Disclaimers; Don't own them. Except Rowan... She is mine. But the rest belong to Sega or Fleetway or Archie respectively.
Sonic: "I think I hate you."
Orin: "I think you've already said that. Many times."
Knuckles: "Just goes to show, he's running out of material."
Sonic: "Running out? Me? No way, man! Now Orin on the other hand… can we say 'repetition' here?
Orin: "What?
Knuckles: "Obviously, he means you're repeating yourself, or the fic or something. He's Sonic, being obscure is in his job description."
Sonic: "Do I even have one'a those?"
Knuckles: "*Shrugs*
Orin: *Looking miffed since there were many brain cells burned for this particular chapter* "How exactly am I repeating myself now?"
Sonic: "Aw c'mon! The angst! The pain! The hurting of lil' old me!"
Knuckles: *Hiding a grin rather badly* "It just goes to show… Some good things bear repeating."
Sonic: *Glaring* "So should we kill you off again, too?"
Knuckles: O__O
Orin: *Has to laugh at that one*
For NetRaptor.
WINTERHEART- Every Scar Is A Lesson Remembered.
Chapter 5
Losing Grip
"I will never know myself until I do this alone. And I will never feel anything else until my wounds are healed. I will never be anything, 'til I break away from me. And I will break away. I'll find myself today."
Somewhere I Belong – Linkin Park
******************
Something unaware in her mind brought Amy to the darkening shoreline. She had not so much as made a conscious decision to go as had found herself walking, feet moving of their own, in that direction. Down past the hospital, through the dirtier alleys of the city, onto an old beaten path she had known even as a child.
She headed there without the vaguest map in her head. She had no goal other than to be somewhere besides where she had been. Nothing other than to be away from him. She felt strangely calm inside, considering the significance of her outburst. And Amy wondered if it signified the end of the storm, or merely the eye.
Amy could not remember a time when she had not felt bitter, had not felt the restless scream welling up inside – You hurt me! How could you be so blind?!, it had been running in her head like a mantra for months. The volume raising a notch at every scrap of news that drifted on the media of his exploits, with every televised shot of him.
And when she had seen him there, amid the chaos that had been her home, it had taken all the artifice she had to not let him see her cringing, to not give substance to the black hatred she had felt rising behind her eyes.
And he had seen it, and still he had not known.
Amy felt her fists clench, the fury rising again. She fought it down.
The beach was supposed to calm her frayed temper and bring some semblance of calm back to her tormented thoughts. That was why Amy had headed there. The swash and backwash of gentle waves had always proved to be therapeutic to her in the past. And the ocean's gentle greens were calming as well, when they did not remind her of his eyes. Though they were more emerald than aqua- but then now and again, everything became reminiscent to her of 'him'. It was not intentional, and neither did Amy wish to have so many reminders of her obsession in her life, but it happened anyway.
The setting sun was bleak enough; still, it set the sea alight in hues of gold and red. Not a hint of green in sight. But Amy thought of Sonic anyway.
It was bitter, and though the snow on the ground had all but melted in the slight increase of heat the days were bringing with them, Amy still felt the shadow of ice unfolding over the peaceful ocean. The night would be freezing – there was not a cloud to be seen on the darkening horizon.
On impulse, Amy hugged herself. She was cold, if truth were told, but she had no desire to return to Sonic's apartment, because she would have to return there, it was the only place left for her to go. Rowan she had not seen since the fire. She was worried. But she knew Rowan was safe, alive. She felt it.
A voice intruded on her thoughts.
"It's getting chilly out here; you should be inside – in the warmth."
Amy stiffened on instinct, before she realised with a stop and a start that it was not Sonic. That the voice held a decidedly quieter timber than the hedgehog's ever did. And then there was the lilt, more pronounced than ever before, as though he was either out of practise speaking all together, or simply out of practise at speaking common Mobian. But perhaps most significantly, Amy knew that voice –
Of course she knew that voice.
The pink hedgehog turned to him with a small smile, carefully and quiet she nodded.
"Hello, Knuckles."
*******************
He could have launched himself after her retreating form. He could have pursued doggedly like a large part of him felt like doing. He could have argued with her until she saw and understood that it was all a huge misunderstanding. That her two-year-long hatred was this massive error on her part. She had seen everything at the wrong angle and blamed him for events beyond his control.
Sonic could have done any number of things. He could have left it at that and returned to Knothole without another word. Without closure.
Only he did not.
There were two reasons for this. The first was that he was reeling too much from her revelations to do anything much other than stare in a blank state of denial after her, long after Amy had gone. He was afraid. He was unwilling to pursue her because it would possibly mean facing the quiet fury all over again. And it was fury; it was wrath, pure and justified.
And that brought him to the second reason. It was justified.
He did not follow Amy, to try to argue with her accusations, because she was right. On all counts.
And it made Sonic furious. Though it was difficult for him to understand exactly at who or why he was so angry. The words, her words stung, and they did much more than that too, because once voiced they burrowed into his conscience, twisting and clawing their way through his thoughts until they were fairly consuming all he could think about.
Because she was right. And in the end it all came back to that.
They hated her because she told the truth; it was a very valid cause for hate, Sonic reasoned. Truth hurt the most. And it was easier to hate in the face of such life-altering truth. People hated for such little things. People lied for little things, like Amy had done. They lied to save face and feelings. Why not do it to save injury too? Only it never worked out quite so well in practise, because sometimes those decisions came back to haunt. And it was the nastiest thing in the world to be living in could-have and should-have, because there was no going back, no changing the decision you made. All you could do was live in the memory and the mistake and wonder.
"I saw it. I saw him-"
And Sonic had never seen. He chose to remain blind in the face of those truths Amy was all about. He should have know from the instant he had set eyes on Amy in her broken apartment, that something was different, about her, about her life. About the way she looked at him and had said, "Get out," so very quietly. Two simple words and they should have told him of the hurts and words she was caging within, bursting to get out. For two years.
Denial, she had said. Sonic could only see in the blindness of his dreams. And he was the hero, he needed to see most. And of course, he had not. And she had suffered. And he had suffered.
But it was not about Knuckles. It was about a different kind of failure.
"Because I can't rely on you!"
And it always came back to that.
"You had the choice… Instead you choose…"He had chosen freedom, and the safety running away brought with it. Those were the choices he would always choose.
"And then that child died."
And it really was as simple as that. Her words held no eloquent phrasing, no poetic value. She said what she meant, and she told him what he had done, and again it hurt. Because it was truth. He had chosen to return to Knothole for his accolades and the hero's welcome he had known was waiting. He had played his part, the world was safe again. What more did they want? What more could she want?
Amy had never entered his mind. Not in the trek home, and not in the time since. He had just forgotten. And she was right.
It was easier.
Sonic paced the hospital grounds, the distance eating up his speed too fast for him to wear his worries down through walking. It was not something he could do anyway. Neither was running. It was curative enough, but he was too fast for it to be a challenge enough to tire him out. He paced until he could not tell where the ward he started out in was, and realised he was lost. He paced until he realised that the sun was setting and that Amy had nowhere else to be but his home – and that she had no way in unless he was there to open the door.
He paced until he realised it was time to stop running.
Then he found his way out of the maze of hospital wards and headed after Amy.
***************
"Amy." The scarlet head tilted.
Amy watched him carefully; it was not as though she was suspicious – not truly – it was just… Knuckles was technically dead, at least that was what everyone presumed. Apart from herself. And-
"Shouldn't you be talking to Sonic?" She sounded bitter, and it surprised her. As did the rueful expression on Knuckles' face that followed her words.
"No," he shook his head – and was it her imagination or were his headspines shorter than she remembered? "He would… panic."
Amy tilted her head briefly, shivered as she considered that. Eventually she allowed a short nod. "I guess," she admitted. "He's shook up. Still."
Then she turned her eyes back to the ocean, trying to think of something to say to change the subject. She had no desire to talk about Sonic. Her breath hitched even as she thought about him. She would NOT cry.
"Breathe." It was said softly and Amy jumped a little, turned wide eyes back to Knuckles. The scarlet echidna was gazing out at the setting sun as well, the faint breeze catching his headspines and tossing them loosely on the wind.
No, it was neither the wind nor her imagination. His headspines were shorter.
"Excuse me?" she said.
Knuckles lowered his head, looking at the ground as he answered, "Breathe… Slowly- it… helps."
"Helps what?"
"To stop the tears."
Amy shivered again and had to look away from the lone echidna, closing her eyes. She hugged herself and shuddered outright. "I wasn't going to cry," she protested softly.
Silence.
"All right."
Sonic would have argued to the contrary. He would have disputed her claim until she relented or he stormed off because she would not relent. Only… Amy doubted Sonic would ever have noticed her unformed tears to begin with. But Knuckles was not – nor ever would be – Sonic the Hedgehog, and at times like the one present, the differences between them were evident.
It was more than the scars. It was deeper than that. Now.
And Amy found herself shivering again. Not because of the growing cold. And she found that she could not bring her eyes back up to look at the former Guardian in his silence. She knew what it meant.
She had seen.
Amy shivered again.
"You should be inside," Knuckles repeated.
"It's cold inside too," she whispered. It was a deep chill that settled in her being when she thought of it. Of him. When someone dwells in the cold too long, it begins to seep into them. A part of their skin. Amy's room had been the coldest in her apartment, she felt. Sometimes she felt that she carried it with her, wherever she went.
"It's- warmer than out here."
"Is it? Are… are you cold?" Because she wanted to know – to see, if Knuckles felt the chill as well. And she did look at him then. And just as she had known, Knuckles would not meet her gaze. Could not.
"No," he said shortly. "I'm not cold."
He was lying. He was a terrible liar.
She nodded toward his arm, toward the bandage there and the tint of faint red staining it. "What happened?"
He did not follow her gaze, instead his shoulder lifted in a casual shrug. "Difference of opinion."
Amy frowned. Once she looked, she found she could not look away. There was damage to his arm, and… the old scar on his face, but she knew what that was about. Then across his chest, there was another, newer than the scar, but just nearly as old – it would fade from what her practised eyes could see, but it must have hurt when-
Suddenly Amy had to speak, to fill the oppressive silence with something, other than the thinking and the knowing it would bring. She looked at the echidna's face again, "Those scars look painful."
"They'll heal," was the immediate rejoinder and Amy felt like sighing – though it brought her thoughts back to Sonic – for once she felt she had to agree with him, when it came to conversation Knuckles was definitely… what was the word Sonic had used? Stunted?
"But you hurt." And there, she had said it. And there was the quality in her voice, one that sounded nothing like her normal tone, something entirely different, which had Knuckles look at her sharply, with eyes gone decidedly shuttered and dark. She knew his eyes searched her face for something, something that would tell him what she was thinking, so she deliberately made her expression blank. It was a trick she could pull so much easier than just two years before.
"I… what?" His eyes were more than just dark then, they were not the cool-blue of ice, but were just as sharp, just as cold. And Amy swallowed against that ice-cold, the hint of menace as it moved cross her face, watching her every nuance of expression, resting on her eyes, tilting her chin up.
She could not look away.
He gathered steel-cold layers of dignity around him, like a cloak under which to hide his shattered self. He built so many walls around, that they formed a tower without him ever knowing, trapping him in a fortress of his own defence. And it never crumbled, even as Knuckles looked at her, she could see it, but she could see the cracks too. Where once there had been none there were deep fissures, chasms of hopelessness and hate. And she could see underneath. And the pain and bitterness she felt faded when she did…
How could she compare? Her hurts were a paltry thing compared to his. How could anyone – ever?
"You can't feel without being burned by the flame," she said suddenly, and Knuckles' eyes narrowed a fraction.
"You're not cold," Amy went on, voice hollow, "Never will be, there's fire and a black hole where you were once…Your vision has gone dead and red, and all the rain of pain in the world couldn't quench this fire."
She closed her eyes, so she could not see his face. She heard the wet sound of the lapping waves in her ears, the rushing seemed louder that it should have been. Or perhaps that was just because she was scared. She stood, cold and alone, despite the company, and as she clasped her hands against her arms, hugging herself, she realised she was not scared – she as terrified.
She wished it was raining. Wished she had the courage to open her eyes and to give Knuckles the regard enough to meet his pain face to face. She wished she had the nerve to go and seek out Sonic and to tell him… everything. But she just stood there instead, holding herself in the growing dark, wishing, wishing for rain…
"I'm sorry," came her broken whisper. Amy could not honestly say who she was apologising to.
But it did not matter, when she opened her eyes, she was alone.
************************
If Robotnik had intended for his operations to be covert, Sonic imagined he had failed spectacularly.
The giant hulking monstrosity towered taller than a two story building and lumbered along with all the destructive passage of a great juggernaut. People fled in its wake and its path. Sonic had heard their screams echo around the strangely empty streets long before the originators of those screams or their cause had come into view.
When it did, Sonic had to stop, and despite himself and the situation he had to give voice a soft wolf-whistle.
He shook his head bemusedly.
"Obviously Ole' Eggman's not a fan of 'the-bigger-they-are' theory," he muttered. It was Robotnik's design to be certain; Sonic had been looking at it for near to fifteen years, he could see the flairs and flaws that were Robotnik's and Robotnik's only. And though Robotnik had grown more extravagant in recent times, Sonic could still identify the madman's robots upon sight.
It was huge. That was one of the first signs. Robotnik was a fan of big robots. And spikes. It had those in abundance. It also did not look particularly bright. This was another regular trait that Sonic had come to associate with Robotnik's robots. The dictator never figured into programming any kind of self-preservation into them. Whether it was because he was afraid to, or because the fact had honestly never occurred to him, Sonic did not know. He was very aware though of how easy this had made some of the most ferocious looking of Robotnik's robots fall in the past.
With the exception of Metal Sonic, all of Robotnik's robots had fallen one time or another.
Sonic quickened his pace. The sudden thought occurred to him that Robotnik was still pursuing Amy, and that he had sent robots after her in the past, and that it was the probable reason for his latest creation's sudden appearance.
He felt the familiar adrenaline rush at the thought of oncoming battle. It sped through him, increasing and surging with every quickening stride until it pounded out in tandem with his heart and breath.
When he rounded the last corner and caught his first sight of what was ahead of him, two things occurred to Sonic. That the robot was far, far more dangerous it seemed, close up. And that his assumptions had been correct after all. Half a street away, cornered and shivering stood Amy Rose.
Sonic felt a snarl rise in his throat.
Narrowing his eyes and feeling the sense of resentment rise, he darted across the distance, closing in on the unknowing robot and its victim.
There were times when Sonic genuinely respected Robotnik as an opponent. It may have seemed a strange idea to most, but as an adversary and long-time rival, Robotnik was one of the best. Sonic had to commend the human on some of his plans in the past. For their creativity at least. Though this respect was not to be confused with 'like'. Sonic did not like Robotnik. Sonic would never like Robotnik.
Then there were the times – like the one at present – when Sonic would have gladly wrung the human's neck without very much coercion. It was one thing to fight your enemy on equal grounds, opponent to opponent. That was something Sonic could understand. But innocents, those who could not defend themselves, Sonic considered them strictly off limits, and felt a distinct sense of loathing for the human when he sunk so low as to use them against Sonic.
The cobalt hedgehog dashed across the distance, in front of the robots path and grabbed Amy out of its reach even before those black eyes could acknowledge his existence.
Amy clutched at him, gasping and shuddering as Sonic raced away. "Y-you're late," she accused through chattering teeth. Sonic fought a smile. That was new. The banter. He could sense no ice in her words, just a strange sound of relief.
He halted a distance away from the beast and deposited Amy on the sidewalk.
"You're stopping." Amy stated blankly. She stared at Sonic, then beyond him, at Robotnik's robot. "You're stopping!?" she said again. She looked faintly panicked, and then accusing as she went on. "Why?! Why are you stopping?"
"Look at it, it's huge," Sonic pointed out. A part of him only wanted to take Amy's unspoken advice – run – and to do just that. A part of him wanted to take her advice because it was not said in anger, and Amy was not angry with him and he could not remember her voice anymore when it not tinged with anger. And he found he missed that.
But he was done running. He had not imagined he would have to prove his new resolve so soon, or in such a physical manner, but it was all the same.
"It's big enough to level the city." Sonic told her. It was reason enough for him not to run. She would have to understand that.
He took a breath and dashed back at the robot.
"No more running," he muttered. His approach was direct, as was his usual style. And as usual, the first hit had no apparent affect as Sonic sped up an adjacent building and propelled himself into a spin at the huge head. It dented, Sonic could feel the metal wedge beneath the impact, but of course, the robot did not even waver.
But Sonic was expecting that. They never wavered on the first hit, or even the second. He would wait for it to attack, because it was always then that their flaws showed themselves to Sonic.
The hedgehog landed a short distance away from the cowering Amy – who was throwing him an accusing glare – and prepared to dash again, when the glint of cold metal flashed beyond Sonic's vision and suddenly his torso felt like it was on fire, burning with pain. He shrieked and staggered back, clutching at his chest.
His pulled his hands away with some effort, clutching the metal dart in one fist.
Two sets of wide green eyes stared up at the robot. Both expected to hear the tinny sound of Robotnik's laughter, because it seemed to be his cue. But only silence reigned, save for the floundering of steel limbs bringing the bot closer.
Sonic had to wonder at Robotnik missing an opportunity to gloat. It was strange…
Then the sky seemed to dip and twist and the hedgehog forgot all about Robotnik as the dart fell from lifeless fingers and he strove to stay upright. Something caught his arm, and he blinked, struggling to focus his eyes. Pink, a pink blur.
Amy.
"What's wrong?!" she cried. Sonic had to blink again. If he did not know better he would have imagined that tone to her voice was worry. Only he did know better. Carefully he shook her off. Carefully, because every move made the world spin and tilt in a kaleidoscope of confusion.
Swaying, Sonic stood alone. "I dunno," he muttered. He frowned, trying to concentrate. He was tired. He wanted to sleep. His limbs felt heavy.
"Drugged," came Amy's voice to him. "It must be a drug. He wants to slow you down."
Sonic focused his blurry gaze on his huge opponent as best he could. "He wants kill me," he muttered, then shot the surprised Amy a bleary glare. "Get back and stay back," he said, stumbling forward a few steps, steadying himself. He could fight this. He had to. He saw Amy's horrified expression out of the corner of his eyes.
"In fact, run. Run now," he amended, "He's after you. Go, hide or whatever… just leave."
"But, you're-" Amy spluttered.
"Gonna' stop him from following you." His eyes were dark, with either pain, or weariness or determination. It was impossible to tell. "Or, try anyway." He waved a hand. "Go!"
The fresh sea air was conductive to keeping Sonic on his feet, and the hedgehog had to concede that at least he had that on his side. But his circulatory system was doing the opposite, his blood flowed and heart pumped faster than any normal Mobian, and it only served to spread whatever it was Robotnik's newest flunky had decided to pump him full of.
In short. He was running out of time.
On instinct he ran through the options his battleground presented him. He was outside the city enough to not have to worry about civilian life – that was a definite plus. Everyone had fled as the monstrosity had approached. The beach… It was behind him. Water was good, metal could not swim, and perhaps he could-
And sand.
The robot would be severely encumbered by sand; maybe Sonic could use its hulking weight against it-
But before he could process that thought into action, a massive fist flashed down, sweeping faster that Sonic could imagine for something so huge. It slammed against him, sent him tumbling through the air with the speed of a compact missile.
Sonic curled into a ball, on instinct, and fought down a yelp of pain when he slammed into something hard. He felt something crack on impact – not bones, but bricks and mortar of the wall he had crashed into.
The hedgehog landed, the world spun.
The robot used the opportunity of Sonic's temporary bout of dizziness to aim another deadly punch, but Sonic, blinking and cursing quietly to himself for underestimating his opponent, ducked and flattened himself against the ground as the hand swept past. The wall that had been his cushion, crumbled into rubble.
The great hand withdrew and it seemed to Sonic that his opponent pondered on the fact that there had been no impact on the second strike. Sonic watched as those cavernous eyes flashed electronically, the red pupils in them flickering in the robotic estimation of a blink. It regarded its hand, and then the head lifted, to regard Sonic instead.
Sonic did not waste time wondering what it was trying to come to terms with. Instead, the cobalt hedgehog decided to use the opportunity to gain the upper hand. Eyes darting around frantically, he eventually settled for using a nearby lamppost for a vaulting platform and raced up its side, pausing an instant at the top to get his bearings and locate the best target. It was one thing to focus on the lamppost, glowing softly in the dimming light, but it was another thing entirely to face shadows around his enemy and try to pick out the best part to strike.
He could barely see the robot. How was he ever supposed to-
The hesitation cost him.
"Sonic! Jump!"
The robot gave a loud digital scream, piercing enough to have Sonic clutch his ears on reflex, and it threw its entire weight into a full assault on the oblivious hedgehog.
"JUMP!" Amy. Screaming at him through the growing darkness.
On blind trust, Sonic leapt and twisted through the air, hoping his depth perception was not so completely mangled that he misjudged the distance between lamppost and ground. He heard the robot beyond him rumble past, tearing up the street as he landed safely. The asphalt flew apart, spraying much like dark water disturbed by a violently thrown rock, and it rained down on Sonic. An out-worldly hail from dark skies.
He dodged and wove as best he could, considering, and survived all the larger missiles. The few that hit him were so small that the most they would leave was a small cut, or bruise.
"What're you still doing here?" Sonic shouted. He did not need to look at Amy to know she had heard him. After all, he had heard her. He watched the blurry outlines of the robot instead. It looked as though it was trying to make sense of what had happened, slowed by the removal of its hands from the street.
"I told you to run!" Sonic shouted louder then, when Amy did not answer him.
"How could I?! You can't even see it!" was the replying shriek.
"I don't need to!" Sonic was irate. She did not have the first clue when it came to combating. "I can fight it anyway. What I can't do is look after your hide as well."
Silence. Thunder rumbled overhead. It began to rain
The robot was on his feet. Sonic's world was growing dimmer.
In desperation. "Damnit Amy! RUN!"
Through the sudden downpour Sonic watched the monstrosity's head turn towards him with agonising slowness, and it occurred to him that the thing had probably zeroed in on his shouts. He gritted his teeth in silent frustration.
The rain was not affecting the bot in any way at all, and the slickened street would not help Sonic achieve his goal either. Sonic lowered his head stubbornly and broke into a loose sprint. He hoped that Amy was taking his advice, but did not look to check. He doubted he would have seen her anyway.
The rain battered and chilled his frayed nerves as he geared up for another attack. His opponent did the same. The wet metal shone, reflected streetlights in the darkness and finally, Sonic could see his enemy clear enough to be confident of his target. It glowed crimson and gold in the light and the blurriness in Sonic vision combined with the rain made it look like some crimson demon out to bring down Armageddon.
Sonic picked up speed, his teeth gritted, eyes narrowed and feet flying. The mechanical being started towards the small cobalt form suddenly, but it was not expecting that form to swerve off and push himself up the side of the skyscraper behind it – defying gravity again. Neither was it expecting that small form to launch himself off the building and dive, cutting through the air, and through its back.
The time it took for Sonic to move, and attack, and impact, and burst out through its chest was miniscule, and not even measurable by seconds. But to Sonic, weak, and reeling, vision blurred and senses blunted it may as well have been a short span of eternity. The cold tangle of wires, the metal and pistons and gears and circuitry that made up the robot seemed endless. It seemed to grab at him, slowing him down, curling its coils around his spirit and crushing it mercilessly between lifeless limbs.
But Sonic tore and spun and slashed like only he could. Buying time. Buying life. The robot seemed to shudder, and then it buckled. But still it did not fall.
But Sonic did.
The hedgehog emerged into fresh sea air, shuddering and gasping desperately, his vision gone black and his heart pumping furiously for the air he so urgently needed. For a second or more he held on precariously to the robots chest plate, eyes staring blindly, frantically, for something, anything in the darkness, fingers clinging to the jagged metal of his forced exit.
Then Sonic could not do even that. With something akin to a sigh, the hedgehog's green eyes slid closed and he let go.
************************
Amy watched the battle, battling with herself all the while. Every ounce of her being called at her to flee, to get way as fast and as far as she could. But there was Sonic…
The relief she had felt at his appearance had faded as the battle escalated, and as Sonic lost.
Until finally he was vaulting through the air, completely out of control. Amy's blood quickened and burned with the undercurrents of raw, unadulterated terror as she watched him fall. It seemed he fell forever. With total lack of grace he hit the ground, rolling over and over, a blur of blue and red across the unforgiving pavement. He came to a sliding halt far from the robot, and once there did not move again. The rain pooled around him, coating his spines and fur in a sheet of moisture as he lay completely still on the ground.
Unmoving.
He was not dead, he was not dead, he was not-
And then, though there was terror there, Amy felt something else too, something she had not felt in a long time, something almost foreign to her. There was a flame of righteous white-hot fury licking at the edges of her emotions. The tongues of that flame threatened to consume her alive.
She had not seen! Why had she not seen!?
Across the distance, low and painful, she heard Sonic moan.
He was alive.
She scrambled madly toward him. Hate and fear and old dreams were forgotten as the only thought in her mind was to reach him – to ensure that he was not dying, not leaving her again. Fumbling at his neck with trembling fingers, she fairly burst into tears when the rapid and unsteady pulse answered her search. But she stilled only for a second, before her head lifted to dart a furtive glance back up to the lumbering shape stomping ever closer.
Gathering his form up against her. Amy rocked.
What would she have done if he had died?
Would she have cried then? Regretted? Been bitter? Would it have made any difference? She wanted to protect him, because he had done all he could to protect her, against her protests. He had fought, as best he could, and he had fallen. He was suffering for her failure. For her.
"I hate you," she whispered, cradling his form closer, ignoring the rain and the cold, and the advancing monstrosity that passed for a robot. A thin trickle of blood seeped through her fingers, mingling with the rain, diluting into a spreading pool on the ground. But she could not move him; he was too heavy for her.
And still, the robot lumbered closer.
"Maybe I won't always… Maybe- maybe I'll even forgive you, someday… But I'll never forget, Sonic."
She gave a strangled sob, it sounded louder than it was to her in the darkness. His eyelids fluttered, and he moaned. Pain. Pain for both of them. Pain and scars visible and not, and that she could not let go of.
"I can never forget."
The great hand shot down, and Amy covered Sonic's body with her own.
And then she screamed.
*****************************
TO BE CONTINUED…
*******************************
I've decided to move the author-spiel to the end of chapters… That way people can choose to bail out once they're finished.
First off… Before you wander off… I have a request. It's not something I'd usually ask, buuut – could you leave a review? Even if it's just a 'Hey, I like this' I don't mind.
I have no idea how many actually read this fic, and I'm burning with curiosity as the second anniversary is coming up of TLG and I have something planned… But I would like to know how many are interested. I'm guessing there's about nine or ten that read this. But really, I'm not entirely sure….
It's very selfish of me I know – but I'm on a time limit here, and that something special for the anniversary? – I'd like to have an inkling how many would read it…
So, just this once, I'm asking you to leave a review – to let me know you're reading this.
Secondly… I have to apologise for the delay with this. There was University and then there was life, they both decided to catch up with me. But also, I was very peeved at how this chapter was taking shape. It was nothing like how I hope it to be (In that it sucked so completely it was unpostable), so I became rather disheartened at it and actually abandoned it for a bit….
Finally after a bit of incentive (Big thank you to Netraptor for her encouragement with this during my block – or rather- for telling me to 'just do it!'*Huggles NR*) I sat down, and discarded what I wrote and redrafted the entire thing from scratch.
It came out a little better the second time. So this is the version posted here.
Thank you to everyone who is actually still reading this, to those who have been since The Last Guardian especially thank you – and thank you for your patience and your encouragement..
If it's an consolation I started the next chapter ages ago, and plan to have it out within two weeks…
Wanna see a teaser? *Grins*
Except 'Winterheart: Chapter 6 - Ghosts'-**********
"-ou all right? Sonic!"
The words interrupted the bliss of unconsciousness, and brought with them a reminder and no small amount of pain, so Sonic strove to ignore them just a little longer…
Someone shook him. It was rough, Sonic knew his head bounced off the pillow, was surprised at this knowledge, because it would require a certain amount of awareness and it was easier to be unaware… The darkness was easier. Everything was easier than the fact that sometime he would have to-
"Wake up! Sonic!"
No. NO waking up. Not just yet. And anyway, there was no possibility that the voice he was hearing in concord with the shaking could be who he thought it was. Because the echidna was dead. So, yes, unconsciousness was easier. Sonic did not mind the unconsciousness…
Only it seemed the voice's owner did.
"-have the water running in the next room. If you don't open your eyes in the next ten seconds – because I know you're awake, I will dunk you into it. And keep you there until you do open your eyes…"
That did it. There was only one person Sonic knew with the audacity to make a threat like that, and only one that Sonic knew, that he was aware it would be carried through if he did not comply.
Green eyes opened, blinking in the semi darkness. And trying to focus on something other than the pain pounding and-
"K-Knuckles?"*******
^_______^
Take Care,
Orin.
