Chapter 4; the deadly rose

Sonic and Amy were riding through a forest. They weren't talking. They were still shocked from the battle with the machines. Especially Sonic. The damage he took was far greater than when Tail's hatred turned into Red Nova dragon's attack almost making him crash. He couldn't let Amy go through this. He decided that he would send Amy back the moment they stopped and he had a chance to talk to her. They kept riding through the forest and eventually encountered a natural fountain. They stopped to drink some water and drizzle some water on Sonic's wounds. They both drank then Amy started drizzling the water over Sonic's right arm.

"This wound is really big. Are you sure we should move on?" she asked him.

"Well… I wanted to discuss this with you Ames."

"You think that we should wait a bit too?"

"No. I think you should go back. And I will move on to the black mountain myself."

"WHAT? You're not serious right? All alone you won't make it."

"But I can't have you with me there. Your life was threatened back there. I can't allow that. That's why you have to go back."

"Oh. So what you're saying is that I'm not strong enough to fight these things."

"What? No I never…"

"Oh look at us. I am the helpless cute girl who has to stay in a house to be safe while you are the warrior who saves the world out there." She mocked him

"Amy cut it out."

But she kept on.

"And I'll have to be like 'oh Sonic promise me you will return'. Well you know what? I am not gonna be the helpless girl that runs for her life. I will fight! And I will beat these machines!"

"AMY DO YOU REALIZE IN WHAT SITUATION WE ARE IN?!"

"YES I DO! BUT YOU'RE ACTING LIKE I AM A BABY."

"I can't let you risk your life." Sonic said trying to calm himself down.

"Why not?"

"Because…. I …. I …. I promised your father I would keep you safe."

"OH! SO YOU DO THAT IN ORDER NOT TO TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MY DEATH!"

"No! you don't underst…"

"Drizzle your wounds alone then. I'll wait at my runner." She said and left in rage.

Sonic was left alone there cursing himself for being so coward. He wanted to tell Amy that he didn't want her to risk her life because he would go crazy if she died. He drizzled he wounds and returned to his runner. Then they accelerated once more.

Back to earth.

The rest of Sonic's gang were all in Tails' house. They watched TV all day and all they saw in every channel was reports that Sonic had gone missing. They were called by Sonic and Amy's parents and they said that they were in Tails' house and just had a peaceful day. They believed it for now. But they knew that soon they would start to worry.

"Sonic" Tails thought "wherever you are, give us a sign please."

In the world of the war

Several kilometres after the forest Sonic and Amy still weren't talking. Suddenly they saw something blocking the road. They accelerated to see it clearly but when they reached there that thing was gone. They dismounted their runners.

"What was that?" Amy wondered.

"I don't know. But I have a bad feeling about this. Let's get outta here before any of the machines come."

"You're still thinking about it? You know what? The next machine we encounter I'll duel it!"

"No way I'm not letting you."

"IT'S ABOUT TIME YOU STARTED TO TREAT ME AS AN EQUAL SONIC! I AM NOT A HELPLESS GIRL AND I AM NOT WEAK!"

"But I don't want anything to happen to you."

"Nothing will happen. You have started to go paranoid."

"Let's just get outta here."

But the moment they tried to return to their runners a laser beam landed between them and the runners. They raised their heads and saw 2 androids landing in front of them .

"Strange life forms detected. Please do not resist. Please surrender your decks and follow us quietly."

"No way gearbrain. I'll take you on!" Sonic said bravely.

"What he means is WE will take you on!" Amy interfered angry.

"Amy no. just stay behind and let me handle this."

"Unit names; Meklord generals. Challenge accepted. Fight mode activated."

They activated their fields and the chest cavities holding their decks opened. Sonic tried one more time to keep Amy out of the duel but her expression was enough to keep his mouth closed. They activated their duel discs.

"Let's Duel!"

"My turn" Amy said " I summon botanical lion in attack mode. Then I activate the spell foolish burial to send glow up bulb to the graveyard. By sending the top card of my deck to the graveyard my bulb returns from it. Afterwards I activate the spell star changer which makes my lion a level 5 monster. I tune together my monsters to synchro summon my queen of thorns!"

"Analyzing queen of thorns. Effect; the player who does not summon a plant monster has to pay a 1000 LP to summon the monster."

"Amy why did you play that? My deck is made of winged beasts!"

"I play the continuous spell wave of defense. Now the backfire effects of my cards don't affect me or Sonic. See? I wouldn't act stupid."

But Sonic still was concerned about these meklord emperors.

"I set a card and end my turn."

"Turn start. Draw card. Summoning monster. Vortex trooper."

"You have to pay 1000 points now robo-dude. Queen of thorns expects her toll."

"Continuation. (Meklord general #1 LP 7000). Activating spell card. Tribute to the doomed. Discarding card to destroy vortex trooper. Vortex trooper allows the draw of a card. Meklord emperor wisel effect activation. Summoning Wisel ( Meklord general #1 LP 6000). Wisel effect activation."

"In your dreams. I activate the trap compulsory evacuation device. I send Wisel back to your hand."

"Card set. Turn end."

"My turn" Sonic said " I draw."

"Sonic don't go all out again. Play with patience just like you always do."

"I won't let them survive a single turn. I'm not risking us taking damage."

"Why?! I can take some damage. I'm not as weak as you think."

"I summon blackwing shura the blue flame. And because I control a blackwing I can special summon blackwings Kris the crack of dawn, bora the spear and gale the whirlwind. Monsters finish off general number #1!"

"Sonic noooo don't attack!"

"Trap card activation. Mutiny. Your weakest monster will battle your strongest!"

"oh no!"

"Told ya not to rush!" Amy said angry.

Kris and gale collided and gale fell.

"The trap states you take damage!" Meklord general 1 said and fired a ray at Sonic which hit him.

"AAAAAAH!" (Sonic LP 7400)

"So what! The other 2 attacks will land!"

"ZZZt Damage dealt (Meklord general #1 LP 2500).

"I set 3 cards and end my turn with blackwing feathers so I draw a card for each blackwing with a different name out so 3."

"Turn start. Draw card. Summoning playful possum" (Meklord general #2 LP 7000) "Playful possum effect. Self-destruction. Meklord Emperor Skiel's effect activates. Special summoning Skiel (Meklord general #2 6000 LP) Skiel effect activation. Synchro drain!"

"No you don't. I activate breakthrough skill to negate your monster's effect."

"Chaining with quick play spell forbiddance. It negates the activation of a spell or trap and shuffles it into deck."

"NOOO!"

"Draining target; queen of thorns."

Queen of thorns was drained and now Amy was defenseless.

"Initiating attack!" he said and fired a laser along with skiel's attack. Amy was about to take the hit when..

"NOOOO!"

Sonic jumped in front of Amy and took the hit for her!

"AAAAAAAAAAH"!

Then he fell down and didn't move again.

"SONIC!" Amy screamed and ran at him. She turned him around and saw he was conscious but his eyes were open wide and he had an expression of fear on his face.

"Sonic! Are you ok?!" she asked in fear,

Sonic looked at her.

"Are you ok?" he asked back.

Amy felt her heart would stop. Sonic tried to sacrifice himself in order for her to avoid the pain. She wouldn't let it go just yet though.

"I am ok. Now tell me are you ok?"

"Since you're ok I'm ok too."

"You… you IDIOT!" She said while giving him a slap.

"Hey what was that for.. I just saved you!"

"Why are you acting like I need protection?!"

"Because I don't want you to get hurt."

"You know what? I am ending this duel (Amy LP 3600) We'll talk about this later."

"Strange life forms, make your moves or surrender."

"you've gone and done it now wireheads. I'LL DESTROY YOU SO HARD THAT NOT EVEN SCRAPYARD WILL WANT YOU THEN!"

Sonic was horrified to see Amy in such a rage. He never knew she could be so deadly. But the moment he saw her like this his heart started beating at the speed of sound. She was driving him crazy. And he liked that.

"Let's do this Amy."

She looked at him.

"Attack now. I'll back you up.

"My turn. I draw. I summon forth rescue soldier. It's effect allows me to save my monster from your captivity and bring it back to my field. Then I activate the effect of spore that was sent to my graveyard due to glow up bulb's effect. I remove the bulb to increase spore's effect by one level and then special summon it out. now I tune it with my queen of thorns to summon my ace the black Rose dragon! Finally I activate the spell random help and death. I sacrifice my rescue soldier and shuffle my extra deck. Then I randomly send a card of it to my graveyard. If it is a synchro monster my dragon gains its attack points and its effect for one turn and when it battles you can't play any spell or traps until the end of the battle phase and can attack once each monster out. In the end phase it is destroyed. Let's see"

She chose a card.

"I send… LEO THE KEEPER OF SACRED TREE. My dragon now has 5800 attack points!"

"Not yet Amy. I play the trap blackwing promotion. I tribute a blacwing I have out to special summon a blackwing from my hand with one level higher. If this monster can activate its effect it does activate it. So I tribute shura to summon forth sirocco the dawn. And he collects the attack points of the other blackwings for a total of 5600. And when your dragon attacks I chain with my inherited power trap! I tribute sirocco and its attack points are added to black rose for a grand total of 11400!"

"Situation IMPOSSIBLE!"

"BLACK ROSE DRAGON!" Amy's mark shined "DOUBLE VENGEANCE THORN STREAM!"

(Meklord generals #1 and #2 LP 0)

The attack of Black rose created a giant explosion and a huge smoke cloud that engulfed everything. When Sonic saw Amy through the smoke she was looking at the robots' debris in rage. Then she turned around and went to her duel runner.

"Come." She said.

Sonic followed.

They rode their runners until night fell. They decided to stop for the night. Sonic had sleeping bags under the runner's sit because he had to sometimes sleep outside when he travelled long distances on his own. He took out 2 then gave Amy some bars of chocolate to chew and promised to get them real food once they reached civilization. After some minutes…

"Start explaining."

"Explain what?"

"Why did you take the beam for me? Why are you acting as if I need protection? And don't say because you promised my dad. There is another reason. I wanna know it."

"I… I just don't want you to get hurt ok? We got into this mess and we're in danger now. I want you to return to earth intact."

"Sonic you don't deceive me. I WANT THE TRUTH!"

"BECAUSE I LOVE YOU AND I CAN'T LOSE YOU!"

These words came out of his heart. He couldn't control them. Amy's face turned to a shocked expression.

"You… you what?"

"I love you Amy. I love you. That's why I took the hit. If I lose you I will be driven crazy. You're too important for me to lose. I don't want you to get hurt in this war. That's why I was so overprotective."

Amy couldn't believe it. She didn't have to express her feelings to Sonic because he did it first."

"Since when do you love me?"

"From the first moment. I realized it now though." Sonic said looking down in fear that the rejection was on its way.

But it never came.

"I love you too." Amy said

That was all Sonic needed. Once she said it she grabbed her from the shoulders and kissed her very hard. Amy got shocked in the beginning but soon let go and enjoyed it. It was just like she imagined it to be.

Once they finally broke their kiss they watched Sonic's watch and realized they were kissing for 2 (earth) hours. They smiled and decided that it was time to sleep. Tomorrow would be a hard day. They got into one of the sleeping bags and embraced each other. 5 seconds later they were out like lights.