Chapter Twelve: Two Roads Diverged

The four of them walked. And wandered. Drifted. That seemed to be the best word for it. Sonic kept waiting for Green Hill to wake him up, to remind him who he was. He thought it should be like falling into place, like coming home after a long time away and finding everything as one remembered.

But he remembered none of it.

As the bottom rim of the sun started to dip below the horizon, Knuckles left the group to head back to the Master Emerald, citing how uncomfortable he felt leaving it alone as darkness fell. Sonic envied the sense of purpose, even the small piece of knowledge of what he was supposed to do in this place, where he belonged. But he didn't say so, even as Knuckles walked away.

When the sun slid a little further down the sky so less than half of it shone above the horizon, Tails released a wide yawn, reaching his arms high above his head in a stretch Sonic could almost feel just in seeing it. "Sorry," Tails apologized as soon as he broke off the end of his yawn. "Just been a long few days, I guess. I should probably head back to the workshop before it gets too dark. I don't want to forget where it is and lose my way." He offered a meek smile, giving Sonic the sense that Tails was being honest rather than just self-deprecating.

"I think I'll explore a bit more," Sonic said. Which was certainly easier to say than the fact that he couldn't figure out how to sleep in this place that was supposed to be home. Instead, he felt high on adrenaline, eyes stretched wide to the point that if felt like it would be far too much work to try to close them.

"Me too; there's still too much left to see," Rose agreed beside him. He twisted toward her. And when she saw his eyes on hers, she added, "If you don't mind."

Sonic blinked. "No, no I don't mind."

With that, Tails left them be, leaving with them only instructions on how to find their way to his workshop whenever they were ready to head back. Sonic supposed he and Rose both had homes somewhere in this place but until they remembered them or happened across them, Tails's workshop would be the closest thing to a home that any of them had.

As Tails back began to fade into the shadows he moved toward, Rose said again, "I really can go, if you were looking for an excuse for some time alone. I just…don't think I can sleep just yet, when all the answers of who we're supposed to be could just be around a corner."

"Same," Sonic agreed. Though he hadn't thought that way until Rose figured out how to put the feeling into words. "And it would probably be a bad idea to take that sort of adventure alone, considering how much I've needed you to save me since we woke up in that ruin."

Rose smirked. With as far as the shadows had descended upon them in the midst of that evening, Sonic couldn't tell if she shared the expression with an embarrassed blush or not. Sonic liked to think not. Rose was too self-assured for that. This girl who wore her heart on her sleeve while carrying a huge hammer.

They continued on over the many hills and valleys that made of Green Hill, even after the sun finally dipped entirely beneath the horizon and night fell in earnest. Side-by-side, they sought the past that could determine their future. However, no matter how far they wandered, the only certainty Sonic felt was in the girl at his side.

But then, Sonic halted suddenly, suddenly enough that Rose took a few steps beyond him before she slowed and turned back toward him. "What's wrong? Do you remember something?"

But Sonic shook his head. "No, I just…" He smiled. Then, with a shrug, he offered his hands, his arms out to Rose. "…I was just thinking that since my stitches are gone, now's about the time we should find out what that newspaper article meant about me running faster than the speed of sound."

"We?"

Without further explanation, Sonic scooped Rose off the ground and into his arms, holding her bridal-style. She squeaked involuntarily as her feet left the dirt, but a moment later, she looped her arms around Sonic's neck. The moonlight streaming down from overhead struck the whites of Rose's eyes so that Sonic could see how they widened. "What are you thinking?" she exclaimed.

A lot of things. He was thinking about so many things. About how he was supposed to be a hero but he had spent the last few weeks feeling anything but heroic. About how they wandered this space that was supposed to be home and felt as strange as the ruin they awoke in, as strange as Crescent Village. About how their memories might return more like dreams or memories of dreams in fractions and pieces, like how Tails suggested, rather than all at once.

About a girl who might have once been the damsel in distress they sought to save from Dr. Eggman and now was the one doing all the saving. About another girl he couldn't find.

He could see that second girl now, just like he did in the dream that had sent him racing back to the ruin, only for him to require Rose's rescue. The dream where he stood beside Amy, staring at the building that would soon become a ruin.

"Our adventure for the day?" she asked. She turned toward him. Her eyes locked on his.

And when Amy's green eyes faded, Rose's green eyes remained staring up at him.

"I'm thinking we should start forging the path forward," Sonic told her, "rather than spending so much time worrying about not remembering the past we've already left behind."

The corner of her lips turned upward in a smirk that Sonic now recognized as his own, like she had learned it from him or maybe it was the opposite—maybe he had acquired it from her. From the lives that neither of them remembered. But the lives that must have been connected.

Rose, not the onetime damsel in distress, but a friend. A friend who had been in his life for more than just minutes before an explosion but for weeks, years, if they had picked up habits from one another.

Which meant…

Which meant…

The memory of Amy solidified in his mind. Where once had been a blur, a form with no color and shape, the tune of a song without the lyrics, a mortal creature formed. No longer a dream but a friend. Something more? Her quills turned down, a red headband nestled among them, acutely matched to her red and white dress. And then her color solidified.

To rose.

"Doesn't sound like too bad a plan," Amy Rose told him.

Sonic the Hedgehog reflected her smile back at her. Then, turning his eyes straight ahead, he bolted forward, pouring out all the speed his body was capable of, leaving more than just a sonic boom behind, and carrying all that still mattered forward into the future.

End.

Thank you all for enjoying this short little fluffy story! I started it not totally knowing what creature it would turn into, but I am so happy with the quiet hope with which it ended. Please feel free to let me know what you think by dropping a review!

In the meantime, feel free to check out my other active work Darkened Chaos that also contains plenty of SonAmy for your enjoyment.