." He answered.
"But all I said was that it wasn't your fault. Everything else only made you think about...well, you know. I was just worried about you and I thought, since my other self is your sister, that I'd be the right person to talk to you and to try and cheer you up." She replied, shrugging a little.
Prime smiled softly at that. "Which it helped a little. Sure, there's probably a version of me out there somewhere who managed to succeed in defeating Mecha Sonic and save everyone before they were all killed and Mobius was never destroyed, not like my own, and I'll never forgive myself for what happened to me and Shadow, but knowing that I didn't lose everything, that I still have Saki-Chan, your presence alone is enough to remind me of what I still have. You're still Sakura, despite the different last name and different path you two have gone through."
Sakura blinked, before replying. "And you're still Sonic the Hedgehog, and the only one who protected all of us, in all of the Omniverse."
"I had help from you. Well, from Saki-Chan, I mean. If it weren't for her, I'd be dead by now, and all would've been lost. I can't take all the credit. You're a hero too, no matter where or when you are. Having one of the purest hearts I've ever seen." Prime pointed out with a shrug, and he was feeling a little much better now.
"Sometimes I don't feel like it." She admitted with a sigh in sadness.
"Smile." He responded softly, and when she looked up at him in confusion, like he had done to Elise Prime in the lost Time-Line, he held up an extended finger as though giving her a lesson. "Your smile. That's all I need."
Surprised by this request, and to some extened realizing that her presense alone did make him feel better, making him smile now, Sakura couldn't stop the warm, heart-felt smile from on her face which grew.
"See? Nothing better than a happy face among friends." Prime grinned and winked, which made her laugh and he quickly joined her.
"I'm glad that I made you feel better, Prime. And thanks...for cheering me up too." Sakura replied.
"You too, Sakura." He replied.
The two shared another laugh, before gazing out of the horizon with smiles beaming on their faces. They both still had a long way to go along with the rest of the Guardians and Cosmo, but they were glad that, despite what Prime has discovered today and was dreading in revealing another adventure that never happened, except for him, he can at least acknowledge that he wasn't the only one with a counterpart in this dimension.
He can still hold onto the thought of Saki-Chan since her counterpart is alive. They both were. He may have lost even Elise Prime, but Prime was certain, despite the tragedy, he should be okay.
The blue hedgehog could only hope that Elise Prime would forgive him even in the afterlife.
At the same time with Sonic...
Not long after Sonic returned to the Palace and requested to speak with Elise, the two close friends were at a balcony with the doors and windows open that overlooked some parts of Soleanna, seated at a white round table with a white table cloth draped over it, having tea and old fashioned but very delicious biscuits while they had a conversation of their own.
"...So, Sonic Prime has lost everything in his world?" Elise whispered, after Sonic confessed to her on what happened, but didn't get much into details as he didn't want to scare her.
"All except Shadow. Except he's not much a good company. Not from what I heard at least. The only family he's got now are Sakura's counterpart and her dad and older brother's counterparts. Even Madison and Kero." Sonic confirmed, sipping his tea in almost perfect etiquette to respect his manners and the manners of the royal family, before setting his cup onto the table and sighed. "I can't blame him for what his world's version of Eggman did, with that guy's robot becoming a mechanical monster he couldn't control, betraying him and all that. Just glad Egghead here hasn't gone that far yet, but who's to say that he won't do what the other Eggman did?"
"You can still stop him." The Princess pointed out gently.
"Yeah, I can. But it's a matter of luck and patience and not being overconfident and cocky, and actually being there on time." The blue hedgehog pointed out in return. "If it hadn't been for Sonia, all would've really been lost."
Sighing, he folded his arms onto the table and rested his chin onto them. "I don't wanna lose anyone, Elise. Especially you. I can't let myself make the same mistake in not being able to save the world and everyone like Prime did. From what I can make out even though it's not my place to say it, but even your counterpart is gone. I almost lost you forever and...I can't bear the thought of losing you at all, even over my mistakes. I just..."
Sonic swallowed heard, placing a hand over his face as he continued. "If anything happened to you and everybody else, I'd never forgive myself. Maybe it will happen because as long as Eggman's around, Mobius won't be safe until he's gone. I...I thought that when Rinsler seemingly killed him, it would be the end of it. But that jerk faked his death and recovered while nobody else even knew it. I should've gone back straight away the moment Tails, Amy, Knuckles and I got back home. But I just assumed that he was gone for good. That's one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made."
"Sonic..." Elise whispered, feeling her heart break as she saw the guild rising on his face, to see how her very close friend was reaching his breaking point even though he wasn't prone for crying, except for times when he was in massive guilt for things he didn't do, or losing people he failed to save. Plus as long as she had known him despite only having met him this year during the war, he didn't like tears at all.
"I'm sorry, Elise. I really screwed up badly. First Eggman, and now this. I...I'm really going down that path already. How can I stop myself from not being able to save the world? What'm I gonna do?" Sonic lowered his hand, before burying his face into his arms to hide his guilt, and struggled to stop himself from crying. "It's all my fault...!"
"That's not true at all, and you know that." The Princess reassured, gently placing a hand onto her distraught and guilt-ridden friend, who, feeling her touch, slowly and hesitantly looked up at her, as she continued. "Sonic, it isn't your fault that Eggman survived his injuries. It isn't your fault that you had to use Chaos Control to try and escape. Everything that has happened ever since you became a hero, all of it was his doing. You yourself said that the Eggman in Sonic Prime's world is the one fully responisble for it's destruction. He created a machine that destroyed almost everything. Something not even that horrible man could control."
When Sonic still looked rather doubtful, Elise continued. "But neither you or Prime did anything wrong. You both did what you could in both cases. Sonic Prime has saved us all from this Metallix despite what he has lost. You revived me when Solaris stole my heart and you defeated him all on your own."
"I just...didn't want to end up like I failed to save Shin, when me and the others were in his dimension that we tried to rescue him, but that old powerful jerk Heihachi killed him. I couldn't...I couldn't make that mistake again." Sonic muttered, tears forming in his eyes, which he quickly wiped away with his gloved hand. "Even know, I still can't believe how that old guy could be so cruel, even towards his own kid and grand-kid."
"And you learned from that mistake, Sonic." Elise reassured. "You formed the Freedom Fighters to stop Dr. Eggman from taking over even just 1% of our planet. You saved me more times than I can count, leading everyone to win the war, saving many people like you always do. You know that if you rebuild your ancestor's kingdom and regime as king, eventually history that happened in the past could happen again in the future. You returned my heart and soul into my body with the help of Tails, Knuckles, Amy and everyone else. You even helped Sailor Moon during her battle against the man who would've destroyed us all as well, and protected her from Solaris."
Registering the words his friend was telling him, Sonic thought back to what Prime told him after his older self gave him a very harsh lecture, realizing that he said the similar thing.
Prime shook his head with a sad smile. "You're not stupid, Sonic. I guess I was...acting like an over-protective parent."
"Well, you had a good reason for it." The younger blue hedgehog shrugged with a sad smile of his own. "You're smarter than me."
"I wish I could agree. But really, you're the one who's smarter than I ever was when I was your age. This was just a little slip up, and now you know to not make the same mistake next time. I'm really sorry for yelling at you like that." The older blue hedgehog pointed out.
"How could you say that I'm smarter than you, though?" Sonic asked, worriedly.
His friend was silent for a moment, before answering. "Because you actually listened to one side of how the Chaos Emeralds worked and been very afraid of using them, thinking it was a good idea to hide them again, you realized that it's friendship that's the real power that made you transform into Super Sonic for the first time. You actually listen to other people, something I generally didn't do when I was younger. You formed a resistence way long before Eggman could even take over 99% of the planet and you and the Freedom Fighters won. You actually make plans that are good ideas. You even fought and defeated an evil God all on your own, and decided to not let history repeat itself like what happened 8,000 years ago."
Prime paused, before concluding. "You're more of a true hero of Mobius than I ever was, Sonic, and more mature too."
"I guess ya' have a point. Prime kinda said the same thing to me earlier, before we came to save you and your dad from Pete." Sonic shrugged, smiling a little. "He thinks that I'm smarter than he was when he was my age. But hey, nobody's perfect. Especially not me, no matter how much everybody else in Mobius want me to be."
"Well, I'm certainly not a perfect Princess. You once told me to do the best I can, and listen to what my heart says. Sonic, you have done so much good. Don't blame yourself for the things that were all Eggman's fault." The Princess replied, removing her hand from his back and gently caressed his cheek. "If anyone can continue to defeat that horrible man, with or without help from close friends and allies, it's you. I believe in you, Sonic. I always have."
"Aw, Elise...Have I ever told ya that you're like a sister to me that I love so much?" Sonic smiled, feeling a whole lot better despite the lingering guilt he still had in his heart.
"I thought those were Amy, Cream and Serena's roles." His friend teased, making both of them laugh. It still warmed her heart and made her so happy that her very close friend admitted what he really felt about her.
"Hey, now. Who says you can't have too many brothers and sisters in form of blood relations or friends, or even both?" The blue hedgehog replied half-jokingly. "I only pick favorites among food and Chili Dogs take the trophy. But when it comes to people really important to me, it's a matter of being equal to each other, even with different personalities. In fact, they all think of the same thing. Especially Serena, with her being the leader of the Sailor Team and all."
"Well, I...I never had a brother like you. That's what you are to me, because I love you so much that way too." Elise confessed, blushing a little.
"Thanks, Elise. For that and for cheering me up. I'll do my best to protect you and everybody else, and make sure Mobius is always safe. I promise." Sonic replied gratefully. While he felt deeply touched and leaned into the touch of his friend's hand, he knew that he had to try to prevent himself from making the same mistakes as Prime. He wasn't sure how yet, but he had to at least try. For the sake of everybody he loved.
His close friend smiled, and with that, Sonic stood before giving Elise a warm hug which she returned, their friendship and sibling-like bond stronger than ever. They would've stayed like this for a little while if there wasn't a knock on the door which had the two friends blink and then turned to do it just as one of the maids came in before pausing as she saw the two hugging.
"Um, Miss Elise?" She began, somewhat awkwardly.
Suddenly realizing that they'd been caught hugging each other, Sonic and Elise shared shocked and horrified glances before letting go and looked away awkwardly, completely embarrassed with their faces slightly pink.
"S-Sorry. You didn't see that." Sonic stuttered. "We were just having a friend to friend chat."
"Please don't tell anyone, especially father." Elise requested.
Seeing how the two were embarrassed for breaking royal protocol despite how close they were, the Maid simply decided to shrug it off as a harmless thing especially since Sonic is the hero of Mobius and had saved the Princess lots of times, and nodded. "Of course. I will not tell anyone."
Both Sonic and Elise sighed in relief, before the latter asked. "Is there something wrong?"
"Actually, no, your highness. Sonic the Hedgehog's friends, the rest of Team Sonic and their new friends the Sailor Team, Cosmo and Prime the Hedgehog have returned and are waiting for the both of you in the throne room." The maid replied, bowing her head slightly.
The two friends blinked in surprise and shared a glance, while the blue hedgehog was relieved that his older self was back with the others. Question is, was Sonic Prime ready to reveal what kind of memories he regained and why it involved Elise Prime?
Turns out he was, because no sooner had Sonic and Elise reunited with the rest of the Guardians, Cosmo, Prime and Sakura, the latter two having gotten here just seconds after Sailor Moon's group did and from there, the older blue hedgehog, with slight hesitation, revealed how in an original Time-line in his dimension, existed Solaris as well, but unlike the Solaris in this dimension, the Iblis was sealed away inside Elise Prime's body and could only be released if she cried, and her death would cause the Iblis Trigger that would devastate the world which Silver had originally came from.
Sonic Prime explained how Eggman Prime intended on using the power of Solaris to rule Mobius, how Rouge Prime accidentally released Mephiles who had been sealed inside a staff before he stole Shadow Prime's shadow, and sent the two into the future just as Eggman Prime did with Sonic Prime, Tails Prime, and Knuckles Prime, where they learned the truth of how Silver and Blaze had been tricked by Mephiles into believing that Sonic Prime was the Iblis Trigger and the only way to save the future was to kill him, which the real goal was to kill the blue hedgehog and make Elise Prime cry to free Iblis and fuse both it and Mephiles himself to reform as Solaris to destroy every existance.
Sonic Prime explained how he and the others returned to the present to set things right and he himself traveled back in time with the help of Silver to prevent Elise Prime's death after he failed the first time, and succeeded in saving her life, only for Mephiles to sneak up on them as they were heading back and killed Sonic Prime instantly, much to the horror of everyone else. He then explained how his soul drifted, and his friends including Silver, and even Eggman then came up with a plan to gather the Chaos Emeralds and perform the resurrection ceremony to bring Sonic Prime back to life.
It wasn't until Sailor Moon, realizing that her vision now made perfect sense, spoke up as she continued for him. "And so the Elise in your world pleaded you to come back and it was the combination of the Chaos Emeralds and her tears that brought you back to life and transformed into Super Sonic, right?"
"Huh?" Prime blinked in surprise, as everyone else gazed at the Moon Princess before he replied. "Yeah, that's right. But how'd you know?"
"Earlier before we got sent into that weird place where we had to fight Ursula, or at least a fake version of her to get the Chaos Emerald back, I saw that moment in a Dimensional Scream. At first, I wasn't sure if it was either you or Sonic, but then I began to realize it wouldn't make sense if it was Sonic since Shadow was there, and here in our dimension he's gone. Not to mention that Sonic already defeated Solaris not long after I defeated Bhunivelze and Chaos within Xehanort's heart." Sailor Moon explained.
"So you saw a vision of something that didn't even happen except for Prime?" Ash asked in disbelief.
"No way!" Sora exclaimed in shock.
"Gosh, I guess your powers are gettin' stronger if you were able to see a vision of a past that no longer exists anymore, even in Prime's dimension." Mickey thought in disbelief.
The Moon Princess blinked, before asking. "But how can that be? I lost my Eternal form, remember? And the second half of light of Cosmos that was inside my heart is gone now. The only thing left of her is the Silver Crystal."
"Maybe it has something to do with Prime being here as well as your and Sonic's connections with the Silver Crystal and the Chaos Emeralds." Tails theorized.
"I think you're right. It could also be because of the blessing of the Mothercrystal in Hydaelyn." Sailor Mercury nodded in agreement.
"My thoughts exactly, and it is possible that whatever that place is that we were in earlier has something to do with Sonic Prime regaining his memories of a time-line that no longer exists." Buck added.
Prime thought deeply about what the Weasel said and muttered, "Hmm...I thought it had something to do with it. What began triggering my memories is when Sonic mentioned his adventures yesterday and earlier this morning. At least with the Eggman War from months ago part. I just wasn't sure what it was at the time."
He then continued on where Sailor Moon had mentioned, confirming on what she said, and then revealed how Shadow Prime and Silver also became Super forms to help Sonic Prime to defeat Solaris, which resulted in Prime himself and Elise Prime being sent back in time to just after the Sun God was sealed as a flame, and the two coming to an agreement that to prevent such tragedies that happened, they would blow it out at the cost of them ever meeting. The last thing Prime ever said to his Elise was just smile, which she did before blowing out the flame and forever changing the future. He then admitted that despite that, he recalled vague memories of the lost Time-Line and went to Soleanna for the first time and passed Elise Prime who also held vague memories of what happened.
"Hmm...Looks like, some part of you from the lost Time-line merged with ya' to give you the memories of what happened before, Prime, and now that merge has been fully completed. Giving you duel memories." Mickey theorized deeply, with his arms folded once Prime finished his story.
"Duel Memories?" Sailor Moon asked, confused.
"You mean like how the Prince of Persia had memories of the two Time-Lines he changed twice, Artie-M?" Future-Mini Moon asked, thinking that it's a similar scenario.
"Right." The King confirmed. "I'm think that since Prime time-traveled more than necessary, changing the future quite a few times himself with the Chaos Emeralds, and having gone through the adventure to stop the Time Eater, and since coming here to a dimension where Elise and Solaris still exist, it's caused him to regain his lost memories."
"That makes sense." Prime agreed now that he thought of it, before sighing as he lowered his gaze in guilt. "But in the end, it didn't make much of a difference since my world is now gone."
"Blame it on Eggman and Mecha Sonic, Prime. They're the ones who caused all of that in the first place. Besides, Egghead caused the stuff that happened with Solaris too. You know how he touches things that aren't meant to be played with." Sonic wisely suggested, folding his arms in growing anger over the evil scientist's sick discoveries. "No matter what time-line or dimension, that guy just never learns."
"He's right, Prime. You did what you could, and that's what it matters." Sakura reassured, gently placing a hand onto the older blue hedgehog's shoulder.
"Guess you guys got a point." Prime shrugged with a small smile. "Thanks Sonic, and Sakura."
"No problem." Sonic winked.
Sakura giggled in relief, while Prime winked in return, before he turned back to the royal family and said. "Anyway, I'm deeply sorry for what has happened."
"It's not your fault, Prime. You did what you could." Elise reassured.
"Yeah, well, Sonic did way better than I said." The older Sonic pointed out, scratching the back of his head, adding as Sonic glanced at him. "He saved you and brought you back to life without Time Travel, and defeated Solaris all by himself. He accomplished what I couldn't and Mobius is still here standing. I couldn't be anymore proud of him."
Sonic blinked in surprise, before shrugging a little sheepishly. "Come on, man. I had help from everybody else. I never would've done it without them or save Mobius and stopped Eggman from taking over it. Besides, I didn't even know Shadow back then and I never met Silver before either, if he even exists in this dimension."
"Even so, what you did was way better than what I could've done. I'm starting to think that you're stronger in will and in your heart than me when I was fifteen." Prime stated.
"Yeah, right." The younger blue hedgehog looked away with a chuckle. "Whatever you say, Prime. I didn't save the Realm of Light. Sailor Moon did, and she defeated two gods within a powerful guy's heart."
"Well, yeah, but I did die for a moment there after I did defeat Bhunivelze and Chaos. It was the tears from Sakura, Ash and Sora, and everybody else that had Queens Serenity and Selene and King Grimoire and even Cosmos that brought me back and restored the Silver Crystal." Sailor Moon reminded with a sad smile. "Besides, I had help from everyone else too. On my own, I'm just as useless."
Sonic couldn't help but flinch at the reminder, and shifted uncomfortably. He hadn't been there when that happened, or rather he was but he never knew until he met her and the rest of the Sailor Team months later. To think that she had died while he had been busy distracting Solaris before the Moon Princess had been revived and then once Xehanort and Eraqus passed on, she sealed away Kingdom Hearts with the help of everyone else before departing with Sakura, Ash and Sora to rescue Darien and Kairi from the Final World at the cost of some of their powers including Sailor Moon's eternal form, the teenage hedgehog still felt uneasy with that.
"Still..." Sonic trailed off, only for a loud growl fill the room which made him and everybody else look around in alarm, before gazing at Ash as the source was from his stomach. The young Pokemon Master flinched before groaning, placing a hand to his belly.
"Oh, come on. Not again." Shrek sighed in exasperation.
"Sorry." The twelve year old boy muttered sheepishly.
"Well, the offer for all of you to stay for the night is still open, if you all wish to do so. You all must be exhausted after a long day." The Duke suggested.
While Sailor Moon and Shrek shared uneasy glances, the Moon Princess nodded with a reassuring look at her close friend who, realizing he was out-numbered, sighed and reluctantly nodded.
"Thank you, your Majesty." She replied in respect.
Despite the awkwardness and that he felt it was a bad idea, Shrek secretly hoped he wouldn't mess up like the last time.
Later that night after dinner, which Shrek did as best as he could without messing up, and to his relief it wasn't as bad as his first dinner with his In-laws two years ago, and Rini(after she and the Sailor Scouts de-transformed) and Ellie made both Crash and Eddie behave themselves, everyone went to bed in their own either shared or separate rooms. Though Prime found that again he couldn't sleep. He kept on thinking about his regained memories before sighing, and decided to go for a bit of a walk to help him get some sleep.
Unaware that Sonic, trying to get some sleep himself and feeling a bit out of sorts despite the reassurance he gained today after the battle, heard him and just as he sat up to ask what was wrong, his older self was already out the door. Thinking that his friend was having thoughts about his lost past, the blue hedgehog decided to secretly follow him, so he got up and slipped out of the door as silently as possible.
As Prime, unaware of his younger self following him, walked along the corridor, he noticed that one of the bedroom doors were slightly open. Curiousity getting the better of him, he peered through and found that Amy was sitting on the edge of her bed, her hands under her chin as she stared ahead of her, looking rather disappointed and lost in her thoughts.
"Amy?" Prime whispered, wondering what was on her mind. Seeing his lost friend's counterpart sad made him feel guilty for never having spent time with her as much, and, feeling that he should see if he could cheer her up, gently knocked on the door to get her attention.
"Huh?" Amy blinked, brought out of her thoughts as she looked to her right and as the door opened up a bit wider, to her surprise at first thought it was Sonic, well, technecally it was, but it wasn't her Sonic, but his counterpart. "Prime?"
"Hey, Amy. May I come in?" Prime whispered.
"Uh, sure. Why not." The pink hedgehog replied, smiling a little while wondering why Prime was being so nice to her.
Giving permission to enter, Prime walked in and closed the door behind him, but not as properly as he would've thought. Sonic, seeing him step through and realizing which room it was, felt a mixture of confusion and worry swell inside him, before he silently hurried over and stood in front of the door, peering through the slightly closed gap to listen in on the conversation.
"Why are you up?" Amy asked, curiously as Prime took a seat next to her.
"Couldn't sleep. I thought I'd go for a walk when I noticed your door and open. You could say I could ask the same thing about you. So, what's up?" The older Sonic replied.
"I've...been thinking about what happened today. During the battle against that giant Octopus Lady, Ursula." Amy confessed with a sad sigh, gazing low once more. "Even though what Sonic and Cream told me earlier were comforting and reassuring, I wasn't useful in that battle at all. I mean, I was a little, but when she...when she captured everybody and Sonic pushed me, Cream, Rini, Lusie, and Cheese out of the way, and when he got captured before you saved them, I just stood there trying to protect the others and didn't even move."
The twelve year old pink hedgehog paused, a look of guilt washing over her. "I didn't even do anything. I was scared, and I couldn't even hit her without hurting Sonic or anyone else. I knew that if I tried, she would use them as her shields. I'm not fast like both of you, but I didn't do a thing. If I'm like this now, then I'm useless. The only reason I had some potential in being somewhat leader like is because I didn't have a choice during the war. I couldn't let Sonic or anybody else down."
Prime stared at her with sympathy, while Sonic, listening in, wished he could just go in and cheer her up. The younger blue hedgehog lowered his gaze as he knew that he couldn't let Amy or the other girls and Cheese to get caught by the giant sea-monster. It wasn't his self-proclaimed girlfriend's fault.
"But what kind of use am I, if I can't handle that sort of thing? I'm probably one of the lousiest fighters in the Guardians of Light. Eggman's robots are one thing, and even Eggman himself when I once bashed him away so hard on my own with my Hammer, it's still nothing compared to what Sonic or you or Knuckles can do, Prime." Amy muttered, with tears beginning to form.
'C'mon, Amy. You're stronger than that.' Sonic thought to himself.
"Everytime Sonic's in danger, I'm so scared of losing him...But, maybe it's best that he's better off without me getting in the way." The pink hedgehog continued, and before she could stop herself, she began crying as she buried her face into her hands.
Both Prime and Sonic felt their hearts ache to see their friend doubt herself like this, and being the closest to her while remembering his lost friend, the former reached over before hugging the crying girl into his arms, rubbing her back gently. Sonic on the other hand felt just as guilty, feeling like he should be there right now, but stopped himself from storming in. It wasn't right to barge in and snap when all Prime was doing was trying to cheer Amy up, and the younger blue hedgehog didn't want to make things worse. For some reason, he just...felt that it was awkward right now.
"Don't cry, Amy. It's like Sonic told you earlier. You're strong and brave and really caring, and determined, and you really have the skills to be leader material." The older blue hedgehog reassured.
"How do you know?" Amy sobbed, while feeling soothed and strangely comforted by her 'boyfriend's' older self despite that he is another Sonic.
"Because my Amy learned a lot during the War with Eggman she was with the Resistance, back when I was trapped on the Death Egg for six months." Prime told her. "She learned to think more carefully, putting her best efforts to help and rescue the civilians, and trained herself and lead others along with Knuckles to fight against Eggman's robots. Took out a lot more than I thought by the time the others rescued me."
The pink hedgehog slowly looked up at him as her crying began to cease, while Sonic, still listening in, thought about how man he saw Amy do the same thing, taking out more robots during the war due to her fiery determination.
"Even when Mecha Sonic...killed her?" Amy asked, hesitantly.
Prime sighed in sadness and nodded. "Yeah, but she didn't go down without a fight. None of them did, really. I couldn't hold off Mecha because he blasted me with a powerful beam and I lost consciousness as I fought him before he killed everybody else. He obviously thought I was dead and went after the Chaos Emeralds. By the time I woke up, everything was on fire and I had a green Chaos Emerald with me. But when I used Chaos Control to reach the others...It was too late."
"I'm sorry..." The twelve year old pink hedgehog said, sorrowfully.
"I had visions of how she fought against him, and boy he really understimated her. My Amy put up a really good fight against him and even began to overwhelm him until he got serious. He...beat her down, but she didn't hold back. She sacrificed herself and told everyone else to run. She died a hero. They all did." Prime admitted.
"She sounds like a hero." Amy thought. "She must've changed a little during the war, right?"
"Yeah, we all did. I think she grew up a little." The blue hedgehog shrugged, sighing in sadness, "After the war finally ended, she even stopped being obsessed over me and started treating me like everybody else would. Sometimes she still tried to flirt with me from time to time. Although she became more mature, I still see my Amy as a close friend or even as a sibling. I miss her so much, but I'm still proud of her for being so brave and her actions."
'Maybe that's all what Sonic feels about me. He loves me as a close friend and a sister to him. Maybe I should grow up, too. I deeply love him, but Prime told me how he really felt about the other Amy. They're both Sonic, so it makes sense.' The pink hedgehog thought to herself. She was disappointed with her 'boyfriend's' true feelings, or at least finding herself disappointed that Sonic Prime felt love in a family way to Amy Prime's romantic love until the war happened.
"That still doesn't change the fact how I messed up today." Amy sighed.
"You didn't mess up. You managed to make Ursula see how she underestimated you. Even Sonic plain out told her and you surprised that giant octopus that you can summon as many Hammers as you want." Prime pointed out.
"Ain't that the truth?" Sonic whispered to himself, trying not to laugh as he remembered the priceless look on Ursula's face when Amy summoned another Hammer before his self-proclaimed girlfriend hit her and succeeded while the younger blue hedgehog himself distracted her.
"...You got a point." Amy admitted, giggling a little as she too remembered that moment at least.
"Having an enemy like Ursula or some evil enemies underestimate you, you could use it as your advantage, Amy. Because you can give them a suprise attack or even you can give them have a hard time before they could even find a way to counter you." Prime advised.
"Maybe you're right. Sonic did say the similar thing a long time ago, a year after we met." She shrugged, sighing once more. "I just wish I could be a hero like your Amy was."
'Amy, you are a hero.' Sonic thought to himself, wanting to say that himself, but couldn't find it in his heart to interrupt the conversation, at least not yet. Not only that, while he did love Amy as a close friend and a sibling, there was a tingling feeling inside his chest that was trying to make him understand that his feelings for her was more than that. Much more.
Yes, she was obsessed with him and clingy, but when she gave him that sea-shell bracelet she made him before those Ex-Team Rocket clowns Butch and Cassidy smashed it during the adventures in the Galar Region, the blue hedgehog realized how much she deeply loved him, even blushed shyly when she gave it to him. It surprised him, and at that moment, his feelings towards her began to grow. He even fixed it up after saving her from drowning, and still has it even now.
Sonic just wasn't ready to stand still or settle down yet. Besides, he's only fifteen. Amy is only twelve. They're both still way too young to even think about getting married, and as for dates, well, he always manages to back out and sometimes she hits him hard on the head, and very scary whenever she was angry.
"Well in the future, you can be like her as long as you stop being worried too much or have lack of confidence toward a powerful enemy." Prime said rubbing Amy's hair carefully.
"Really?" She asked, hopefully.
"Yeah, let me tell you about something." Prime said.
He looked around making sure no one was within range, even though he caught sight of Sonic who softly gasped when their eyes locked and he quickly moved away from the door, leaning against the wall beside him, blushing in embarrassment before sagging a little. Fortunately Amy didn't seem to notice, while Prime, smiling softly a little and decided to not blow his younger self's cover, turned back to her and leaned up close to the pink hedgehog.
"Your Sonic might be proud of you or even sometimes he admired you if you're being mature like my Amy." Prime whispered then winked at her.
"...Maybe. Okay, I'll give it a try and be more gentle with my love for Sonic from now on." Amy nodded, smiling warmly at her 'boyfriend's' older self. "Thank you, Prime."
"You're welcome. You should get some sleep. Got a big day tomorrow." Prime replied, as he rubbed the pink hedgehog's back once more before standing up.
"Okay. Goodnight, Prime." The pink hedgehog responded, feeling a bit more better now.
"Night, Amy." The older blue hedgehog waved as he walked out the door and closed it behind him, leaving Amy behind with renewed hope, thinking about what both Sonic and Prime told her. While she still was madly in love with the former, she knew that in order to become more stronger and determined, she had to grow up and mature a bit more.
For Sonic's sake.
No sooner had Prime closed the door behind him with a sigh, he turned his attention to Sonic who, while still embarrassed over what Amy said even though he had no idea what his older self had told him, stood there leaning against the wall, deep in thought.
"...You saw me, but you didn't rat me out." Sonic whispered, knowing that Prime was well aware of his presence.
"You were there the whole time, weren't you?" The older Sonic whispered back to the younger blue hedgehog, who, with slight hesitation, nodded.
"Sorry. I couldn't sleep either. I noticed that you were out of the room, so I followed ya'." The cobalt teenager muttered, gazing down at the floor. "It's great that you cheered Amy up, but...I feel awful. I'm the one who should've cheered her up, being her friend and everything."
Prime felt sympathetic and gently placed a hand onto his friend's shoulder, before asking softly. "Wanna talk back in our room?"
Sonic glanced up at his older self before smiling in gratitude, whispering. "Sure. Why not."
Nodding in agreement, Prime lead the way with Sonic following as they headed back to their shared room to have their own private conversation. One thing was for certain for the latter, he vowed to keep on trying harder to protect everyone he loved so much and make sure the same thing that happened to all of Prime's friends except for Saki-Chan wouldn't happen to Sonic's friends.
Especially Amy Rose.
A/N: This is more of a breather chapter, and the conversation between Sonic and Prime as well as other ideas from both Sonic245 and myself that were unable to fit in this chapter will be revealed in the next one.
See you later!