Chapter 24: Everything

Tuesday morning passed quickly and frantically, as Amy conceded control of the project to Rouge, who was determined to get everything in order for the wedding Amy had already explicitly told her was not going to happen. After a few mishaps with Vector and a freshly painted wall, the entire garden was eventually completed – albeit with a few areas of wet paint and the water fountain was not yet operational – and, as Tails finished concealing the power supply to the water fountain's pump, Rouge emerged from city hall in a wedding dress, and Amy was initially too shocked to be angry.

"Oh Miss Rouge, you look so beautiful!" Cream cooed at her.

"Thank you, sweetheart," Rouge answered her.

"This is for you, Ames."

Amy turned her head from Rouge, sashaying her way down the garden path and basking in the admiration she was receiving, to Sonic, who was suddenly standing in front of her in the same outfit he had worn to the gala, and he was holding a clothing bag on a hanger out towards her.

"I'm not putting that on," Amy flatly told him. "And why are you doing this?"

"I'm the best man," he replied with a shrug.

Amy scowled at him, but he merely pushed the bag against her shoulder.

"Come on Ames, this is gonna be hilarious," he said with a big grin.

"No it isn't!" she snapped. "I already told her I wouldn't do this, this is the worst thing she has ever forced onto me!"

"Gees Amy, it's just some photos and then free dinner at Charlie's, what's your problem?" he asked, his smile fading at last.

"It's not fair!" she complained.

"Just put the dress on and… I dunno, do whatever it is the bridesmaid does."

"The what now?"

"I don't know what the bridesmaid does, I guess you're just there to make the bride look good? The best man gets to give the couple the rings, so at least there's a reason for me being there."

Amy accepted the bag from Sonic's hands, opening it up and peering inside to see the dress she had worn to the gala, fresh from the local launderer.

"Wait…" she said slowly. "This is…?"

Sonic grinned.

"I don't think he really understood what he said yes to," he said.

"What… What?" Amy muttered as confusion overtook any other emotion.

"Rouge said she needed someone handsome for her photos and he volunteered, like an idiot," Sonic said.

"He volunteered because he thinks he's the best-looking person here," Shadow grumbled as he joined Amy and Sonic.

"Yeah, which is crazy, right?" Sonic said.

"Absolutely," Shadow agreed.

"Clearly I'm the best-looking person here," Sonic continued. "Rouge is probably second."

"You're hardly the best-looking person here," Shadow countered. "You're not even in the top ten."

"There are only ten people here, Shadow," Sonic pointed out.

"My point exactly."

"So you think you're better looking than me?"

"Don't fight, you two!" Rouge warned as she approached them. "Amy, hurry up and get changed, we're starting soon."

Amy opened her mouth to argue, but she stopped short when she saw who else was dressed for the elaborate hoax Rouge was about to pull.

"Oh no…" she muttered.

"He has no idea, it's hilarious!" Sonic told her.

"Buddy, are you sure you wanna do this?" Tails asked tactfully.

"Rouge said she needed someone handsome for the photos!" Knuckles replied, adjusting his tie and smiling smugly. "As the best-looking person here, clearly I had to step up!"

Amy thought briefly about warning Knuckles that what he was about to do was not just a photo-shoot, but she also realised that doing so might just make Rouge rope her back into being the one to get married, and so she slipped into the hall bathroom and quickly changed into her dress, tidying up her quills and returning to the garden just in time to join in the ceremony. Knuckles was standing under the steel trellised arch, his chest puffed out looking far too pleased with himself, and Shadow was walking Rouge towards him, her arm linked through his. Sonic met Amy at the end of the walkway and offered her his arm. She gave him a withering smile before linking her arm through his, and together they started down the garden path.

"Wanna take a bet on how long it takes Knuckles to realise this is real?" Sonic asked quietly, leaning towards her slightly to convey his question.

"No," Amy quietly replied, leaning towards him. "Because that's cruel."

"Tails has his money on when the photos come out," Sonic continued as though he had not even heard Amy's response. "Vector says tomorrow morning, I say tonight at dinner."

"I can't believe you're all betting on it!" Amy hissed.

"If you join in, that's four of us, so you would win four times your money if you guess right!" Sonic offered.

"Sonic, this is already really cruel! Poor Knuckles doesn't even understand what he's getting himself into!"

Sonic paused, giving Amy a sceptical look.

"Okay, if you wanna get all high and mighty about this, why don't you tell "poor Knuckles" exactly what he's "getting himself into"?" he asked.

Amy hesitated and Sonic grinned.

"Because if you do tell him, he'll back out, and you'll be back to marrying Rouge again," he said. "You're letting Knuckles take the fall for you. Not cool, Amy."

"It's not like that!" Amy protested.

"Oh yeah?" Sonic echoed. "Well, now's your chance to set things straight."

Sonic slid his arm out of Amy's hold and moved to stand alongside Knuckles, leaving her beside Rouge. She watched him for a moment before looking at Knuckles, who looked so happy in his blissful ignorance, and then at Rouge, who looked far too pleased with herself. She died a little inside as she realised that she was, in fact, prepared to let Knuckles take the fall for her, before stepping into line and allowing the ceremony to proceed, trying her best to hide the guilt from her face when the mayor's aide began taking photographs of them. Knuckles carried on obliviously, even delivering his vows with an air of pride, and even leaning in when Rouge kissed him – though as soon as the mayor's aide turned away he made a joke about only doing it for the cameras.

Once the ceremony had finished, Rouge took a look around, before turning to Amy.

"Are we finished here?" she asked.

"Yeah, just waiting for the paint to dry in a few places, and then get the power and water connected to the fountain, but otherwise, we're good to go!" Amy replied.

"You said free dinner if we finished before eight, Rouge," Sonic reminded the bat.

"Sonic, it's barely four in the afternoon," Rouge dryly replied.

"Early bird special!" Knuckles and Tails both said together.

"Isn't that just for old people?" Rouge asked, curling her lip.

"Everything's cheaper during the early bird special," Sonic pointed out.

"Everybody move out, we're going for dinner right now!" Rouge called out.

"Wait a minute, you're taking me to Charlie's for dinner?" Knuckles asked. "On my wedding day?"

Amy and Tails frowned at each other.

"That's not very romantic, Rouge," Knuckles added.

"What do you care?" Sonic asked him. "You're not paying!"

Knuckles grumbled some more, but eventually followed the others as they moved back into city hall. Amy lingered in the garden a few moments longer, waiting until everyone else had gone to take a look around. She was amazed they had all actually managed to produce it just as she had imagined it. The walls were gleaming with fresh paint, the sun was shining on the rainbow of colours filling the flowerbeds, the fountain looked amazing – and it, along with everything else, would look incredible after dark, when they switched on all the delicate little lights. She sighed softly and turned around, finding Metal waiting for her in the doorway.

"Isn't it amazing?" she asked him.

He looked around the garden, before meeting her eyes and nodding his head once.

"We couldn't have done it without you," she added. "I couldn't have done it without you. Any of it. Thank you."

He smiled his small smile and nodded his head once again.

"Now let's go enjoy a free dinner!" she added, linking her arm through his.

He looked a little surprised, looking down at their linked arms, but she ignored his confusion, dragging him along with her through city hall.

"Rouge very rarely shares, so let's take advantage while we still can!" she added.

The street outside was in that weird place the city streets got to just before rush hour, where, even though it was still day time and all the businesses outside were open, there were relatively few people in the streets. Amy started to run, forcing Metal to run alongside her, something they had to do to catch up to the others, who had started racing towards their destination. They slowed as they reached the entrance, where the others had become caught in a bottleneck as they all tried to push their way inside at once.

"Hey, you!"

Amy narrowed her eyes at the sound of the voice shouting from down the street.

"You, the lady in the fairy dress, over here!"

Amy turned her head, looking down the street to see a slightly scruffy coyote in a flat cap leaning out of the window of a street stall and waving to her. She tugged gently on Metal's arm and slowly made her way down to his stall, recognition dawning on her as she stopped in front of it and the man behind the open window smiled at her.

"Well, well, look at you two, huh?" he said.

"I remember you," Amy replied in a low voice. "You're that mean man who wouldn't serve my friend!"

The coyote nodded, his smile still in place, apparently unaffected by Amy's accusation. He turned his attention to Metal, eying him over before letting out a long, low whistle.

"Hey, you clean up not too bad, pal," he said. "I guess you two are like that one film, where the rich guy picks up a girl on the street and turns her into something classy."

Amy's face dropped.

"That film is about an older man picking up a young prostitute!" she snapped.

"How do you know how he got his money before you came along, huh?" the coyote asked.

"Shut-up!" Amy snapped at him. "You're disgusting, and I bet your food tastes terrible too!"

The coyote grinned and leaned out of his window towards her. He started to say something that was probably building to be a witty comeback, but his words dissolved into a yelp of alarm and pain as the metal shutter above his window came crashing down on the back of his neck. As he squawked and fought to dislodge himself from it, Amy turned her head to Metal, who was watching the display impassively, one hand poised in the air, still holding the locking mechanism he had broken off of the shutter.

"Nice," she said with a smile.

He turned to her and smiled back, and this time it was a proper smile – not a small smile or a psychotic one.

"Let's go get dinner," she said.

He nodded and together they made their back to the restaurant, entering with ease as everyone else was finally inside. The others were sitting down at a long table, but Sonic was loitering in the middle of the floor, surrounded by four waitresses.

"See, here he is!" Sonic said, holding out a hand towards Metal.

Amy started to warn Metal that Sonic was up to something, but before she could finish, Sonic had put an arm around him and the waitresses were bustling her away from him.

"Oh my goodness, you two are totally identical twins!" one of them gushed.

"I told you I had a twin brother!" Sonic casually replied. "You didn't really think it was just me coming back in twice in the same day pretending to be two different guys, right?"

"Sonic..." Amy growled.

"His eyes are a different colour from yours," one of the other waitresses pointed out.

"Contact lenses," Sonic smoothly answered her.

"He's a little burlier than you, too," another one added.

"...That's debatable..." Sonic muttered.

"He's kinda cute," one of the waitresses said.

"He's cuter than you, Sonic!"

Sonic's face fell and Amy smiled. When he saw the look on her face, he suddenly got that look he got when he was having a stupid idea.

"This is Amy," he said to the waitresses, pointing at Amy. "She's his wife."

Amy gave him a hard look, but he purposefully avoided looking directly at her.

"Aw, that's so sweet!" one of the waitresses cooed.

"Yeah, so, y'know, here's your proof," Sonic said, waving a hand dismissively in the air. "I really do have a twin brother. Right, Maurice?"

Metal narrowed his eyes at Sonic and Amy sighed, taking Metal's hand and guiding him over to the table. As they sat down, Sonic finally joined them.

"Maurice?" Amy said as he sat down. "You hate that name!"

"Maurice?" Knuckles echoed. "Hey Sonic, isn't that the name you use when you're pretending it's your birthday, and you pretend to be your own twin brother to get two lots of free–"

"Maurice is the name of my twin brother right here, Knuckles," Sonic cut him off as a waitress approached their table.

Amy sighed and shook her head.

"Just ignore him," she said to Metal.

"I'm gonna order the most expensive thing on the menu," Knuckles said. "Because Rouge is paying."

"Knuckles got married today," Sonic told the waitress.

"Oh, let me get you some free champagne and cake!" she replied.

"Hey man, that's cheating!" Vector complained.

Sonic shrugged as the waitress walked off.

"Guys, I feel kinda bad telling a lie like that to get free stuff," Knuckles said.

"Sonic does it all the time," Tails pointed out. "Every time we come here he tells a lie to get something for free."

"We come here a lot, I'm pretty sure we pay more in tips than we get for free," Sonic defended himself.

"But it's not really my wedding," Knuckles said. "I'm gonna tell them the truth."

"Honey, wait," Rouge said, grabbing his arm as he made to stand up from his seat.

"Oh let me guess, Rouge," he said sarcastically. "You're happy to lie to get stuff for free, right?"

"Yes, I am," she shamelessly replied. "But this isn't a lie. You and I did just get married."

Knuckles slowly sat back down.

"N-no we didn't..." he said quietly.

"Yes, we did," Rouge replied. "Annalise wanted a wedding, and I needed my face to be on those photos."

"But I don't wanna marry you," Knuckles said quietly.

"Well, you had to," Rouge frankly replied. "Because Amy backed out of it."

"Hey!" Amy protested.

"Pay up, guys!" Sonic said with a smile.

"No way!" Vector argued. "You basically told him the wedding was real, you rigged it so you would win!"

"Yeah, Sonic!" Tails agreed. "The bet's off!"

"Sonic has to pay us double for trying to rig the bet!" Vector said.

"Wait, what?" Knuckles said, looking back and forth between Tails and Vector. "Are you guys serious?"

"Yeah!" Vector replied. "Sonic cheated on our bet about how long it would take you to realise you just got married for real!"

Knuckles turned wide eyes to Tails, who grinned nervously.

"Sorry, buddy, it's true," he said. "But I'm sure you can just get it annulled tomorrow morning, right Rouge?"

Knuckles turned to Rouge, who was admiring her reflection in her knife.

"You tricked me into marrying you?" he roared at her.

"Calm down!" she said, rolling her eyes.

"I always knew you would do this to me one day!"

"You always knew she would trick you into marrying her?" Shadow asked Knuckles.

"Yeah!" Knuckles confirmed.

"Why?" Shadow asked.

"Because that's just how she is!" Knuckles replied. "Well, the joke's on you, Rouge! I'm going to divorce you, and that means I get half your stuff!"

Rouge, much to everyone's surprise, smiled devilishly.

"How about this, big guy," she began, her voice almost a purr. "You can have all my stuff when we get divorced. And I'll take all of your stuff."

"Ha!" Knuckles said, pointing a mittened hand at her. "Idiot, I don't have any stuff, so I get everything, and you get nothing!"

"You're the idiot, idiot," Shadow growled at him as Rouge continued to look far too pleased with herself.

"Stay outta this, Shadow!" Knuckles shot back at him.

"You just agreed that you both get everything of each other's," Shadow pointed out. "Anything of value Rouge owns is hidden away. All you're getting is a wardrobe full of black and purple latex, meanwhile she's getting the Master Emerald."

Knuckles deflated instantly, his shoulders slumping and his eyes growing wide.

"Wh-what?" he muttered.

"All this time, and all I had to do to get my hands on the Master Emerald was marry you," Rouge said with a sigh.

"Rouge!" Amy protested. "You can't take advantage of him like that!"

"You're no fun, Amy," Rouge said with a pout.

The waitress returned with two bottles of champagne, which both Rouge and Vector took from her before anyone else could say anything on the matter. Amy was watching them grab the bottles and place them on the table, and so she only vaguely noticed that Metal was signing something to Tails, her attention brought fully to it when Tails just answered him aloud.

"What?" he said. "Why would you think that?"

"Think what?" Amy asked Tails.

Tails kept his eyes on Metal, and so Amy turned her attention to him. He didn't appear to be looking at either of them, and so she turned to see what he was looking at, and found herself looking at Sonic. She turned back to Metal, finding him frantically signing something to Tails.

"Seriously dude, this would all be way less confusing for you if you just spoke to Amy yourself!" Tails sternly answered him.

Amy gasped.

"Tails, that's mean!" she scolded him. "You know Metal can't talk!"

Tails pouted at her and she tilted her head, confused by his response. However, before she could ask him to explain himself, Vector and Sonic opened the bottles of champagne – which they had been shaking vigorously for the last couple of minutes – and everyone else was forced to shield themselves as champagne began spraying everywhere. Rouge shouted out about the price of her dress, and initially Amy felt the same way: but when she saw that Metal was smiling at her, she forgot all about it and smiled back.

Dinner eventually followed, and everyone spoke about the fairy garden project and how, although it had all been hard work, they were pleased with the results. Vanilla suggested they all go back after dinner to see it after sundown, with the lights switched on, and everyone agreed that was a great idea. Rouge proposed it would be a good opportunity to get some more photos, and, much to everyone's surprise, Knuckles agreed with her.

Once dinner was finally over and everyone left the restaurant again, it was twilight conditions outside, and the thought of seeing the sparkling little lights illuminated filled Amy with a renewed sense of purpose: although Rouge and Knuckles still ran ahead and were the first ones to get back to city hall, followed by Sonic, Tails and Vector, who were still bickering over their bet. Vanilla engaged Metal in a signed conversation and Shadow moved ahead of the group on his own, leaving Amy with Cream.

"Mister Metal said he thought you were getting married to Mister Sonic today," Cream whispered to Amy out of nowhere.

"He did?" Amy echoed.

Cream pressed a finger to her lips, warning Amy to lower her voice. Amy glanced over at Metal, but found him still deep in silent conversation with Vanilla.

"He did?" she whispered.

Cream nodded.

"Tails asked him why he thought that," she whispered.

Amy realised then that Cream was relaying to her the signed comments Metal had made to Tails at the start of their meal.

"He said you always said you would marry Mister Sonic," Cream whispered. "And he said you're still in love with Mister Sonic. But that's not true, right Amy? You're not still in love with Mister Sonic, right? I thought you liked Mister Metal now."

Amy hesitated before answering.

"Right?" Cream pressed her.

"For a long time, I was in love with Sonic, you know that, Cream," Amy carefully replied. "And I do still love him, but just like he's my friend. I'm not in love with him any more. As for Metal..."

Amy looked over at Metal, smiling his small smile at Vanilla as he signed something back to her.

"I can't explain how I feel about him," she said, lowering her eyes to Cream again. "It's not like anything I've ever felt before. It's different. It's special."

"It's love!" Cream whispered excitedly.

"I, uh..."

Amy lifted her eyes to Metal again. Vanilla was signing something to him, but his eyes met Amy's, and when Vanilla finished and waited for his response, he never gave one, his attention still fixed onto Amy. She smiled at him and he smiled back.

Amy tucked her quills behind one ear self-consciously as she started to feel a little embarrassed. She turned and scaled the steps up to the entrance of city hall, moving on into the main hall. Cream skipped along at her side, looking up at her with wide, excited eyes.

"Stop it," Amy said to her.

"Amy!" Cream gushed. "It's amazing!"

Amy stopped walking and turned to Cream. She was about to admonish her for getting too excited, but lost her train of thought when Vanilla and Metal walked past Cream, and her attention was drawn up to Metal. He stopped a couple of steps ahead of her and Vanilla stopped too, looking at him curiously: but he was looking back at Amy.

"Come on, let's go see the garden," Amy said, turning and starting down the hall.

Vanilla, Cream and Metal moved with her, and, despite herself, Amy started to smile. Everything felt so great, the day was starting to give her the sort of feeling she had always wanted from the gala, something she always hyped up in her mind and never quite lived up to her expectations. But this night was perfect. She had all her friends with her, they were all having fun, and she was experiencing something new, feelings she had never thought possible before.

The way she felt about Metal was definitely different to anything she had ever felt for Sonic.

Maybe her feelings for Sonic had only ever been a crush, but now, this time, she was feeling love.

"Amy, don't go out there!"

Amy snapped out of her reverie as Rouge grabbed her arms and halted her progress. The horrified look on Rouge's face slowly ate away every ounce of happiness and positivity that had been building inside of her, replacing it bit by bit with a cold, sickening sense of dread.

"Why?" she asked.

"Don't go out there," Shadow insisted, appearing beside Rouge.

"What is it?" Vanilla asked as Vector joined her.

"Just don't go out there," he answered her. "Either of you."

He put one hand on Vanilla's shoulder and one on Cream's, halting their progress. Metal looked around them all, before peeling out of sight, racing down the remainder of the hall and out the back doors.

"Honey, please, don't do it!" Rouge begged as Amy started to wrestle herself free of the bat's hold.

"Don't do it," Shadow added.

"Let me go!" Amy argued.

"Amy, no!" Rouge tried.

Amy finally fought herself free and ran down the hall, her heart pounding twice for every step she took. She broke out of the back doors and quickly lost her momentum, slowing to a complete halt between Sonic and Knuckles, who, like her, were looking about themselves dejectedly.

The garden – the beautiful garden they had all worked so hard on, due to be opened to the public the following morning – was in ruins.

It looked even worse than it had before they had started their work.

"What happened?" Amy asked.

Sonic gave her a solemn look but said nothing. She turned to Knuckles, and he shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Amy," he said.

He reached out a hand to her shoulder, but she shrugged it off and ran over to the water fountain, which, despite its mass of solid rock, was broken into chunks. Tails and Metal were standing over one particular chunk, staring intently at it. Amy stopped beside Metal, looking down at what had caught their interest: two strings of ones and zeros, written onto the stone with black marker pen.

"What does that say?" Amy demanded, turning to Metal expectantly.

He gulped audibly, but kept his eyes on the message. Amy looked past him to Tails, who met her eyes with a look of sadness and a hint of fear.

"It says "if I can't have what I want, why should you?"" he said quietly. ""Give me back Metal Sonic, or I'll break everything you own"."

Amy let out a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding. She pressed a fist to her chest and turned away from Tails, slowly looking around at the uprooted plants, the crude symbols spray painted onto the garden walls – one of which was Eggman's signature symbol – the shattered ornaments, the oil-stained flowerbeds and grass, the tyre skid-marks and engine blast-marks on the garden path, and, finally, she looked down at the remains of the fountain again, which quickly blurred from her vision.

"I can't believe he did this!" she cried, as tears filled her eyes. "Why this? This isn't anything to do with him!"

"Amy, he didn't do it to hurt city hall," Tails said carefully. "He did it to hurt you."

Amy looked over at two rows of fairy lights, which were softly smouldering, as though the lines had been over-charged in order to ignite them.

"Me?" she asked.

When Tails didn't immediately answer her, she turned to him expectantly, a tear rolling down her face. He was looking up at Metal, nervously.

"Yeah, you, Amy," he said, his eyes still on Metal. "Eggman knew exactly what he was doing."

Amy frowned.

"But we shouldn't let that force us into doing anything stupid," Tails added firmly. "Right, buddy?"

He was clearly directing his last question at Metal, but Metal was still looking down at the message written on the remains of the fountain.

"Metal?" Tails pressed.

Metal looked at him briefly, before turning to Amy, flinching as their eyes met. His eyebrows inverted and his hands moved out in front of him, his fingers flicking in the air between them.

"Let's just go home," she said, shaking her head. "I just wanna go home, okay?"

"Okay," Tails said, nodding his head. "That's a good idea! Let's all go home, and we can come back here tomorrow morning, and fix it!"

Amy groaned and turned, starting back towards city hall. Cream ran out just before she reached the doors, gasping and then covering her mouth with her hands as she looked around the scene of devastation before her.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Eggman," Amy plainly replied, walking around her.

"Eggman?" Cream repeated, turning around and falling into step alongside Amy. "But why?"

"I don't know..." Amy lied.

She continued back down the long hallway to the front door. Somewhere along the way, Rouge fell into step alongside her. On the street outside, she stopped walking and allowed Rouge to take hold of her shoulders and turn her around to face her. Tears were falling freely from her eyes, but she wasn't sobbing. She lacked both the energy and the will to openly cry. Rouge began wiping a tissue at her face, and she stood and let her do it, despite it being something she would usually have fought. She let Rouge bustle her into the back of Tails's car, which even Rouge and Shadow piled into.

The car started to move, and Amy found herself sitting between Rouge and Cream, and both were hugging her and trying to say reassuring things that she didn't really hear or care to listen to. She got the general idea that they were trying to say that everything was going to be okay, because they could fix the garden, they could delay its opening to the public, they could make it even better than before: clearly they had no idea why Amy was upset about what had happened.

Honestly, she was only a little disappointed that the garden had been ruined. Really, she was far more concerned about Eggman's message. Was this it now? Was this the future? Was Eggman never going to leave Metal alone? Would he never let him be free?

The car stopped, and Amy only briefly considered it odd that it had stopped at her house before anyone else's. Rouge got out of the car ahead of her and helped her out. Metal got out of the passenger side of the front of the car, and when he looked at her, Amy thought he looked about as miserable as she felt: and seeing him that way, knowing that Eggman had made him feel that way, broke her. She burst into tears and fell against him, grabbing him into a hug. Without hesitation, he hugged her back: but, even through her heaving sobs, she noticed something odd.

It felt like Metal was shaking in her arms.

Next Chapter: Amy is inconsolable, which is tough for Metal, who can't stand to see her cry. When she eventually cries herself to sleep, he notices something in her tarot cards, and thinks he knows how he can stop her sadness. Amy wakes up the next day and sees something on one specific tarot card, something that none of her friends want to admit to, but when the meaning finally becomes clear, Amy thinks her ominous reading from before is starting to become a reality. Chapter 25: Heart