Meeting At The Sunset

Chapter 4: In Death, Love is Strong

Cream had been crying for five days straight now. She was in such a mess. Her fur was becoming untidy, her eyes had near-black semi-circles under them. She didn't care for her appearance or well-being. Amy, Tikal and Rouge were very concerned about her. They had never seen her like this, even with Tikal being the newest addition to the group.

Sonic and Amy turned up at Cream's house on the first week since the accident at the lab. It was obvious Tails had told them, and were angry at him for treating the poor Rabbit in such a way. Knuckles and Tikal turned on Tails in spite of his actions. Rouge found out when Amy told her, and in turn told Shadow about the Kitsune.

Cream's House:

"Please open the door." Amy knocked at the door, hoping Cream would answer it. "Cream, it's just me and Sonic. Please let us in."

"Go away!" came a muffled voice through the door.

Sonic took command of the situation.

"Cream!" he shouted through the door. "Open up! We just want to know how you are!"

"HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL?" Cream screamed back, scaring Sonic and Amy.

"Cream, please let us in." Amy pleaded. "We're concerned about you."

Both the Hedgehogs stood at the door, hearing muffled scraping and dragging sounds. After about a minute, the door opened. What Sonic and Amy saw before them was sight they wouldn't forget easily. The cute and adorable Rabbit they knew had gone. Instead, there was a paled, red-eyed Rabbit, her clothes full of creases, with a few tears, large near-black semi-circles under her eyes, her left wrist had a few small cuts on it.

"Cream…" Amy started, breaking down into tears. Sonic took her into his arms.

"How could you do this to yourself?" Sonic asked the rabbit as Amy wept on his shoulder.

"Because, he hates me." She said, tears forming in her eyes. "He'll never know how I really feel about him."

"Cream…" Sonic sighed. "We're staying with you. You've got to let us help you."

"You're more than welcome to stay." Cream started. "Just you might want to look at the floor first."

Cream moved out of the doorway. The sight was terrible. Sonic stopped Amy from turning her head around to look herself. The floor had broken pieces of glass, various sharp items and torn clothing all over it, as well as turned over furniture and doors ripped of the hinges. There was also a small amounts of blood here and there.

Sonic held Amy's head in place, who was still not able to see the floor of the house. He eventually managed to pull his eyes away from the floor and look at Cream.

"Cream." Sonic started, still shocked at the sight. "We're not staying with you. You're staying at ours." With that, he had Amy and Cream at his apartment within two seconds of saying anything. He then disappeared, and within a minute, reappeared with the remaining items which weren't destroyed at the Rabbit's house and the Chaos Emerald which had hit her on the head. Cream glanced at it and broke into tears suddenly. Sonic and Amy looked at each other confused.

"Cream?" Amy said, who was back to normal now. "What's wrong?"

"It's the Chaos Emerald Tails threw at me back then!" She wailed.

Sonic walked across to Cream, and saw a small bruise on her head, just above the left eye.

"I can't believe he would do such a thing." Sonic muttered.

"Sonic?" Amy asked her love. "What're you going to do?"

"Confront him." Sonic replied darkly. "Make him see the wrong of his ways from last week."

At that, he took off at full speed to Tails' house.

Tails' House:

Tails had just finished repairing his lab. He went back through to the Kitchen and poured himself a glass of lemonade. As he began to drink it, he heard a knock at the door. He put the glass down, and went to see who it was. He opened the door to see his best friend standing on the doorstep with a look beyond anger on his face.

"Hey Sonic." Tails began. "What's wrong?"

"I'll tell you what's wrong." Sonic growled. He punched the Kitsune in the cheek, knocking him down. "You treating Cream the way you did!"

"She deserved it for destroying my lab!" Tails yelled up at the blue Hedgehog.

"No-one deserves to have "I hate you" shouted at them and then a Chaos Emerald hit them on the head!" Sonic roared, picking up the kitsune by the collar on his shirt.

"Good." Tails sneered. "I hope it hurt her."

Sonic lost control of himself. In one second, he had punched and kicked the two tailed Fox straight through into the Kitchen. What had his little friend become?

"YOU'RE LUCKY IT WASN'T PERMANENT!" Sonic roared at the top of his voice.

"WELL IT DAMN WELL SHOULD HAVE BEEN!" Tails shouted back, before getting served another punch to the face.

Sonic was beyond angry now. He picked up the Fox and threw him at the wall. The Fox fell to the floor in pain.

"NOW DO YOU SEE WHAT IT'S LIKE TO SUFFER?" Sonic screamed. He turned his back on the Fox and began to walk out of the house.

As he got to the front door, Sonic felt something solid hit him in the back. He turned around to see Tails standing behind him.

"If you love Cream so much, why don't you go out her?" Tails sneered, launching a kick at the Hedgehog's stomach. Sonic fell onto his knees, winded.

He managed to block the majority of Tails' kicks, before standing up and tackling the Fox. The Fox laid there stunned. Sonic picked him up and threw him head first into the Kitchen cupboards. Sonic walked in and saw Tails looking at him, wide eyed and his head bleeding.

"Don't you understand?" Sonic asked the Fox. "It was an accident. Cream only wanted to tell you how she really felt about you. But you exploded on her. Now she won't stop crying, and it's all your fault. What kind of friend are you?" Sonic asked. "You should have seen and understood the reason behind her continuous visits."

Sonic made his way to the door, then turned to his once kind friend. "And if you think you can come to me, Amy, Knuckles, Cream or the others for forgiveness, you can forget it." He took off towards his own house, leaving a very weak, confused and upset Tails.

Sonic's house:

Sonic arrived at his place within a minute of leaving Tails' house. Knuckles, Tikal, Rouge and Shadow were there. As he opened the door, all eyes except Amy's and Cream's turned towards him. Amy was kneeling in front of a something small, crying. Rouge and Tikal also had tears coming from their eyes, whereas Knuckles and Shadow had very upset expressions. Sonic walked past the male Echidna and his dark counterpart. He proceeded to put a hand on his girlfriend's shoulder. She turned her head around and looked up at him, tears rapidly welling from her eyes.

"She's gone Sonic!" Amy squeaked, launching herself onto him. He put his arms around her, and looked down at what Amy was kneeling in front of. Cream was laid there, her head face down. There were small puddles of blood under both her arms, one of which had a knife lying next to it. It hit Sonic as to what she had done. She had cut her wrists deeper than that from what he and Amy saw back at her house.

"She said she needed the bathroom!" Amy cried into his shoulders. "I came to check to see if she was okay and I found her here! What are we going to tell Vanilla?"

Sonic patted him girlfriend's head slowly, tears coming from his eyes. He couldn't believe Cream would do such a thing to herself. He looked at Shadow, who stayed silent. He then looked at Knuckles, who turned around and walked outside. Tikal followed him.

"Damn you Tails." Rouge said, as Amy continued to weep.

Shadow walked across to the telephone and dialled 911. About five minutes later, an ambulance turned up to take Cream away. Sonic, Amy, Rouge and Shadow walked outside following the paramedics and saw Knuckles holding Tikal in his arms, who was crying.

Sonic went and sat under one of the windows, tears still coming from his eyes. The six watched as the ambulance sped off. Amy walked over to the blue hedgehog and sat next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder. Shadow brought out his green Chaos Emerald and disappeared in a flash of Chaos Control. Rouge then flew home.

The blue Hedgehog just stared at the ground before him, not taking any notice to anything around him, not even Amy. She wept into his shoulder. After five minutes, he kissed the pink Hedgehog lightly on her head and took her hand.

"Why Cream?" he thought to himself. "If you just allowed us help you…" He stopped the thought and broke down into tears.

Knuckles held his girlfriend in his arms, stroking her quills as she cried into his shoulders. He was also crying at loss of a friend.

After three hours since the ambulance left, Knuckles took Tikal home. Sonic and Amy managed to stand up and go back into their house. The first thing they did was clear up the dead Rabbit's blood. They refused to sleep that night.

Knuckles and Tikal arrived at their house. Tikal sat down on the couch and wept hard. Knuckles stared out of the window. He couldn't believe Cream did such a thing. He cursed Tails repeatedly. Both him and Tikal refused to sleep as well.

Rouge found a photo of Tails and Cream on it. She stared at it, with tears falling from her eyes to it. She then proceeded to cut the picture in half and ripped up Tails' side into pieces. She then walked across to her couch and stared at the half of the picture with Cream on it. She then broke down into tears, cursing Tails.

Tails' house (At the time Shadow used Chaos Control):

Shadow appeared in his apartment in a flash of light. He sat down on his bed, with no tears in is face. He couldn't think as to why Cream would kill herself. He then remembered what Rouge had said to him about Tails. He Chaos Controlled out of the apartment and appeared in front of Tails' house. He knocked on the door.

A grunt was heard on the other side of the door before it was opened. The two-tailed Fox looked up at the dark hedgehog.

"Hi Shadow." Tails said.

"Do you know why I'm here?" Shadow asked darkly.

Tails looked at him. "If it's about Cream, then I-"

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT SHE HAS JUST DONE?" Shadow exploded in the Kitsune's face. Tails looked at him with a scared expression. "She has just killed herself, because you were too blind to see how she felt about you, and you cared to much about your crappy machines and work."

Tails' face went angry. He launched a fist at the dark Hedgehog, who quickly dodged it. "No one ever says that to me. And Cream is never the type to commit suicide." The Fox replied.

Shadow stared at the Kitsune before pulling out the Chaos Emerald. He held it in his hand before it started glowing brightly. He rose his Emerald-free hand and used a blast of Chaos Spear.

Tails was thrown into the lounge by the blast. He sat up stunned, and saw Shadow standing above him. The Hedgehog's eyes had nothing but hatred in them.

"If you're going to anything, you'll not come near me or the others." Shadow said darkly. "That way we don't have to waste our time or energy on you."

With that, he Chaos Controlled out the house back to his own. Tails sat there, tears in his eyes. He finally saw what he had done wrong, and what it had cost him. He then remembered how he treated Cream the week before.

Walking into his lab, he pulled out the Red Chaos Emerald from under a kind of surgeon's table. He stared at it, and put it back in place. In his mind, he started to think of Cream.

He walked back up the stairs. "Could what Shadow have said be true?" He thought, as he couldn't stop thinking about her. He then remembered how she ran out the house when she visited with Sonic and Knuckles, how she always visited him when he least expected it.

Tails walked into his lounge, and picked up a picture of him and the others, except for Tikal. He stared at the part of the picture where Cream was, tears starting to fall from his eyes. He threw the picture onto the floor and threw his head into his hands.

"Cream…I'm so sorry." He breathed to himself, with tears welling from his eyes.

Then, a white light appeared in front of him. He looked up at it, confused. It had the faint outlines of jeans and trainers, a tank top and gloves. Tails quickly recognised the attire to be the same as that as Cream had worn the last time she saw him. He looked up at the head, and saw her face. It was no longer showing grief and sadness, but happiness and love.

"C-Cream?" Tails asked.

"Yes Tails." Cream said, looking down at him and smiling. "It is me."

"Is what Shadow said true?" Tails asked her, afraid of what the answer was going to be.

"Yes, I'm afraid so." Cream answered with a hint of sadness. "You were the one I loved, and I didn't want anything bad to happen. But it did, and I'm dead."

"Cream, I'm so sorry." He said, looking at his feet.

More tears escaped his eyes. Cream picked up his hands up with hers, despite her hands not being physical. Tails looked into her eyes.

"You're forgiven." She replied. "You can still bring me back though."

Tails looked at her, confused. The white rabbit smiled at him.

"At sunset, get me in contact with your Chaos Emerald." She said. "I'll come back to you then." She disappeared.

Tails looked at the clock on the wall. 5:43 PM. He had exactly one hour to get Cream's body from the hospital and resurrect her.

"For you Cream, anything." Tails said to himself.

He quickly ran to the hospital, and persuaded the doctors there to give him Cream's body, using a story that he had an autopsy machine which could examine the last brain waves and thoughts. Carrying the body all the way back home, Tails placed her on surgeons table. He brought out the Chaos Emerald. He then looked at the time. 6:42 PM.

"Just in time." Tails said to himself. He placed the Emerald on her Cream's chest and watched as time slowly became 6:43 PM.

He looked at Cream and the Chaos Emerald. The Emerald started to glow a bright red. He covered his eyes from the light. After a couple of minutes, the light died down. He lowered his arm and looked at Cream. He slowly approached the Rabbit.

Luckily, what Cream had said worked. She stirred, and began to open her eyes. She sat up and looked around the lab until she saw Tails.

"T-Tails?" She asked, her voice weak.

"Welcome back Cream." Tails said.

She slowly got off the table and looked at Tails, then her feet.

"Tails?" She asked.

"Yes Cream?" Tails answered, tears starting to take form in his eyes.

Cream ran over to him and wrapped her arms around him. "I…I…" She started, but couldn't find the words to finish the sentence.

She broke down in tears. Tails wrapped his arms around her. "I know." He said, guessing what she was going to say. "I love you too."

Cream's heart became lighter has she heard him say these words. She managed to look at his eyes. "You do?" She cried.

Tails smiled down at her, tears in his eyes. "I do."

She brought her head into his chest, still crying. He kissed the top of her head gently. She then looked up at his eyes and looked into them. He brought his head down onto hers to kiss her. They kissed for minutes, before breaking apart, smiling at each other.

The Next Day:

Cream and Tails had planned to visit Sonic and Amy, despite the fact they hated Tails and were upset at Cream's being dead.

They got to the house at midday. Tails told Cream it was best if she knocked on the door, as he stood next to it.

Inside, Sonic and Amy heard a knock at the door. Sonic proceeded to go and answer it. Amy continued to cry because of the previous day's events. She then heard Sonic call her.

"Amy! Come quick!" She heard him shout. "You won't believe it!"

Amy pulled herself off the couch and slowly made her way to the door. When she got there, she looked like she had seen a ghost, at least she thought she did.

She saw the Cream which wasn't a crying wreck. Everything about her had been restored, even the cuts in her wrists.

"Hi Amy, hi Sonic." Cream said politely to the Hedgehogs.

More tears welled out of Amy's eyes. She hugged the Rabbit tightly, crying heavily. It was several minutes before she pulled herself off Cream.

"Cream, how did you-?" Sonic asked the Rabbit, taking Amy's hand.

"My friend will explain." She said, before side stepping.

Sonic and Amy looked at her confused, then saw Tails appear before them. He was carrying the Chaos Emerald, which glowed red before them. Cream merely smiled.

"Tails…" Sonic said, looking at the two tailed Fox. He didn't know whether to be angry or sad.

"It's OK, Sonic." Tails said, raising his free hand so he could shake hands with the blue Hedgehog.

Sonic looked at the Fox, then shook his hand. He then let go and gave his friend a thumbs-up.

End of TailsCream.