Disclaimer: All of the Sonicverse characters and places inserted into this story are owned by SEGA, and used without permission. All other characters and places mentioned belong to me.

Sonic- 21 years

Amy (Paloma)- 19 years

Tails- 16 years

Knuckles- 23 years

Shadow- 22 years

Cream- 12 years

Rouge- 25 years

Chapter 10: Death and Happiness

Amy Rose is dead. She was dead and her remains were now part of the living earth. She died almost three years ago to the very day. It had seemed that the only people in the world who would have cared about her passing were the ones who called her friend, sister, and even mother. They had placed a missing person's report three days after she left Station Square, but it was three years and everyone who gave a damn about her had given up hope of ever finding her alive and well. It was so hard for Rouge in her current condition to ask one of the many judges she knew on the bench to declare her legally dead, and so close to Christmas and the New Year. She had tried everything in her power within the government to find her and bring her back home. She truly wanted Amy to be her child's godmother. She knew that Amy would have been the perfect candidate and Knuckles would have agreed to her choice for his unborn child's godmother. If only she hadn't left Station Square. If only she could have found her, and cheered not only herself, but the others as well. Maybe this time she could have gotten Knuckles to place Sonic into a head lock and get him to apologize for being such a creep to Amy. Instead she felt like a complete failure to her title as both an agent and as a hunter. To her Amy's friendship, kindness, and love was the best treasure out of all the gemstones that she had purloined in all her days. Why did she have to die? Why didn't she come to her when she probably needed someone to talk to? Why did she have to die alone?

Rouge didn't want to tell the others that the paperwork had been completed and filed. It wasn't right for the mourning period to happen during a time that was scheduled for great joy and renewals of the thread that binds everyone together. It had to wait after the New Year, until everyone and everything returned back to normal and back to their lives. But how normal would their lives be after she told them. Rouge rubbed her large belly remember her current condition. She had to calm herself down and not get worked up considering the fact that she was carrying an unborn hybrid. Hybrid pregnancies were one of the most difficult out of all pregnancies known. There were high rates of miscarriages and still births, in which Rouge prayed with her entire heart and soul not to happen to hers. Imagine her praying! She was never close to the man up stairs. She was never very religious, and she wasn't an angel like Amy or Cream. So, why would he give a rat's ass about her? He didn't even listen to her prayers when Amy went missing.

They were all still inside Tails' home, trying to digest what had just happened no longer then an hour ago. Cream was still lying on the bed, and had stopped shaking about ten minutes ago. Tails sat next to her, never leaving her side once. Shadow starred out the window in deep thought, and Knuckles was preparing tea and breakfast for everyone in the kitchen. It was Christmas Eve and something unexplainable like this had to happen. Why now? Why did it have to be this way?

Knuckles stirred a pot of instant Farina with honey that he added in with some milk. He wasn't the greatest of cooks, but he could prepare some decent meals. He turned the burner off and let the sauce pot cool off before he poured its creamy white contents into five separate blue ceramic bowls that rested on a carrying tray. He was indeed deep in thought about Sonic. Like everyone else, he knew that something was wrong. He wasn't very close to his friend and rival, but he still gave a damn about him. If Sonic and Tails had never come to his island, then he would have remained alone. Never having any friends or even finding love. He couldn't allow anything bad to happen to him. He was actually considering him to be his kid's godfather. He didn't want to run this through Rouge, because he knew that she would have turned down his wish.

Snow had covered her body while laid almost motionless on the asphalt path that ran through out the city park. She laid there not moving, but her breaths were shallow enough to show some form of life that might still remain inside of her mortal shell. She was in plain sight, but people walked around her body thinking that she was nothing more then a pile of garbage that someone had left on the ground. One person, a jogger, happened to tripped over her body now bluish body. He couldn't believe what he had discovered. He had found a female hedgehog that he thought was incredible beautiful in his human eyes. This wasn't the type of place one would find a body, not even one as beautiful as she. He wrapped her in his coat and then scooped up her into his arms and close to his chest, and ran to the nearest rest station where he hoped the police officer he saw not too long ago was still there.

He ran like the wind, for her life depended on him finding help. The young man reached the rest station with what only seemed to be mere seconds with rush of adrenaline coursing throughout his body. He was relieved upon finding the police officer he had bumped into only twenty minutes before. The officer was about to leave and head back onto his patrol of the park, when the young man yelled for "Help!" He yelled at the very top of his dry and cold lungs, his body shivered with fear as he tried his best to get this poor girl the help she needed. This was his first time seeing this girl, but he couldn't help but feel like he had seen her somewhere before. She looked so peaceful the way she was, it was as if she was waiting for someone special to wake her up with kiss just like Sleeping Beauty or Snow White. Never in this man's dream would he ever consider an apology.

While the officer radioed for an ambulance, Amy's hero took her into the warm rest station and laid her on a long rectangular cork table. It did not look very comfortable, but it would have to do the paramedics arrived. The officer reentered the rest station and searched the young girl's pocket for any sign of idea. The only thing the officer found was a non-driver's identification card that had the name of Paloma printed on it. The officer pocketed the idea card to give later to the paramedics in order for them to fill out the proper paperwork for her arrival over at county. He then dragged the young man into the bathroom where they would try to warm her up with warm damp paper towels. It was the best that they could do, until she would be resting comfortably over at county. The two mean tried their best to make her as comfortable as possible. They tried talking to her to get some sort of conscious response, in order to get some sort of information about herself and keep her awake, but they couldn't. Her body was slowly starting to shut down, as she was entering into a stasis like coma. Her breathing was still shallow and her heart was beating very slowly. Both men feared that she was going to die right in front of them inside of the rest station.

In a flash of light he appeared inside a men's bathroom stall. He didn't even know how he got there. The last thing he could remember was that he was asleep inside of Tails' workshop dreaming of a nightmare that didn't want to end. It was the same one that he had for the last three years. Only this time he was close to finding the identity of his dream girl. She was finally in his arms, and he didn't want to let her go. He wanted to put an end to this nightmare and know who was causing him to lose a great deal of sleep. He could almost see her face, but then she started to wither like a flower in his arms and die. If only his dreams could have been peaceful in these three years. It would have better if he could dream about his friends...even a dream with Amy could have been a nice experience for a change of pace. Sonic then he came to inside of this filthy graffiti filled stall that had to be in a ball park or a bus station. There was only one way to fund out and that was actually getting out of the bathroom. But before he could do that, he would have to relieve himself, considering he just woke up and had a full bladder.

Sonic exited the stall and made his way towards the urinal, and starred straight ahead facing the grimy tile wall. He relaxed himself and then let it all out. He had to admit to himself that it felt kind of good, considering he felt like he was going to explode and the amount her had in him could disintegrate that blue urinal cake. He snapped back to reality as he heard a man over the P.A. system announcing the arrival of the next bus into the station. Sonic thought to himself again as her jiggled the bit of urine out him and then made his way towards the sink. He wondered why he ended up in a place like this. Usually he would find himself inside of Amy's abandon apartment after coming to from one of his black out moments. At least it was a change of scenery from what he had been doing in the last three years.

He exited from the bathroom and made his way out of the station. It was snowing again. It reminded him of his life back home on Christmas Island. He hadn't been back in years to his birthplace, and he wanted now to share its beauty with someone he truly cared about. It would be nice to show them around, take them to all the places that he played and hanged out at, and even introduce them to his childhood friends.

Sonic didn't know that he took the same route out of the station that Amy had taken not long ago. He looked into the same shop windows, picturing a gift that he would actually buy for Amy when the day she would come back into his life or when he found her. Sonic never knew that in all this time he would actually be falling in love with her. Why was he so stupid to say all those things to her that day? His friends were right to yell at him about his foolishness. If he was back home on Christmas Island, he would never have acted in such a disgraceful way. Has the city corrupted his morality? She would still be here now, but then he thought about if he hadn't said what he did, would he actually be feeling this way about her? Sure absence makes the heart grow fonder, but this entire thing was sick and ridiculous. Sonic had noticed that he had made his way into the park and oddly enough in front of the rest station where Amy or Paloma as she was being now called by paramedics who were hauling her inside of the rig. Sonic got a glance at the lavender female hedgehog. She was sure beautiful, too bad that something bad happened to her. Sonic stayed in the same spot till everything was cleared out, he then noticed something that had fallen out of girl's coat. He originally thought it was a receipt, but it was a very old Station Square identification card. He looked at it and mouthed the words "Amy Rose" in almost a whisper. Could that lavender hedgehog been Amy, his Amy Rose?