AN: Well, I'm officially out of school for the year. Now I'm about to hop on a cruise this Sunday so I thought I'd give you guys something to read and enjoy in my absence. I'll continue working on the future chapters once I return. Once again, thank you to those that continue to support my stories!

•~•

The next morning, with papers still all over the floor and coffee table, Rosy grumbled in her sleep on the sofa, haunted by a nightmare. Flashes of the night before plagued her thoughts as she relived the events. A memory of when she had slashed that poor boy's throat with her knife and heard the screams of his girlfriend in the background reverberated in her mind. Another quick flash showed her carving a symbol into the girl's forehead. Horrified by the images, Rosy shot upright from the nightmare panting frantically and trying to catch her breath.

As Rosy calmed her panic attack, the doors to the study opened and Shadow peeked his head inside he looked concerned when he saw Rosy still in the same spot from last night. "Amy, what are you doing in here? Why didn't you come to bed last night?"

Rosy rubbed at her eyes, trying to recall why she hadn't gone to bed like asked. "I'm not sure," she mumbled tiredly. "I guess I just fell asleep here last night."

Shadow eyed her appearance, noticing the dark bags under her eyes and disheveled quills. "You look like hell."

Rosy shot him a piqued look by his blunt comment. "Gee, thanks…"

"I'm just being honest," he said with a shrug. "It couldn't have been too comfortable sleeping on that thing all night," he pointed.

She swung her legs off the side of the couch. "Sorry that I look too ugly for you today."

"Oh hush," he scolded playfully with a grin. "You're always beautiful to me, Amy."

Rosy sank in her posture feeling doubtful about his compliment. "You still find me attractive even though I'm in a different body?"

Shadow knelt down to her level looking her in the eyes. "It's not always about what's on the outside. I fell in love with you, Rose. I'm not going to walk away from this relationship just because you look different now."

She gave a weak smile and opened her mouth to say something, but stopped when her hearing picked up chanting coming outside their home. Shadow picked up on it too, and stood up, and headed over towards the window. Rosy mimicked his actions and followed him over to the window, where they saw a large crowd of protestors down below. "Who are they?" Rosy questioned.

Shadow eyed their visitors with scrutiny. "I'm not sure." He turned on his heel, leaving the room but Rosy tried to follow him.

"Shadow, what are you doing?"

He glanced at her quickly as he exited the room. "Just stay put," he ordered, "I'll handle this," he finished before heading downstairs.

•~•

Outside, a group of hostile witches convened in Shadow's front yard and marched in protest. "We want Rosy," one witch shouted.

"Yeah, bring her out here now!" another clamored.

A female iguana pumped her fist into the air. "Give her to us!"

Shadow stormed out his front door and marched down the steps of his porch to address the protestors. Silver and Blaze had overheard the commotion too and left the comfort of the kitchen to stand on the porch to find out what was going on. There were at least fifteen witches of all ages, standing on his property, all looking equally angry in their expression. "Whatever your complication is, if you don't back up, I guarantee it will worsen," Shadow threatened.

"So, you must be the Hybrid," a familiar looking black cat stated, standing in front of the crowd. It was the same one that had confronted Amy at the farmer's market. "Your name is Shadow, is it not?"

On the porch, Silver recognized the cat immediately, recalling back to the day he had knocked him out along with the porcupine after they cornered Amy in an alleyway. "Do you recognize him?" Blaze whispered.

"He's one of the ones that attacked Amy the other day," he whispered back.

Meanwhile, Shadow eyed the black feline and crossed his arms over his chest after hearing his question. "Yes, that's correct. Who are you?"

"My name is Hendrix," he introduced. "I am the reagent of this coven."

"Okay, Hendrix, what the hell do you want?" Shadow asked, trying to act clueless. He knew what they were here for, but he'd be damned if he let them have it.

"We want you to turn over Rosy Rascal," he answered simply.

Shadow scratched underneath his chin, playing up his ignorance. "Who now?"

Hendrix shook his head in pity reading through Shadow's act completely. "Don't play games with me. This is a serious matter. Do you realize you're harboring a renegade witch?"

Shadow shrugged nonchalantly. "Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about."

Hendrix gave a knowing smile after catching a glimpse of someone in the background. "Is that a fact now?" His eyes directed towards the porch, where Rosy now stood defiantly. Silver and Blaze were holding her back, trying to keep her from intervening in the confrontation.

"Look, there she is!" one of the witches pointed.

Shadow looked in that direction and frowned when he saw her outside. "Damn it," he muttered under his breath. Quickly, he rushed over and grabbed her by the arms gently, looking peeved by her presence. "Amy, I told you to stay put inside," he whispered harshly under his breath.

"But you're lying to them, we need to tell them the truth," she urged quietly.

"If you surrender now, we'll make your punishment quick," Hendrix spoke up, interrupting their private conversation.

Groaning in defeat, Shadow walked over with Rosy, making sure to keep her close by his side. "Why are you so eager to take her anyway?"

"Because of the evil she unleashed last night," Hendrix answered. "She needs to be punished."

Rosy looked confused at first, what on Earth had she allegedly done last night?

Shadow seemed baffled too and cocked a brow in befuddlement. "Last night?" he repeated. "What exactly happened, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Two of our children were attacked unmercifully. One is dead while the other is missing," Hendrix explained. "All eyes lead to her," he finished, looking at Rosy specifically.

As the description left Hendrix's mouth, Rosy began to ponder on the allegations. The description sounded oddly familiar to the nightmare she had, had this morning. Maybe she had done something but without her knowledge. Before she could think too much more on the matter, her thoughts were interrupted when Shadow came to her defense. "Here's the thing though, Rosy Rascal is gone. Her body was taken over by my girlfriend, Amy Rose."

Hendrix didn't seem convinced and tilted his head, not amused by the weak explanation. "Is that your version of an alibi?" Shadow stumbled for a response, confirming Hendrix's fears. "Take her," he ordered. Instinctively, Shadow stood in front of Rosy with his arms outstretched to shield her as he eyed his opponents.

The other witches began to step forward and Rosy cowered behind Shadow, but Silver and Blaze intervened and jumped in, helping surround her. "Wait!" Blaze interjected, making the witches halt. "Shadow is telling the truth, Amy now occupies the body of Rosy Rascal. Therefore, she is innocent of this crime."

"You know no such thing," Hendrix shouted. "Now, step aside and let us take her."

"Hendrix," Shadow interrupted. "You have my word, I will find whoever is responsible and make sure that justice is served," he pledged. "If I'm unable to locate the true one responsible, then you may have her. Just give me some time to piece the clues together," he pleaded.

Hendrix mulled it over for a moment before coming to a decision. "You have until tomorrow. After that, it won't matter what I say. Witches will stop at nothing to protect their children. That's an impulse I know you can respect," he finished eying Shadow. With that said, the witches turned on their heels and left the property in unison.

Shadow, Silver, and Blaze looked relieved to see that had time to figure things out.

•~•

Meanwhile, out in the Mystic Ruins, Sonic and Sally were in the process of sparring along with other pack members. Sally threw hits that Sonic either evaded or blocked with his own arms. Sally did a swing kick that Sonic managed to dodge, but once he came back upright, he threw out his own defense as he began to throw swings in her direction. Ever since the unification ceremony, Sally had felt the changes immediately. She felt stronger, faster, more alert, and better than ever. With a barrage of punches, Sally was able to avoid every hit with ease while she stepped backward, forcing Sonic to follow her with his attacks. "This is incredible," she panted, evading another swing.

Sonic smiled, impressed with her improvements. "It is pretty awesome, huh?"

She leaped backward landing on her feet with grace before doing a charge towards her blue husband. Sonic was knocked onto his back with a thud, and opened his eyes only to see Sally standing above him with a foot held down onto his chest. Her expression beamed victory as she smiled down at him. "I win!"

Sonic caught his breath as he looked up at his wife. Her strength and charisma during the spar was quite a turn on. "Yeah, you won, babe. Now mind helping me up?" he panted.

Sally removed her foot from his chest and extended her arm out towards him, helping him up to his feet. The two walked over and took a moment to wipe their sweat off with a towel and chug some water. They headed back to their cabin and entered their home. "That was some workout, huh?" Sally smiled.

Sonic closed the door behind him and watched as Sally make her way to their bedroom, chugging more water as she walked. "Yeah, it sure was." He followed her into the bedroom and watched as she kicked off her shoes and took off her tank top, leaving her in her sports bra.

Sonic walked over and shoved her onto the bed, startling her momentarily. "Wha—Sonic!" She opened her eyes and found Sonic hovering on top of her, keeping her arms pinned above her head. He looked down at her seductively and leaned in capturing her in a kiss. Sally closed her eyes during the kiss, feeling the passion in it. Sonic released his hold on her hands and they instantly flew to his neck. Sally rustled her hands into his quills, gripping and pulling at them intimately as the kiss intensified. The two rolled around the bed, feeling each other up, moaning and groaning along the way.

Sally sat and took off her top, knowing exactly where this was headed. She tossed it off to the side of the bed just as Sonic dove his face in between her breast, kissing and massaging them with his tongue. Sally released a few soft gasps as he fondled her left breast and lapped at her right nipple. She mewled as she felt him push her further back into the bed. Things were about to get super hot.

•~•

That afternoon, back at the house, Shadow held a family meeting in the living room. Faith sat in her playpen, playing with various stuffed animals while the group of adults sat on the sofas together waiting for their new arrival.

With a knock on the front door, Blaze quickly stood to go answer the door. "Oh, that must be him." A few seconds later, Blaze came back into the room with their guest. "Guys, this is my good friend Mighty Armadillo," she introduced.

Shadow stood up and approached Mighty, extending his hand out for him to shake. Mighty cautiously shook the hybrid's hand, remembering his last confrontation with the hedgehog. Shadow sensed his vigilance as he shook his hand. "My apologies for how I handled our last encounter," he apologized sincerely. "You were a stranger in my eyes and after a recent encounter with another witch, I couldn't be certain."

Mighty finished shaking his hand and gave him an understanding smile. "I understand your reasoning behind it. If I had known you had tied relations to Blaze, I would have reached out to her first as my liaison."

Silver stood up and went to shake his hand too. "My name is Silver," he introduced, shaking his hand. "I'm Blaze's fiancé."

Mighty looked surprised but happy by the title. He looked over to his feline friend. "Fiancé now, huh? I remember when you told me you had just started dating. Anyway, it's nice to finally match a face with a name. Nice to meet you, Silver."

Blaze walked over to Rosy and placed a hand on her shoulder. "And this is Shadow's girlfriend, Amy."

Mighty approached the pink hedgehog, looking on at her in awe. Currently, her appearance and aura appeared much softer and kinder compared to all the pictures he had seen of the real Rosy Rascal. It was obvious that Amy's soul had a gentler side compared to Rosy's sadistic one. "It's nice to meet you, Ms. Rose," he smiled shaking her hand.

"Lovely to meet you too," she smiled meekly.

Mighty glanced over to the playpen in the corner and spotted the little pink hedgehog crawling around on the floor and playing with her toys. "Is this your daughter?" he inquired with a smile.

Rosy nodded. "Yes, her name is Faith."

"She's a cutie," he noted before taking a seat along with everyone else.

"She's also a handful at times," Shadow remarked with a chuckle. "Anyway, let's get down to business."

"Right." Mighty clasped his hands together. "So, who wants to fill me in on what's been going on?"

"I'll start," Blaze volunteered. "Rosy's coven has come looking for her, as you must be aware of since you did the same yesterday," she explained. "They believe Amy is guilty of a crime that Rosy would commit. The only problem is, Rosy Rascal is gone. We're trying to prove that she's innocent, but the coven thinks otherwise."

Rosy intertwined her fingers and bit her lower lip at the statement and Mighty stared at her in curiosity. "I see…"

"I believe that there must be a copycat at large," Shadow conjectured. "Amy would never commit such an act."

Rosy looked away and bit her lower lip again, but Mighty was quick to pick up on the idiosyncrasy. "Do you have any thoughts on this, Amy?" he asked kindly. "After all, you are the subject of this discussion, and I can't help but feel you might have something to say..."

"Well I-I…" she began before stopping herself from doubt. "It's just, it's going to sound ridiculous," she quickly dismissed.

Shadow placed a hand on top of hers. "Go on, love," he encouraged.

Rosy gulped as all eyes focused on her. "I-I think Rosy is trying to gain control over her body again…"

"Why do you think that, Amy?" Blaze questioned.

She fiddled with her hands nervously. "Because I keep having these visions…of things that almost seem like memories. They're gruesome ones and I can't help but feel that I may be responsible for them. For example, the two teens that were attacked last night—when Hendrix described what had happened to them, I had a dream earlier this morning of those exact details."

Silver looked at Blaze after hearing her thoughts. "Is this possible? Can the original soul really break through and take over even with the binds that keep them restricted?"

Blaze tapped her chin as she thought about the possibilities. "I've never heard of it happening before, but anything is possible I suppose. What do you think, Mighty?"

"It's definitely a possibility, albeit a rare one," he stated before directing his focus back on Rosy. "Amy, have you felt any oddities in the past couple of days that you can't quite explain?"

"Now that you mention it, I have felt like I've been losing track of time. I've woken up almost every morning feeling exhausted—like I haven't gotten enough sleep. And then, of course, there are these terrible dreams I keep having."

Mighty furrowed his brows as he listened to her symptoms. Based off from what he heard, things were getting very serious. "I assume you've read up on the files I gave you last night?" Shadow and Amy nodded in unison and he looked over to Silver and Blaze. "Are you two aware of Rosy's history?"

"Yes, we know all about it," Silver answered.

"Then you know that Rosy Rascal is not an amateur witch. Because of her dabbling in black magic, her personality grew dark and her mind became corrupt. Although black magic is forbidden, it is very powerful. Rosy doesn't back down from a challenge, so I imagine she has been trying to regain control over her body slowly over time," he explained. "Speaking of which, I forgot to ask this earlier, but why is Amy occupying Rosy's body in the first place?"

"It's a long story," Shadow droned. "But we were trying to get rid of our Mother and Amy used herself as bait to get the job done," he began. "For the past two months, our mother has tried to convince us to cease our vampirism and turn over a new leaf by starting fresh. She planned to place all of us in new bodies so that so that we could 'cleanse' our sins."

"Did you succeed with your plan?" Mighty asked with intrigue.

"We did, but obviously not everything went according to plan," Shadow said as he glanced at Rosy.

"How did Amy end up like this?"

"Our brother, Mephiles, the one who took over your body, placed the bindings on Rosy's body as a vessel for Amy to inhabit," Shadow replied. "I got there too late to stop the spell from occurring…"

"I see, now back to this theory we were talking about," Mighty segued. "Have any of you seen her sleepwalking, or even walking around at night?"

Shadow shook his head. "Not to my knowledge, but just last night she never came to bed…"

Rosy placed her face in her hands as she thought about all the places she could have been in the middle of the night. "Oh no…"

"Don't worry, Amy," Mighty assured. "We're not going to let her take over. Now before we get started, you must know, I was sent here by the Asylum to retrieve Rosy Rascal and return her in order for my friend Aurora's release."

"Aurora's at the asylum?" Blaze stated in surprise.

"Yes, her coven locked her away because they believe she conspired to give Ivy control over her body," he clarified.

"So, do you still plan to return Rosy back to the asylum?"

"I was planning to, but Vector, the director of the institute, just informed me on my way here that he doesn't need my services anymore. Rosy's coven plans to take care of her themselves."

"What's going to happen to the deal for your friend's release, then?" Silver inquired solemnly.

Mighty felt his fist clench at the thought. "It's been tossed out the window, but it doesn't matter. I will get her back!" he said with determination.

"Mighty, if you help us out, I promise that we will help you get your friend back. How does that sound?" Shadow pitched.

"You know, I was taught at a young age that I could never trust the Original family—but that changes today."

Blaze smiled, looking pleased for the alliance formed. "What's the first step to getting Amy back into her old body?"

"I'm going to place a holding spell on Amy to keep Rosy contained while we work on the body swap spell, but I'm going to need some ingredients. I'll need some Anise, Barley, and some witch hazel," he listed.

Blaze rose from her seat, "Perfect, I have those ingredients at my shop. I can take you over there now and we can collect the items for the spell."

Mighty mimicked her actions. "Fantastic, let's get going then. Rosy and Shadow watched as the two friends made their way to the front door.

Silver followed after them but looked back momentarily at the other two. "I'm going to escort Blaze and Mighty on their stop into town. Do you need anything else while we're there?"

Shadow shook his head. "No, we're fine. I'll stay here with Amy and Faith while you run your errand." The group left the house and closed the door behind them, leaving Amy and Shadow alone with their daughter.