Chapter 27: Tower
"Where did you come from, you miserable rat?" Eggman yelled. "Get out of my way!"
"Funny, I was just about to say the same thing to you!" Shadow roared, before leaping up and punching the underside of the Eggmobile, sending Eggman spinning away.
Shadow phased out of sight and reappeared where Eggman came to a stop, but Amy quickly turned her attention back as a blue metallic robot bounced along the ground before her. Metal pushed himself up, his head twitching, something sparking at the one side of his head.
"Stop!" Amy cried.
Sonic gave her a hard look before rolling up into a ball and smashing into Metal again. When screws and bolts and a panel from Metal's leg scattered from the point of impact, Amy screamed. She scrambled to her feet and started after Sonic, but, as usual, he was far too fast for her. She shouted after him, begging him to stop, but he continued assaulting Metal, bashing him relentlessly before ultimately kicking him into a rock. Amy wailed as he smashed on impact, falling into a pile of redundant, lifeless metal. Sonic finally stopped and she finally caught up to him, grabbing his arm and forcing him around to face her.
"What did you do that for?" she screamed into his face.
"Amy, that thing was going to kill you," he calmly replied.
"No he wasn't!" she argued. "Why didn't you stop when I told you to?"
"Because Amy, that thing was going to kill you!" Sonic sternly replied.
"No he wasn't!"
Amy placed both her hands on Sonic's chest and pushed him back as hard as she could. She wasn't sure if she had forgotten that he wasn't as immobile as Metal or if she had genuinely meant to shove him as hard as she did, but either way, her ire did falter a little when he stumbled back a few steps.
"You killed him!" she said, pointing at the mangled mess that remained of Metal.
"Amy, that thing isn't Metal!" he said.
"What are you talking about?" she replied. "Yes it is – I mean yes he is! Look at him! Look at what you did to him! Again! This is just like what you did to him on Stardust Speedway!"
"Stardust Speedway?" Sonic muttered. "Wait, are you talking about my race against Metal on Little Planet?"
"Yes!"
"My race to rescue you?"
"You let that gate fall on Metal, and it destroyed him! He wanted to win, I told him he would have good luck, and then that gate smashed into him and he fell all the way down to the… You're an asshole, Sonic!"
"Whoa, Amy, calm down!"
"No! I will not calm down! This is not okay, Sonic!"
Sonic held up his hands in a calming gesture but Amy slapped them aside with both of hers.
"Amy, get a grip!" he snapped.
She bared her teeth and started towards him, but was stopped as someone dropped down directly in front of her and grabbed her shoulders.
"Oh sweetie, you're bleeding! What happened to you?"
Amy refocused her eyes onto Rouge, who was looking her over with a genuine, almost motherly, concern.
"Amy, I was so worried about you after you ejected from the Tornado!"
Amy turned her head to see Cream beside her, looking completely unscathed, having apparently just ditched her parachute and flown away as Amy had hoped she would.
"What happened here, you guys?"
Amy turned to her other side as Knuckles crouched down over the remains of Metal, shortly being joined by Tails.
"Sonic killed Metal," Amy said bitterly.
"Amy, that thing was not Metal!" Sonic insisted.
"It looks like it is," Shadow said, kicking at one of Metal's detached feet, sending it rolling over.
Amy made to lunge at him, but Rouge tightened her hold, restraining her from attacking.
"Look you guys, you all keep forgetting, me and Metal have a special understanding of each other," Sonic began.
"Oh Sonic, give it a rest!" Rouge groaned.
"It's true!" Sonic insisted. "And I'm telling you, that thing is just something Eggman threw together from spare parts – that is not Metal!"
"Sonic," Shadow sneered. "You are so full of sh–"
"You guys, this isn't Metal," Tails cut him off, standing up holding two broken parts.
"It's not?" Amy asked.
"No, it's definitely not," Tails confirmed. "Metal keeps that card you gave him in his right hand, and it's not here. Also none of these parts are his, and this CPU is tiny."
Tails held up a small black box.
"Metal's original CPU was much bigger and more complex than this," he said. "It's like Metal himself said before: if Eggman ever wanted another Metal Sonic, he would just build one. And it looks like he just did."
"Oh, what a relief!" Amy said, slumping so drastically that Rouge's grip was the only thing keeping her on her feet.
"He just said everything I said!" Sonic protested.
"Yeah, but he said it with facts, Sonic," Knuckles pointed out.
"I said it with facts too!" Sonic argued.
"Alright Sonic, if you're really so attuned to Metal, where is he right now?" Rouge asked him.
"Let me think."
Rouge groaned as Sonic closed his eyes and touched his index fingers to his temples.
"Well, while Sonic pretends to be psychically linked to a cyborg, I have a way of finding Metal using logic and real science," Tails said.
"You do?" Amy asked.
"Yeah!" Tails replied. "All we have to do is–"
Tails's last word was drowned out by a deafening, extended roar of thunder and brilliant, prolonged flash of lightning that turned the entire sky an eerie shade of purple. When the noise and light finally ceased, another, new sound remained.
"Oh my goodness, look!" Cream said, pointing out towards the sea.
Amy and the others turned in the direction she was pointing, where apparently the lightning had struck the old lighthouse, setting fire to the disintegrating lamp fittings protruding from the partially collapsed roof. Everyone watched it briefly, making a few comments about how lucky they were to have avoided being hit themselves, before moving onto something else: but Amy couldn't take her eyes off the flames. It was too much of a coincidence, too literal of a likeness.
It was The Tower. Just like the card, it was the tower, with the flames on the roof, and the stormy seas below.
It began to rain, quickly becoming an unbearable, torrential downpour, but even that did nothing to quell the flames.
"What's that noise?" Amy faintly heard Knuckles ask.
"What?" Rouge yelled back at him, her voice shrunken by the drone of rainfall around them.
"That noise!" Knuckles yelled back, his voice still barely audible despite the fact that he was clearly shouting. "Like a beeping noise! You can't hear it?"
He looked around the others and they all shook their heads. Amy turned her attention back to the burning lighthouse, and that, combined with the unending roaring of rainfall, meant that she didn't hear Tails shouting out a warning. She only vaguely noticed when Sonic raced past her with Cream in his arms, Shadow snapped out of sight, and Tails took to the air with Knuckles.
"Sweetie, come on!" Rouge shouted at her.
Amy kept her eye on the tower, tugging back when Rouge took to the air and tried to haul her off her feet.
"Amy!" Rouge screamed down at her.
Amy looked up at her, the look of genuine panic and fear on her face finally registering in Amy's addled mind. Rouge looked over at something else and Amy turned her head to see what it was, finding herself looking at the broken remains of what she hoped really was a fake Metal Sonic: but the view only remained the same briefly, before it erupted in a mushroom cloud of flame and smoke, the blast throwing Amy into the air. Her hands slipped out of Rouge's, the blast had left a high-pitched whining in her ears that drowned every other sound, including the unforgiving rainfall. The noise was so loud, so painfully loud, her head was spinning. Her back hit something hard that halted her midair, and she fell onto her side, too disoriented to even attempt to land any better way.
On the ground, she blinked and breathed, put one hand on the ground and rolled over onto all fours, looking down at the ground as blood dripped from her nose. The rain felt like nails driving into her back. She couldn't hear or focus enough to see if the thunder and lightning were passing. She lifted up onto her knees, but shortly fell awkwardly back, her back colliding with the same hard object that had halted her fly through the air. She rested there for a moment as she caught her breath, looking about herself as best she could: every time she blinked she saw flashes of light, and the ringing in her ears was persisting, although she could hear a watery murmur of noise, as her senses started to return to her.
Far in the distance, she saw Sonic and Shadow running back over. Tails landed with Knuckles by them. Cream landed a little closer, hurrying over to Rouge, who had landed halfway between Amy and the smouldering remains of the apparently false Metal Sonic. Cream took one of Rouge's hands in both of hers and hauled her to her feet, and although her face was contorted, the bat managed to stand and look over at the others. With a great effort, Amy placed her hands behind her, against the cold wet stone surface there, walking her hands up it as she planted her feet beneath her and walked herself back up into a standing position, her back still against the wall. She paused to take a few steadying breaths before turning around and touching a hand to the wall, her eyes running up the length of it to the flames atop it.
It was the tower, and it had stopped her from flying out over the edge of the cliff.
Amy started to walk around the cylindrical old lighthouse, until she passed it entirely, reaching the cliff edge. The sea below was black and the waves were wild, white peaks crashing into the cliff-side. Amy leaned over a little, looking down. The clouds were still thick, but the rain wasn't quite as intense as it had been, and the slight easing of weather had allowed a little more daylight into the world.
Just as Amy was considering that she knew the lighthouse was The Tower, she noticed something else, and finally realised what it was that she needed to do.
Amy sat down, dangling her legs over the edge of the cliff, before grabbing at the ground and spinning around, dropping her weight over the edge. Her hearing had cleared enough that she could hear the rain, hear the angry dark waters below her, and she could hear Rouge and Cream frantically screaming out her name. She ignored it all, and began the awkward descent down the steep, sheer cliff-face. As she went, her clothing, her knees and the palms of her hands caught on random sharp cuts of rock, tearing clothing and skin alike, but she persisted, climbing down lower and lower, until she reached a small outcrop of rock two thirds of the way down. There, she jumped off, landing on the ledge, her feet splashing as they hit the ground.
She looked down at her feet, lifting one tentatively and turning it over to look at the white sole, watching as pinkened water dripped from it.
"Amy!" Cream cried.
Amy looked up as Cream flew down towards her from one side of the tower. Rouge appeared at the other side, looking first at Cream, then Amy, then at Amy's destination, the whites of her eyes looking almost luminous in the dull conditions.
"Don't look!" she cried out, spearing Cream midair and grabbing her into her arms. "Don't look, honey!"
She pushed Cream's face into her shoulder and flew back up over the cliff-edge and out of sight. With them gone, Amy turned her attention back to her destination, moving towards it until every detail was clear, until there was no doubt in her mind that what she had seen from up beside the lighthouse was true.
Above her, Knuckles began climbing down the cliff-face and Tails swooped down, landing with a splash at her side. He was staring at her, but her eyes weren't on him.
"It-it's maybe not as bad as it looks!" he said, in the sort of way that only someone as optimistic as he was could.
He said nothing else and did nothing else, and so Amy took one step closer, this time her foot landing in a pool of pure blood. The watery ground had mostly been a mixture of blood and rain water, but, this close, it was only blood. Her foot was standing in the space where the lower half of Metal's right leg should have been, the limb violently amputated at the knee. His left arm was missing entirely, a vicious open wound at his shoulder all that remained. He had a deep, bloody wound that ran diagonally over the left side of his face, that had removed part of his left ear and left a bloody mangled mess around his eye. His other eye was closed, and he was motionless.
Amy carefully knelt down, one knee either side of Metal's unharmed leg, one hand on the ground at his side, the other pressed against his chest.
"Metal?" she said softly.
He didn't respond, and she couldn't feel anything beneath her hand. She pressed harder and leaned into him.
"Metal?" she said, raising her voice a little. "Metal, wake up."
She placed her other hand on his chest and shook him, and, for the first time ever, he moved easily beneath the pressure she applied, his body limp and at the mercy of her touch.
"Metal, wake up!" she said with more urgency in her tone. "Please Metal, wake up!"
"Amy?" Tails said softly behind her.
"I felt his heartbeat, he's gonna be okay!" she said, keeping her eyes on Metal's face. "Come on Metal, wake up!"
She shook him harder, but, seeing him shake so easily only heightened her panic.
"Please!" she wailed, tears welling in her eyes.
She pressed an ear to his chest, listening desperately for what she was sure she had felt.
"Please wake up," she whimpered. "Please!"
The rolled her head over, resting her forehead against his chest as sobs began to rack her body.
"Please," she said again. "I love you."
Amy put her hands on Metal's sides and sobbed into chest, only stopping when she was physically lifted from him. She kept her hands on him, only removing them when she was lifted too far from him to hold on. At that point she began kicking and thrashing.
"Let me go!" she cried.
"Come on, Amy, we have to get him out of here," Knuckles said, locking his arms around her waist to hold her in place.
Sonic and Shadow walked over to stand either side of Metal.
"How do we do this?" Sonic asked.
"Maybe the ones who can fly should do it," Shadow replied.
"Rouge took Cream outta here so she wouldn't have to see," Sonic said. "Tails, can you manage to get him up top?"
"He's pretty heavy," Tails answered, moving over to Sonic's side. "And I don't even know how we get him anywhere, the Tornado crashed, I don't think it will make the journey home."
Amy paused her struggle, a horrifying thought occurring to her.
"You can't just leave him here!" she cried.
"You've got another plane, right Tails?" Sonic asked.
"Yeah, at home," Tails replied.
"You have to wake him up, you have to help him!" Amy wailed.
Shadow looked over at her with a critical look before turning to Tails.
"Take Amy up to Rouge, have her take Amy and the girl out of here," he said.
"What?" Amy echoed.
"Okay," Tails agreed, starting towards Amy.
"No!" she argued, recommencing her thrashing struggle. "No! No, no, no! I am not leaving here without Metal!"
"Come on, Amy," Tails said gently.
He tried to take one of her hands but she slapped his hand away.
"No!" she insisted.
Tails looked up at the cliff, his eyes darting back and forth as though he was trying to calculate something. After a short moment, he nodded his head and turned towards Amy, his head moving from side to side as he tried to look at Knuckles behind her.
"Knuckles, hang onto her for me," he said.
"Can do," Knuckles replied.
When Tails moved around the back of Knuckles and out of her line of sight, Amy began clawing at the echidna's arms around her, twisting as far as she could in his hold to try to look back up and over his shoulder at where Tails had gone. She couldn't see him at first, but didn't have to wait long to catch sight of him as he rose up into the air above Knuckles's head. When she felt herself being lifted, she balked, looking about herself desperately.
"No!" she called out, turned forwards again and clawing one hand into Knuckles's arm and reaching the other hand out in the direction of Metal. "No, I don't want this! You can't make me do this!"
She fought the entire way, and it was a long journey back up the cliff, as her struggles made it difficult for Knuckles to maintain a hold of her and, in turn, for Tails to keep a hold of Knuckles. When Tails eventually placed Knuckles down onto the ground on the other side of the lighthouse, the fox was breathless and took a moment to shake off the strain lifting them both had been. Knuckles walked Amy over to Rouge, who was sitting on a rock with an arm around Cream. When she saw them approaching, Rouge stood up.
"Rouge?" Tails called over.
Rouge looked past Amy and Knuckles to him.
"Take Amy and Cream home," Tails instructed.
"No!" Amy shouted, trying desperately to wrestle herself out of Knuckles's hold.
Rouge studied her for a moment before shifting her eyes to Knuckles.
"I hope you're coming with us?" she asked him.
After a short pause he groaned a reply.
"Yeah, I guess I am."
"Cream sweetie?" Rouge said to the rabbit. "I'm gonna need your help."
Cream jumped up, but lost a lot of momentum when she saw Amy.
"Amy you're covered in blood!" she gasped.
Amy finally stopped her struggle as Cream's eyes became watery.
"What happened?" she asked.
Amy looked down at herself and realised that, between the blood from her nose and the nicks and cuts on her own body, and Metal's blood that she had knelt in and dragged herself over, she looked a truly horrific sight. She wanted to reassure Cream that most of what she could see wasn't her own blood, but doing so meant telling her that Metal was lying halfway down the cliff with irreparable wounds. In her moment of collectiveness, she considered that Metal was heavy, something Tails had previously told her was in part due to the augmentations he still had within his body, and if he was to be recovered, every pair of able hands would likely be needed to do so.
"Let me go, Knuckles," she said softly.
"I don't think I should," he muttered.
"You need to go and help the others," she said. "I'll make sure Cream gets home, and I'll go home with Rouge. Just… Let me know when you… Okay?"
Knuckles slowly lessened his hold on her, pausing as though testing to see if she would make a break for it, before releasing her entirely and stepping back from her. She looked back over her shoulder at him and he nodded, before turning his attention to Rouge.
"I got this, you go," she told him.
He turned to Amy and gave her one last solemn look before hurrying back to the edge and climbing down once more. Amy turned back to Rouge, who lifted one of Amy's arms around her shoulders, before scooping her up.
"I can help you carry Amy, Miss Rouge!" Cream quickly offered.
"It's okay sweetie, I got her," Rouge replied. "Just you come with us, okay?"
Cream nodded and Amy closed her eyes as they rose up into the air. She kept her eyes closed, mostly because flying through the rain wasn't easy on the eyes, but also because she still had a blinding headache, and, in the calmer state she found herself in, all her aches and pains were returning.
"It looks like it's sunny back home," Cream commented.
"That'll be good," Rouge replied.
"Are you ever going to tell me what was down there?" Cream asked in a low voice.
"Later, I promise," Rouge replied.
They continued in silence until they reached Cream's house. There, Rouge knocked on the door and delivered Cream to Vanilla, who gladly hugged her, before asking Rouge if everything was alright. Rouge sadly shook her head, but assured her that Cream would be alright. Vanilla told her she was there to support anyone in any way they might need her, before noticing Amy, the look on her face telling Amy all she really needed to know about how she looked.
"Amy! What happened to you?" she asked.
"I'm fine," Amy numbly lied.
Rouge looked back over her shoulder at Amy, but Amy kept her eyes on Vanilla, watching her face contort.
"Why don't you come inside and let me clean you up?" the rabbit offered, reaching an arm out towards Amy.
Amy said nothing, but continued to stare back at her. Eventually the moment ended when Rouge drew Vanilla's attention back to her.
"I've got her, but thank you for your offer," she said in a low voice. "Just take care of your lovely daughter."
"What happened?" Vanilla asked again.
Rouge sadly shook her head and turned from Vanilla. She walked towards Amy, and Amy turned around, and together they started to walk. It was the sort of gloriously sunny day that often followed a storm, and, in the heat and gentle breeze, Amy could feel blood drying into her fur and matting it. The walk from Vanilla's house to the apartment block Rouge lived in was far from a short one, but Amy and Rouge walked it in silence. Along the way, they passed plenty of people in the streets who crossed out of their way or else stopped and stared, but neither of them cared.
When they eventually arrived at their destination, Rouge stared down a smartly presented jackal who initially grinned at her – his face quickly falling when he saw Amy. He backed away and let them take the elevator that he had called for, and once they were inside, Rouge quickly pressed the close door button to keep anyone else out. When the elevator doors opened, it occurred to Amy that she had never actually been to Rouge's apartment, only ever met her outside of it: but, when Rouge had to present a card to a reader on the elevator just to open the doors, she realised she should have known her friend would live in the penthouse suite.
Shadow was already there, and he silently presented them with tea. Amy shook her head and Rouge directed her to the bathroom, closing her in and leaving her there. Inside, she looked around the pristine, gleaming white room, before catching sight of her reflection in the mirror above the sink. She moved over to it, reaching up a shaking hand to her face. The blood had dried dark, her eyes looking unnaturally bright in comparison. The deep red contrasted with the emerald green of her irises. Her red dress was a shade darker, and the white trim was indistinguishable in some places.
She gripped either side of the sink and leaned closer to the mirror, staring into her own eyes as she questioned her every word, action and choice over the past couple of days: was there anything, no matter how small or insignificant, she could have done that would have changed how things had turned out? When her questions just raised more questions and the ache in her head throbbed, she finally stripped off her clothes and stepped into the shower, closing herself into the cubicle and turning on the water. She rested her forehead against the tiles and looked down at the drain between her feet, watching as the water started to stain. It was slight at first, but, as the high-pressure water-jet began dissolving the dried blood in her fur and washing it free, the water around her feet quickly turned red.
Just like the puddles of rainwater around Metal had been.
Amy sank down, sitting with her back against the glass door, hugging her knees and sobbing openly.
Next Chapter: In a state of denial and avoidance, Amy immerses herself in trying to repair the ruined garden, and she refuses to go home to her own house. Her friends all try to reach out to her, but in the end, she only really hears what one of them has to say to her. Chapter 28: Death