Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog in any way, Sega does.
Hello, your friendly neighborhood author here. I come bearing another chapter. I took the skits out of the intros because they seemed to mess with the mood. If anyone wants them back, tell me. If enough people want em' back, I'll bring em' back. Till then, you get to deal with me. Lucky you. I had something to say about this chapter, but I think its better left to the story to tell you.
Annnyways… this chapter is weird in places. I've got to remember not to drink coke and write at the same time.
Diet: Or maybe you're just weird?
Shut it. Anyway, on with the show!
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"A Whisper in the winds" a Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic by A Lonely Gray Kitsune.
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He walked. It was not something he did, his gift was in running. Yet, he walked. It let him think more than running did, running required concentration, took him away from everything, leaving him in his own personal world of blurs and adrenaline. One only one soul could ever join him in….
The green canopy above him showed little of the 1 am sky above him. It didn't matter. What he wished to see was a revelation. He had been pondering the matter ever since he'd talked with that blue cat in Station Square. The matter was simple: reality.
What was it? Sonic had determined that it was not what one could see, or taste, or touch. Those were little more than electrical impulses interpreted by his brain. Too simple. Too easily manipulated. Then, what was it?
Was it what one knew? After all, you don't know it exists if you don't know of it. So, if no one tells you of it, who's to say it's real? That didn't make sense to his ears. It felt wrong.
Love was real. He loved her. Did that make her real? Did it make her a thinking, feeling thing? If a machine can feel, love, hate, cry, then is it human?
Yes, it is. So, if this dream could feel, as she obviously did, and think, as she obviously did, then was she real? Yes…. But still, was this love a concoction of his mind? Could his mind do that? He smelled her scent, saw, and felt love in her eyes, heard her laughter….could his mind really make all that up? Was he in love with a figment of his own imagination?
She wouldn't tell him… what was she afraid of? Could it be that she really wasn't real? That he was really just alo-
He picked up speed, running for the Mystic Ruins.
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An endless meadow. Simply endless. It went on for miles upon miles upon miles without stopping. Somewhere in this endless expanse of green, a tree sat. Under this tree, were two girls, one of blue fur and light, one of pink fur and darkened light.
Amy sat there, marveling at it all, safe from her demons, but how? If she knew questioning it would drive it away, would she still have questioned it, this feeling of safety and warmth? Did she know she would never truly feel this warmth again? Would she have just given herself to it, and forgotten her many plights, for a time? Forever? Such are questions that will never be answered. But she did question it, and it did leave, this much I know.
The meadow seemed to stretch farther out and away, until it ripped, and tore apart. It was replaced by a stone walkway, an infinitely smaller meadow, a bench, a park. But the tree remained, as did the arms wrapped around her. She looked behind her, a found a light blue cat furry. A female light blue cat furry. Many would make less than polite assumptions from this, yet she seemed to know this girls intentions were pure. Besides, it felt nice.
"Who are you, then?" she said quietly to herself and her companion.
"Just a visitor." The girl responded quietly.
"Oh! You're awake." Amy said, as she began to rise.
"No, stay." The other said, pulling her back down. "It's warmer here."
"Yeah… it is…" Amy had felt the air around her as she rose change from comfortable, golden warmth to icy, vaporous chill. "Are you doing that?"
A soft smile from her companion. "It's not important."
"I guess it's not…" she said, a bit nervous about the situation.
"Do you want to stay with me?" the girl seemed uncertain now.
"Um…what?" the question caught her off-guard, as though she hadn't expected it.
"Here, with me?" she seemed to be offering shelter, yet at the same time sadly asking her to leave. Did Amy grasp what the girl was offering? Did she see the meaning behind those words?
A pause that lasted a world's lifetime and no longer than a second followed. And then…
"No…" she said, seeming to become cold and scared just by saying it. She did understand then, on a certain level. It was enough.
A sad, regretful look crossed over the other's face. "I see… I shouldn't have asked, you wouldn't have accepted one way or the other."
"Light?" Amy implored, almost meekly.
Surprise, unconcealed and honest, seized the girl. "What did you call me?"
"Light… I'm sorry, I'm just… scared." Amy didn't seem to notice Light's surprise.
Quickly recomposing herself, she responded. "Scared?"
"I… I'm sorry, it's just…" the pink angels' eyes teared up, barely holding in the sorrow they contained.
"Amy…" Light said, her voice containing nothing more than compassion and concern.
"I'm scared… and cold. Why did he leave me? I loved him, didn't he love me?" her voice barely kept from cracking, though she could not stop the shaking she now was subject to. Tears escaped, adding to the mess Amy was quickly becoming.
"Amy, he loved you…" Light said, imploring her to believe that she had indeed been loved.
"T-then, why did he die? H-he could've, could've lived…but he died. He chose to die. He chose to... to abandon me…" Her voice sounded like the cry of a kitten that had been left for dead long ago by its mother.
"Amy… I, I can't tell you what he was thinking. I don't know. But he didn't abandon you. He loved you. Amy…. the answers will come. But you must weather the cold." She replied, trying to bring the girl back from the pit she now stared into.
She looked up at her ally, one of precious few. "Would they have come if I had stayed in the warmth?" A question, a wish to know if she made the right choice.
"No… they wouldn't have." Light said, almost pensively. She seemed to see something else when she looked at Amy, if only for a moment. Something seemed to fade in her eyes…
The warmth left Amy, leaving nothing but cold.
Light's voice seemed to crack with sorrow, as though she would never see her pink furred companion again. "Be brave, Amy Thorn Rose… he would've wanted that…"
"Wha? But…." Her confusion and sorrow gave way to resolve, a quiet, unbreakable promise. "I will."
"Thank you." Light seemed comforted, relived by this. Odd, when she had come to comfort, rather than be comforted herself. She faded…
"Wait…" Amy implored quietly, hurt by her friends leaving.
A warm, gentle smile was the last of the blue furred cat that Amy saw. And again, Amy was alone, with only the morning light lapping at her feet as company.
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He lurks, in his spire of cold, lifeless steel, waiting for his new ally, his new master, to speak. So patient is he, taking taunts, mysteries, riddles, knowing all the while it will pay off, that it will finish playing with him soon. And then, the reward for providing entertainment… POWER.
Luscious, delicious power, just waiting to be wielded, power he deserved to wield! And he would! So soon, he would!
There… the giver of power… he can hear it. It's laughter. It's mad, insane, enraging laughter. It sounds like the devil's laughter, does it not? Disgusting noise. Finally, it quits after a time.
"X-715. Come here." He orders of his dead slave. It hovers over.
"Yes, sir?" it asks in complete monotone. No emotion. No life. No soul.
"What just happened?" he asked in tone that speaks of a man preparing to do something that will change everything.
"You were just-"
BANG.
BANG.
Bangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbang-
"What the hell are you doing?" a voice asks, tinted with annoyance. This voice, it sounds… familiar. A voice of a hero, no… it is twisted. An amused, cold, sadistic voice, one of a black-souled cat that likes to play with its food before it slaughters it. A perversion of a heroes voice, an anti-hero.
Metal Sonic walked out from a shadow in the far corner of the room. He gazed upon an egg-shaped demon of metal, which held a smoking red gun over a corpse that had only been robbed of sentience. He put the gun away.
"He will come, tomorrow." He announced, as though saying God would declare him the one on that day. Perhaps in his mind, he thought as much.
"Ivo…" he said, annoyance mixed with just a small, faint hint of…sadness? Out of that creature?
"Trust me. Tomorrow it begins." His confidence was pure, if anything of his could be.
Metal said nothing, but turned and left.
He left an oil stained madman in that room, one of the verge of demonhood.
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Eleven am? Close, but time is not important. Turn your thoughts away from metal daemons, to two children, sleeping next to a spent heater after a rainfall. An umbrella sits idly by, forgotten, not that it minds. Look at the them, the rabbit leaning against the fox, who in turn leans against the heater. Aren't they just adorable, these two happy, innocent, carefree little furballs?
Would it jar you to know neither is carefree? That neither is truly happy, or fully innocent? That they soon will face terrors that no man, let alone child, should have to face? Would it jar you to know that there lives could violently end in a matter of days? Would it sadden you? Do you look upon them now with a bittersweet affection, knowing they may never know this peace again?
What is wrong with this picture? They are good children, little angels, really. They wouldn't harm a soul, given a choice. They don't deserve what's coming for them, to fight a war, to risk death. What the hell is wrong with a world that lets' this happen!? It's not fair, it's not fair, do you hear me!? IT'S NOT FAIR!
….at least… at least they have now….
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Rouge watched the island just float there. A heavenly place, a place of green meadows soft as a bed of feathers, white peaks shining proudly in their height, crystal blue waters, clear and pure as the sun… its beautiful. Yet one could not enjoy it. One trapped by paradise.
Knuckles D. Echidna. She wanted to join him, to turn his prison into an Eden. But she couldn't; heaven was too far away, the angels shunned her. But she would find a way up there, no matter if heaven or hell wished to stop her.
But… it looked so… alien, floating there. So dark. It scared her so badly, and she knew not why. The heaven was turning pale, and she feared for her red angel.
She feared, yet she would find a way to enter the dimming palace, this she resolved.
She stood poised on a cliff standing before an ocean. She had the perfect view of Angel Island.
She had the perfect location from which to watch it explode into an inferno of black-purple fire.
She had the perfect place from which to watch the end begin.
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AN: And it's done! I didn't expect to get it out so soon. Well, here it is. Personally, I could have put more work into Sonic's scene, but hey, I like it. I wanted to end with the Tails and Cream scene, but the last part sets the stage for things to swing into motion. Which they will. Oh yes, they will. oO
Ahem. I think the Amy and Light scene is quite weird. But I'm too lazy to redo it, and it gets across what it's meant to. Did some good stuff to it while proofreading; looking over your work really does help, it seems. I feel like I hit a stride with this chapter; hopefully I can continue to do so.
Thanks to all who reviewed, you're the reason any of my work is being shown anywhere at all. You guys are great.
Cherry: Does this mean the end is nigh?
No, the plot just gets moving come next chapter. Now let me sleep.
