Sonic X: Different Outcomes

Author's note: Sorry for the delay for this. I've been struggling with how this chapter would turn out without it feeling too rushed. Hopefully this version of other three ideas I've written down but never quite finished will be okay. In the meantime, please do enjoy!

I own no rights to Sonic the Hedgehog or any of the related media.

Chapter 3: Hurt and Comfort.

Sonic felt his heart stop after he screamed, his legs feeling weak, sick in his stomach, his mind whirling like he would use a Spin Attack, his breathing quicken. This couldn't be real. This can't be real! Just when his problems couldn't get more complicated, now the dream he had not only made him experience things that felt realistic, but at the cost of having it due to the Chaos Emeralds going all haywire because of Eggman's machine was slowly killing him. Sure he felt fine now, but earlier when he sighed autographs, he dismissed in seeing Station Square for a moment as a dream memory.

"Sonic?" Amy muttered, worriedly.

"What...where did Knux did this idea from?" Sonic asked, hesitantly.

"He heard it from the Echidna lore before he became the last one in existence, that if the Chaos Emeralds did something not usual like what happened at Eggman's Base earlier to the person who uses the Chaos Emeralds to perform a miracle a lot, it would make them see things that aren't real." Tails replied, sniffling. "He said it was in a theory, but it could be possible, and since you had that dream and used the Chaos Emeralds a lot to transform into Super Sonic..."

"...My body's energy will drain away and my soul will be destroyed." The blue hedgehog finished for him, feeling himself go all pale in horror. "Did it ever happen before?"

"Not that any of us know of." The two-tailed fox shrugged sadly. "But if it's true, you don't have much time left."

"He said that he'll find some answers on how to cure you and find out more on what's happening." The pink hedgehog muttered, shuddering.

Sonic lowered his gaze to the ground. To think a realistic dream was actually killing him and while he felt fine right now, who's to say that he won't start feeling the effects of his body's energy being drained and his soul being destroyed? The very thought of that made him feel nauseous. The thoughts of the Chaos Emeralds not only having made him live a realistic dream, but were also killing him due to the malfunction on Eggman's Chaos Emerald machine that Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun bumped into made him feel utterly terrified.

He knew that the negative energy from the Emeralds were dangerous, and not once has Sonic experienced that since it terrified him a lot. But this was a new level of negative to the point that it was taking away his life force. It was then he knew, right there and then that he couldn't hide his feelings of why he has been acting so crazy all day. As much as the blue hedgehog didn't want his friends to worry about him, it was already too late. He had to tell them the truth, like he had to Cream and her mother.

"I need to talk to Knuckles." Sonic finally said after a long moment of uncomfortable silence. "If what you say is true, then I gotta know. If this is some kind of a sick joke they left out in the legends, then I'm not laughing."

"Knuckles is working on finding clues on how to cure you anyway. We should head over to Angel Island sooner rather than later." Tails replied. "First, how are you feeling?"

The blue hedgehog paused, rubbing his arms uneasily. Normally he would respond that he was fine and would go on. He even ignored the worst of his injuries in previous battles, at least in reality. But he decided to be honest if what Knuckles said is true.

"Honestly? I'm freaked out. First that super long dream I thought was real devastated me 'cause, well, I feel like I lost some important friends, and there's a hole in my heart somewhere, like a part of me's been ripped out clean." Sonic answered truthfully, placing a hand to his chest, his thoughts returning to Chris, his dream friend. "Now knowing that I'm...fading away because of the Chaos Emeralds, how can I ever become Super Sonic again if they're draining away my energy and destroying my soul, because of what Eggman's machine did?"

Tails, Amy, Cream, Cheese and Vanilla gazed on at the teenager, and all became instantly worried when Sonic began to tear up again. For the former two, they never saw him cry. It was a rare thing for the blue hedgehog.

"...I'm sorry, guys. I just...I don't know anymore. I should be happy that some bad things that I saw in the dream never did happen, that everything's okay apart from my new problem. But, I'm not...Maybe this is a sign of me...of me dying...!" Sonic's lips trembled. "I tried everything I could think of in getting back to normal. I went on my usual run, I played skipping stones over at the lake, accidentally hitting a back-packer and apologized, went home, even came here take up Cream's offer and told her and Vanilla about my dream..."

Sonic wiped away his tears, but failed to stop the tears in his voice. "Nothing's worked...And now...Now I'm on the risk of dying because of what happened...I'm scared."

"Oh, Sonic..." Amy began to tear up herself, frightened that her 'boyfriend' was feeling this way, heart-broken with the knowledge that he is possibly dying, and sympathized that everything he did to take his mind off of the dream didn't even work. She went over to him and despite his protests, she hugged him, but not in her usual overwhelming way. But more gentle, warm and comforting.

The teenage hedgehog was mildly surprised by such affection and comfort the normally obsessed pink hedgehog was giving him. It was, strangely soothing, easing away his worries and sorrow slowly but surely. It was then he remembered another important part of his dream, one that he realized in disappointment didn't happen in reality today. One that had Amy reveal how much she really did love him.

"Hey." Amy spoke up shyly, causing Sonic, who was walking away and about to check on Chris before returning home to the Mansion, to look over his shoulder and saw that she was holding out a beautiful seashell bracelet. "Sonic, this is a bracelet I made to protect you in the water."

"Oh." Sonic turned around and stared at the surprisingly beautiful hand-made bracelet. It was well made, the shells all pink and lovely, and that his self-proclaimed girlfriend made it. "You made it...for me?"

The pink hedgehog smiled shyly, explaining. "If you wear it, it will bring you good luck."

"Really?" The blue hedgehog asked, gazing up at her as she nodded, closing her eyes and blushed shyly over it. His eyes widened, stunned as he could see that she really did love him. For a long time he thought it was because she was his number one fan, and became his friend but flirted. Now Sonic realized that Amy had strong feelings for him.

The bracelet was proof of that, and really, it was one of the nicest things anyone's ever given him. How could he turn this down?

Sonic bit his lip, not sure if Amy in real life did love him, or his previous thoughts were true. He did remember in the dream how Eggman's Serpentor crushed it, how she smashed it in revenge which not only scared the young hero, but also the evil scientist who was knocked into the ocean before blasted away, how Sonic himself faced his fear by jumping in and swum after Amy who had lost consciousness, and saved her from drowning. He remembered seeing the ruined but mostly intact bracelet in her grip, and had smiled.

After leaving Amy in the care of the others since he was too embarrassed to admit how much he cared about her, but had wanted to dry off, Sonic was sitting on a rock near the shores of the ocean, mending the bracelet as best as he could before smiling at his handy-work in fixing it up, and then slipped it onto his left wrist and gazed at it.

"It's really beautiful. I never thought Amy would make something so nice for me. Guess I'm a lucky hedgehog to have such awesome friends." Sonic muttered to himself, hugging his knees as he added, blushing a little. "Maybe more, with Amy."

Then realizing what he just said, the blue hedgehog yelped. "Hey, wait! What'm I saying!? I love my friends since they're family to me, but come on! Maybe it's the salt water making me crazy."

He paused with a sigh, shivering as while his fur dried off thanks to the sun's heat, he still felt cold due to having almost drowned when that Ocotron captured him and dunked him into the water, and then dove in to rescue Amy without second thought. Okay, maybe he did like her more than just a friend, but Chaos forbid should he admit it to anyone, even himself.

"Achoo!" Sonic sneezed, before sighing as he rubbed his nose and muttered. "Sonic, you gotta stay out of the water."

Sonic then stood up and stared at the horizon deep in thought, over the things that has happened to him and his friends, his family.

"Amy..." Sonic whispered softly, feeling so disappointed in not knowing on whether she did love him. Sure he'd been a jerk to her throughout his dreamscape adventure, but he did care about the pink hedgehog girl who was trying to comfort him right now. What was worse, his dream ended with her crying in his arms as he comforted her, having admitted that he displayed some of his feelings towards her since he missed her so much. That she worried about him when he didn't enter the Porthole.

He wasn't sure why, but the knowledge of not knowing her actual feelings towards him now, the blue hedgehog felt heavily crushed. More tears forming in his eyes, the reminder of Chris not being real, and now uncertain about Amy's feelings towards him hanging so deep within his heart, Sonic didn't want to lose her too. His heart couldn't bear it. Without even realizing it nor did he care, he hugged her back and began crying once more.

"...It's not fair." Sonic wept. He felt lost, frightened, and confused. Maybe it was a price he had to pay to save Cream. They had succeeded and Eggman lost as usual. But it came at a great cost.

The thought of the rescue mission made Sonic come to a heart-breaking realization. He may have won another battle against his evil nemesis...

But he was losing the never-ending war.

Tails, Cream, her Chao and mother could only watch on with tears forming in their eyes as well, while Amy only held him tighter, feeling so lost and uncertain how to comfort her distraught 'boyfriend'.

They could only hope that Sonic can be cured from the terrible side-effects the Chaos Emeralds and Eggman's machine has caused onto him.

Despite the lateness of the hour, Sonic urged Tails and Amy to take him to Angel Island an hour after he stopped crying. Seeing that he wanted and needed to go, the trio departed from the kind family who wished them well, with the blue hedgehog hugging Cream, Cheese and Vanilla for possibly the final time, and were now on the island itself, where Knuckles had no luck so far apart from what he did know, and had asked Sonic if he was okay.

Sonic's response that he wasn't certain, and instead, as calmly as he could without breaking down into tears again, he explained the dream to the red echidna, two-tailed fox and pink hedgehog, and how he had another dream about Chris telling him the truth.

'So that's why he was upset this morning. Sonic was confused.' Tails thought to himself, as it made perfect sense now on why his adoptive older brother had acted so panicky and strangely. It broke his heart that the blue hedgehog went through a dream that felt so real, and the young fox suddenly wished he could meet the people in Sonic's dream.

Amy had been stunned to hear that she was in the final moments of the dream, and while she felt heart-broken that Sonic actually hoped that she would be by his side if everything he was experiencing now was a dream, it also made it leap that he'd given hear a rose, and long before that, she made a seashell bracelet just for him, which he admitted was one of the nicest things he ever received.

Knuckles was in deep thought, his arms folded to his chest as all four of them seated at the bottom of the shine where the Master Emerald rested on top, thinking about everything that Sonic had told him and the others.

"The servers are the 7 Chaos... Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart... the Controller is the one that unifies the Chaos...?" The guardian of the Master Emerald muttered. "Are you sure that's what you heard in your dream, Sonic?"

"Positive. I'm not even sure why even that sounded real when I know now that it wasn't." Sonic replied shrugged, sighing shakily as he placed a hand to his face. "I'm losing it, guys. I know that I should just forget about the dream, that I have to in order to move ahead, and be happy with you guys still and Cream and Cheese and Vanilla being here, and I really am...I feel like I'm betraying Chris if I forget about him, despite that he's not...not real, and he never will be."

The blue hedgehog sighed once more, before shrugging as he attempted to calm down. "On the bright side, at least the real Master Emerald doesn't have a watery monster or a poor echidna princess trapped inside it, right?"

When he was met with silence as while Tails and Amy felt reassured that part of Sonic's dream wasn't real, Knuckles looked uncertain, prompting Sonic to ask as he felt an uneasy feeling in his stomach. "...Right?"

"I can say that the dream itself is the craziest thing I've ever heard, to be honest, I'm not so sure with this Chaos or Tikal. Because the words of the 7 Chaos, it's familiar to me. We know that there were seven Chaos Emeralds, and they do give power to the user by turning their thoughts into power. I hate to admit it, but even I don't know the full story of the Master Emerald and I never questioned it." The red echidna replied.

The cobalt hero was unable to stop himself from gulping, feeling dread creep up. "So...you're saying that some parts of my dream could actually be some kind of warnings signs of what may actually happen? With Chaos and your people's past?"

"Like I said, I'm not sure. But that's a worry for later. The fact that you transformed into Super Sonic quite a few times within the dream, dreaming up a dream that you thought felt to be real, and this 'human' boy named Chris told you that in order for you to wake up is to say goodbye to him, it leaves me uneasy." Knuckles responded.

Sonic lowered his gaze in hopelessness. "So I'm really gonna die? My body's energy being drained and my soul being destroyed is because of the dream?"

"Well, how do you feel energy-wise?"

"I haven't thought about it. Aside from this morning, I took a nap after I got home and despite that...that I'm an emotional wreck, which is embarrassing for me, I don't feel sick or anything like that. Not yet, anyway." The blue hedgehog answered.

"We'll keep an eye on you, just in case. But we'll keep looking for a cure none the less." His friend suggested.

"Okay." Sonic barely whispered, hugging his knees to his chest once more. "...Sorry, Knux. I...I'm really scared right now. What's the point of being able to use the Chaos Emeralds when necessary if something like this can destroy a person, even me?"

The distraught blue hedgehog buried his face into his arms. "I wish this was all a nightmare. Eggman might as well have won at this point. If I'm dead soon, who's gonna be able to stop him, and protect you guys, and save the world from that crazy lunatic?"

"We'll find a cure, Sonic." Tails tried to reassure, but deep down he knew where his best friend was coming from.

"It will be okay." Amy whispered, gently rubbing her 'boyfriend's' back.

Even Knuckles felt sorrowed for Sonic's condition, before approaching the frightened and upset blue hedgehog, kneeling in front him and placed his gloved hand onto the younger teen's shoulder, prompting the hero to gaze up at the guardian, emerald green eyes meeting the violet purple ones.

"We'll find the answer to all of this." Knuckles whispered.

Despite the situation he was going through, Sonic couldn't help but smile emotionally at his gathered friends, who unlike Chris, were always with him, both in reality and in his dreams. They were here for him, and as much as he felt he needed to reassure them, maybe it was time he'd let them do the same for him.

"Guys...You're the best. You have no idea how much I love ya's." Sonic muttered, which prompted his little brother, his self-proclaimed girlfriend, and rivary friend(surprisingly) to gather around and all four friends formed an emotional but comforting group hug, the younger three silently shedding tears as they did.

Sonic may be lost without Chris, but he certainly wasn't lost now. He still had his real friends and despite he still felt heart-broken over the dream not being real, he felt like his heart began to heal and mend with the knowledge of who he really had, the people he loved so much.

Just then, a bright glow got the group's attention and when Sonic and his friends looked up, they saw that the Master Emerald was blinking brightly. Shocked, alarmed and confused, the four of them shared a look and despite the blue hedgehog's condition, they all hurried up to see what was happening. When they reached the summit, they stood there in confused silence, wondering what the giant gem was doing.

It was then that they heard an unfamiliar girl's voice echoing, from the Emerald itself. "The servers are the 7 Chaos... Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart... the Controller is the one that unifies the Chaos. When anger and sadness overflow like the mighty ocean, beware the great calamity."

To Sonic's shock, it was too realistically familiar. He heard it before. In his dreams.

"What the...?" Knuckles asked, dumbfounded at the unfamiliar voice that spoke the same words the blue hedgehog heard in his dreams.

"Who said that?" Amy asked, as she and Tails looked around to find the source of it, but saw no one apart from her 'boyfriend' and the red echidna.

"...Tikal?" Sonic half-whispered in disbelief, his eyes widened. How could this be? Was he dreaming again?

Tails, Amy and Knuckles glanced at the stunned hero, their eyes widening as they realized, to their bewilderment, this orb was the girl from Sonic's dream and wondered if there was more to what he saw.

Just as he had thought, a glimmer of light appeared by first appearing as a red little orb, before it materialized into an echidna girl, one the teenage hero knew of from his dreams; the same tribe clothes of a princess, the same gentle face. While Sonic's friends were in completely shock, none more so than Knuckles who was unable to believe that he was face to face with another echidna for the first time he can remember in his life, the blue hedgehog was just as shocked.

It was then that the echidna girl, Tikal, who Sonic thought was also just a dream, spoke to the dumbfounded teenager. "It's good see you are alright, Sonic the Hedgehog."

"T-T-Tikal!? How...! What-what's going on!?" Sonic stuttered, now twice as confused and wondering if he really was trapped in a dream and everything he experienced was real.

Finding himself lightheaded and dizzy, overwhelmed by too much of what was going on since waking up, he moaned and whimpered, his vision going dark, which made him feel afraid even more, thinking in that moment that he was dying quicker than he would've liked.

The next thing Sonic knew, he passed out.

"Sonic! Sonic!"

Sonic gasped in fright as he woke up, seeing the familiar faces of Tails, Amy, Knuckles and to his shock, Tikal, looming over him worriedly, with the pink hedgehog in tears. The blue hedgehog jolted upright with a startled cry, his eyes wide as he stared at the female echidna girl that appeared out of nowhere.

"Tikal!? Am I still dreaming?" Sonic asked, terrified and confused.

"Calm down, Sonic. This isn't a dream." Tails attempted to reassure, even though he was still in a state of confusion himself.

"Are you okay? I was so worried!" Amy cried out, almost crying.

Still a bit dizzy from the unexpected shock, Sonic rubbed his head with a moan as he asked, unable to remember when or how he passed out. "What happened?"

"You passed out the moment Tikal spoke." Knuckles explained simply.

Muzzle turning pink in embarrassment that he fainted, the blue hedgehog blinked. "How long was I out?"

"Five minutes." The Guardian of the Master Emerald answered.

"Are you alright, Sonic?" Tikal asked gently, with great concern.

Sonic turned his gaze to her, still unable to believe what he was seeing, before demanding, almost hysterically. "Am I okay!? Do I look okay to you!? You're-you're real! You were actually inside the Master Emerald, just like in my dream! Speaking of which, how'd you know my name? What's going on here?"

"Please, calm down." The female echidna said, holding her hands up gently to calm the panicking hedgehog. "I know this is very sudden, but you must understand."

"How can I? I'm either stuck in a dream after passing out no sooner I got back home from Chris's world, or I'm really dying and I'm hallucinating and my time is running out!" Sonic cried out, beginning to hyperventilate. Tears came streaming out as he panicked, clasping his hands together for a prayer. "It's like Knuckles said! The Chaos Energy is draining me and my soul's gonna be going bye-bye! What'm I gonna do!?"

He then buried his face into his hands and for the umpteenth time since the dream of saying goodbye to Chris, he sobbed. "I'm lost...! Now I know why they called them Chaos Emeralds...they're chaotic! They lied to me...! They're killing me...!"

Amy, Tails and Knuckles could only watch in dismay, worry and sympathy while attempting to comfort their distraught friend, while Tikal felt tears begin to form in her eyes as the blue hedgehog was broken.

Sonic sniffled and rubbed his eyes while trying to calm down. "I can't use the Chaos Emeralds anymore. I've got too much Chaos Energy within me, just like Knux warned Tails and Amy a-about...I'm dying. Eggman's won. I won't be able-I won't be able to fight him to protect the world anymore."

"No, Sonic. You are not dying. The Chaos Energy is not draining you." Tikal pointed out softly.

That got everyone's attention, as they looked up at her, now confused.

"Huh? Say what?" Sonic asked, blinking.

"What are you talking about?" Knuckles asked.

"Sonic, did you misuse the power of the Chaos Emeralds?" The spiritual echidna questioned.

The blue hedgehog blinked, then thought as calmly as possible while still tearful, before shaking his head as he realized he couldn't remember a time that he did. "Not that I know of. I only used the Chaos Emeralds to stop Eggman or other evil enemies. Whether it's one or two or all seven of them, and those times is in the case of emergency."

"Then you are safe. As Knuckles as told your friends in our people's sacred lore, any mishap of the Chaos Emeralds with the one who used their power to perform the miracle may, in theory, cause their body's energy to drain, make them see things that are not real, and unless cured by one who can help them recover from something that frightens them...their souls will be destroyed." Tikal explained.

"Then I'm not safe." Sonic sighed miserably. "Eggman's machine blew up when his robots crashed into it, causing the Emeralds to act up and knocked out all of us, and that's when I had that dream. I thought it really happened, but it was all a lie."

"No, only those who cause a mishap with the Emeralds that do have the power to perform the miracle will have their energy drained. But you did not cause the mishap." Tikal explained.

"Can you explain from the beginning, please?" Amy asked impatiently. "This is starting to make my head hurt."

"Of course, and do not worry, Sonic is not in any form of danger. As one might suspect, his friend within the dream-link has already saved him, even if it meant living in sorrow for a while." The female echidna explained.

"Chris..." Sonic whispered, still confused and sad. He then asked, "Wait, what? Dream-link?"

"While everything you saw was a dream, what you saw was a illusionary reality of what is yet to come, and I fear some parts of the dream will be made a reality." Tikal said.

All four friends stared in shock, as a realization began to dawn onto them, but none more so than the blue hedgehog.

Would that mean...Earth, humanity, and Chris...were all real as well?

A/N: Sorry that this chapter was short, but I've realized that some of my other Sonic fanfics had chapters that were a bit too long. I'll try to shorten them as best as I can, and I'm not sure how long this story will be. It was originally going to be at least three, four or five chapters, but like I said, it's hard to say. I've also changed the summary a bit to make this story fit.

See you later!