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 11: Truth and Vengeance

Sonic was truly paralyzed from the sight he was seeing before him while his stomach churned as his muzzle turned into a pale sickly color. He had remained in the same spot, gripping tightly onto the ID card. He starred at the scene up till the ambulance was far out of sight. All through his screaming mind he wondered what the fuck was going on!? Was that really Amy being placed into that thing? How could it truly be her, Amy is a pink hedgehog she wasn't in any way a shade of purple. It couldn't be her, could it? This was a young woman who lay inside this ambulance, and not the pretty young girl he remembered from his memories. She was indeed incredibly beautiful, but his Amy was cute and pretty. She was an angel living on Earth. In his heart she just had to be Amy. It just had to be and no one else. If it was her, then where had she been all these years? Was this why he couldn't find her?

Sonic walked closer towards the group of reporters that had now surrounded cop. They were obviously trying to get some of their questions answered about the Jane Doe that was taken away just two seconds ago. Sonic slowly melted into the crowd of reporters that were there. His ears had perked up as someone asked the cop "What was the name of the victim?" Sonic listened intently to what was going on. His heart was racing waiting for the cop to reveal her name. He wanted it be Amy's name that came out his mouth. He hoped to God that it was her, but it wasn't her name that came out his mouth it was "Paloma." Sonic couldn't believe what the cop had just said; it just had to be her that the paramedics hoisted into the rig. His heart was breaking inside, and he wanted to tear through the crowd of reporters and attack the cop just to make him self feel better.

Sonic wanted to beat the living crap out of him, until he said that it was Amy inside of the long departed ambulance. But instead of that he did his best to keep the pain inside of him from coming out the wrong way. Sonic did not want to wage his own war on a civil servant. Still this just didn't make any sense to him. Maybe if he talked to his friends, they would have some sort of idea of what was going on.

The ambulance pulled into the receiving emergency bay without much time wasted. The doctors were notified before their arrival of their patient. It was normal for the doctors during the past winter season to come across someone who was suffering from any one of the many stages of hypothermia. Most of the people who were suffering from it were all homeless. A few of the interns and one of the attending doctors were on stand-by as they waited for the ambulance to stop with their new patient.

Paloma was taken off the ambulance as she lay motionless on the stretcher. She was wheeled into in the ER as the attendants looked her over in coursing their plan of action. One intern-doctor stuck a ventilation tube down her throat to assists her breathing. Another intern-doctor stuck IV's filled with warm saline into her arms to warm up her already cold blood, while one of the assisting nurses was drying the watery residue from the paper towels off of Paloma's body, just in case that had to shock her if she had ever flat lined on the monitor. She thought whoever came up with that idea was a complete moron, considering when someone is in this state the proper thing to do is to keep the body dry and warm. The nurse stuck a thermo-scan thermometer into Paloma's ear and attained a reading of 86ºF. The nurse wrote down the information as she told the attending doctors.

Paloma was a piece of a metabolic block of ice. She looked dead to anyone who might be unfamiliar with medicine or this form of hypothermia. She seemed so peaceful too in her state. Her arms were so pale that they were white as the snow she had laid in. Her body was trying so hard to shut down. The doctors were now placing hot packs in her arm pits, on both sides of her neck, the palms of her hands, and on her genital region as they wrapped her body in a cocoon of warm blankets, yet making sure that her body did not sweat causing more anymore medical problems. There was nothing more that the doctors could do except wheel her into one of the well heated room and wait. The rest was all up to her now.

Sonic walked off the train platform at Mystic Ruins. Normally he would run to get to Tails' workshop, but he just walked this time. He had a lot on his mind no doubt, and he just could not put two and two together. Three years ago he had wished for in front of Amy, to stay away from him and stay out of his life forever. He was cruel to her back then, and now it killed inside as he knew it. Back then he couldn't careless how he treated her, or how she would cry over the pain he caused her so many times when he would run away from her. The things that she did back then in order get his attention would never make him stop and think twice about it. Back then he just thought of her as annoying, and now he thought of her ways to get him to notice him cute...just like her.

Sonic reached the door to the workshop and then he let out a very deep sigh thinking back to that scene in the park. He placed his hand on the door knob and then turned it slowly, pushing the door inward. As he entered the room, he could smell the faint smell of breakfast in the air and boy was he starved after all the excitement this morning. Sonic also noticed that it was a little bit quiet. He heard the television going, but he did not hear the voices of his friends. There was no happy banter inside the entire place. He walked deeper inside the workshop and found them around Cream who was on Tails' bed with a cold cloth on her head. Something didn't seem right to him, as he looked towards them. He stared at Cream who seemed very agitated when she turned her head towards him. Her pupils dilated as she sprang from the bed and ran towards Sonic but stopped in front of him in anger. She looked him over long and hard before banging her fits against his chest as she screamed with anger and fear as she remembered the image of him from before.

Sonic laid there dumbfounded as Cream was continuing with her attempts to pummel him. Everything was going wrong. Cream who was once as kind and cheerful as Amy, but did not like to fight, was now in the process of trying to beat him up. It just did not make any sense.

Tails pulled Cream off of him and held her close trying his best to calm her down. He walked Cream towards the bathroom, away from the sight of Sonic and where she could clean herself up. Sonic got up off the ground and stood up right. Shadow, Knuckles, and Rouge stared at him. It was not a stare of coldness or that of relief he was back, it more like a what the fuck just happened look. Sonic walked closer to his friends, but he felt that he should be a little cautious. He didn't how to tell them about what he just saw earlier today. The others didn't know how to confront Sonic on what had happened earlier inside the workshop.

Knuckles was the first speak after a long pause of silence "What on this God given earth has gotten into you Sonic!?" Sonic had remained still and quiet not knowing how to respond to his question as well as not knowing what was going on. Shadow got frustrated with Sonic's silence "You better answer him Faker or I'll make you answer him." Rouge didn't want a fight to go one between her friends, let alone inside someone else's home that she glared at both Shadow and Knuckles that made the two brutes calm down a second or two. "Sonic, do you even know what they're talking about?" Sonic just shook his head side to side in a no motion. "Sonic, early this morning you...well freaked Cream out. You someone turned into this eerie glowing form of your super self, from what we could understand from Cream." As Rouge finished what she said, Sonic hanged his head low and looked at the ground. He noticed a pair of scorched marks as big as his own feet. "I don't know what exactly happened you guys, all that I can remember is that I woke up inside of the bus station, then I went to the park where I saw a young women who looked like Amy, but she wasn't pink and she was being placed inside of an ambulance. They...they said her name was Paloma. But that couldn't have been her name! Amy's ID card fell from her coat pocket!" Shadow could see the look in Sonic's eyes. It was a sign of pain, a pain that he still felt for Maria. "Sonic..." was all that Shadow could muster before placing his hand on Sonic's shoulder.

Rouge placed her hand into her pocket, as she held onto the piece of paper that she had signed declaring that Amy Rose was dead. How could she tell Sonic? He was in so much pain, and all these years she and the rest assumed that he was finally happy to see Amy gone, and for him finding out she was dead would have been a blast for him to hear. Now tell him this would only hurt him even more. It would be a sick and cruel thing for her to do to show that stupid piece of paper. She took her hand out of her pocket, but the paper had fallen onto Sonic's own foot. Sonic slowly bent over and picked up the piece of paper. "Rouge this isn't true is it? Please tell me ...please tell me this is just a sick joke!" Rouge bit her lower lip, how could she admit to him that she was a failure at work as a government agent and hunter. Those kinds of people could any form of information on anyone or anything. Knuckles took the paper from Sonic's hand, and then Shadow took it from Knuckles after he had looked it over. "Sonic, I'm sorry...but I did my best to find her and I failed. She's no where to be found, and from the way she sold everything that belonged to her...it just proves that she was planning to harm herself" Sonic couldn't believe what her was hearing. Amy was not the type to take her own life, even if she was hurt the way he had hurt her. But who could blame her if she did. No. No she didn't kill herself, she was murdered and her murder was Paloma. Sonic knew that this young woman was responsible, and had to pay. She will pay for what she did to his beloved rose that he could no longer take back the pain he had caused.